The year is 1989. It is the first day of your summer job at Wendy's, and you kind of want to kill yourself. Your parents made you get a job over the summer, and you chose working at Wendy's over being a camp counselor because at least you wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn.
You and some kid from your gym class find yourselves in the break room at the local Wendy's, waiting for instruction. The manager then tells you that you'll be watching a short staff training video, and she pops it into the VCR.
and then the magic happens.
A rapper in a be-sparkled Wendy's polo shirt and gold mirrored sunglasses takes you through the official Wendy's steps to getting "Grill Skillz" ( original song also featured at the end of the video). How awesome is that? Instead of making a hideously boring and soul crushing training video, Wendy's tried to make mundane work processes entertaining for their employees.
It seems like a small gesture, but it probably made a big difference in the attitude of new employees toward Wendy's, whether they laughed at the video, or genuinely thought it was cool (I'm not sure how ironic teenagers were in the late 80's). And as we all know, in a customer-service based company, you're only as good as your worst employee, so making an effort to put some fun into a job that's not inherently fun is a great idea.
Also, the Grill Skillz rapper reminded us of someone we know and love....... Naked's own Heron Preston!
Grill Skillz guy:
HP:
eh?? eh???
ahhahahha. so good
Posted by: Nick M | September 13, 2010 at 11:20 PM