Knead Hospitality + Design Co-Founder Jason Berry on Innovative Leadership and Employee Retention

Employee recruitment and retention are a thorn in any business owner's side. Jason Berry and his Knead Hospitality + Design restaurant group go to great lengths to employ genuine hospitality to not only their guests, but their team as well.

Watch this interview to learn about making the most of nontraditional opportunities, brewing curiosity, and capitalizing on user generated content.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN on this episode of the Restaurant Influencers podcast, presented by the Toast point of sale and restaurant management technology company? Let us know by leaving a YouTube comment below.

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CHAPTERS:

[02:05] - Jason Berry 2-Minute Drill

[04:26] - Starting a Restaurant Company

[24:35] - Restaurant Recruitment and Retention

[35:41] - Personal Life on Social Media

[38:06] - Advice for Entrepreneurs

Jason Berry is a Restaurant Influencer —

For Knead Hospitality + Design (@kneadhd) co-founders Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin, providing hospitality to their team is essential to building a successful restaurant company. It’s not just about the guests, it’s about making sure your employees are taken care of, too.

“We definitely listen to what people have to say,” says Jason Berry on the Restaurant Influencers podcast hosted by Shawn P. Walchef of “I wouldn't say leading by consensus, but leading by opinion and learning to really embrace what people have to say.”

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That inclusive forward thinking is what has caused Knead Hospitality + Design to become one of the top restaurant companies in the country with an impressive 14 restaurant concepts, which includes the popular DC-area establishment Succotash. They accomplished all that in just 8 years.

Providing hospitality in the form of collaboration is the foundation of which Knead Hospitality was built.

Understanding his strengths and areas to improve upon has allowed Jason Berry to hand the restaurant design responsibilities to his partner. Berry’s time is now allocated to remaining in step with some of the things that sparked his love for the industry in the first place.

“Taking care of people and seeing their experience. But I get to lead and guide a bunch of people doing that now, and I'm able to have a bigger impact by my reach,” says Jason Barry on the Entrepreneur Media podcast.

“As they say, in most industries, “if you don't love it, don't do it”. But I think that's ridiculously true for this industry.”

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His love for the restaurant industry is superseded only by his love for people. Not only is there an intentional effort to lead his company as a group, Jason Berry also had a hand in implementing an innovative way to encourage balance among his executive team. It’s called 4Days@Work.

Jason Berry explains: “What it means is you're scheduled for 11 hour days at the restaurant and hopefully you get all your administrative work done. But if you can't, you can do the rest of it at home or at the beach or in Mexico or whatever you want to do.”

Collaboration breeds confidence, and hospitality is a requirement for loyalty and growth. Jason Berry and his Knead Hospitality + Design embody all these elements and more.

EPISODE LINKS:

Knead Hospitality + Design Instagram

Knead Hospitality + Design Facebook

Knead Hospitality + Design Website

ABOUT JASON BERRY (@kneadhd):

Jason Berry is co-founder and principal of Knead Hospitality + Design, a multi-unit, multi-brand restaurant company based in Washington, DC. He and his partner Michael Reginbogin have built their brand on collaboration and innovative leadership that includes the implementation of a Four Days at Work strategy meant to encourage retention and autonomy at work. Leadership by opinion is a standard operating procedure for Jason Berry, which lends itself well to building on Knead Hospitality’s already impressive restaurant empire.

ABOUT RESTAURANT INFLUENCERS:

Welcome to the Restaurant Influencers podcast and video series. Every week host and restaurant owner Shawn P. Walchef (@shawnpwalchef) talks with leaders about their secrets to Smartphone Storytelling and how to show up and engage where customers are spending time online.

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