Cocky Rooster owners Luke Phillips (second from left) and Brett Diehl (second from right) with their Fan staff. (Mike Platania photo)
As the restaurant labor market remains tight coming out of the pandemic, the owners of a local fried chicken spot are switching up the way their business operates in an attempt to keep workers from flying the coop.
The Cocky Rooster has switched to a 3.5-day work week for its full-time employees, owners Brett Diehl and Luke Phillips said.
The move took effect last week at their Fan outpost, and they’re planning to eventually bring it to their Short Pump location, which opened late last year.
By offering employees three-and-a-half days off each week, Diehl and Phillips said they’re trying to offer workers a higher quality of life and more regular weekly schedule than what’s typical in the restaurant industry.
The restaurateurs said they also recently began offering healthcare and paid time off. Hourly pay at The Cocky Rooster starts between $15 and $18, including tips.
“When you break down the X’s and O’s of running a restaurant or a business in general, your biggest expense is going to be your people, and your biggest asset is your people,” Diehl said. “They’re who the restaurant industry has totally let down and failed for way too many years.”
Cocky Rooster offers fried chicken sandwiches, wings, fries and more. (Photo courtesy Cocky Rooster)
Despite the switch to fewer workdays for the staff, The Cocky Rooster will continue its regular operating hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Diehl and Phillips said they’re able to pull that off by having their staff work longer shifts on the days they do work.
The Cocky Rooster has eight employees at the takeout-heavy Fan location, split into two groups of four. The first group works Sunday through Wednesday, and the second works Wednesday through Saturday.
Phillips said their Fan staff members, all of whom are full-time, are able to reach 40 hours in three-and-a-half days by working one double shift that’s around 13 hours, another longer day of 10 hours, then two shifts of eight or nine hours.
Diehl said by making the change, he and Phillips are betting on workers valuing having more and more predictable days off at the expense of working slightly longer shifts.
“We’re in our 30’s, we’ve got a wife, we’ve got kids. To be able to commit yourself to three and a half days with your family is invaluable. If I have to go to work either way, staying a few extra hours per day is totally worth it,” Diehl said.
“We’re attempting to make it so when you leave work you’re able to turn off your phone and not speak to us until you come back. That’s the ultimate goal.”
So far, Phillips said, response has been positive. He said prior to rolling out the new schedule he would get about 12 applications in a week for a job listing for manager, and that he recently put up a listing for the same role but with the new schedule and benefits and got 77 applications in a day.
“I had to turn (the job listing) off, I had so many people to go through…I’ve never seen a response like this,” Phillips said.
Diehl and Phillips aren’t alone in trying to think outside the box in the service industry. Earlier this year, Alchemy Coffee rolled out an employee-ownership program for workers at its shop at 814 W. Broad St. near VCU.
Diehl said he sees making such changes as being worth the risk, noting that the restaurant industry is traditionally stubborn in the face of new ways of doing things.
“What we’ve been doing since the pandemic isn’t working,” Diehl said. “Even if this blows up, we’re back to where we started. We can’t sit around and wait for change to happen.”
Cocky Rooster owners Luke Phillips (second from left) and Brett Diehl (second from right) with their Fan staff. (Mike Platania photo)
As the restaurant labor market remains tight coming out of the pandemic, the owners of a local fried chicken spot are switching up the way their business operates in an attempt to keep workers from flying the coop.
The Cocky Rooster has switched to a 3.5-day work week for its full-time employees, owners Brett Diehl and Luke Phillips said.
The move took effect last week at their Fan outpost, and they’re planning to eventually bring it to their Short Pump location, which opened late last year.
By offering employees three-and-a-half days off each week, Diehl and Phillips said they’re trying to offer workers a higher quality of life and more regular weekly schedule than what’s typical in the restaurant industry.
The restaurateurs said they also recently began offering healthcare and paid time off. Hourly pay at The Cocky Rooster starts between $15 and $18, including tips.
“When you break down the X’s and O’s of running a restaurant or a business in general, your biggest expense is going to be your people, and your biggest asset is your people,” Diehl said. “They’re who the restaurant industry has totally let down and failed for way too many years.”
Cocky Rooster offers fried chicken sandwiches, wings, fries and more. (Photo courtesy Cocky Rooster)
Despite the switch to fewer workdays for the staff, The Cocky Rooster will continue its regular operating hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Diehl and Phillips said they’re able to pull that off by having their staff work longer shifts on the days they do work.
The Cocky Rooster has eight employees at the takeout-heavy Fan location, split into two groups of four. The first group works Sunday through Wednesday, and the second works Wednesday through Saturday.
Phillips said their Fan staff members, all of whom are full-time, are able to reach 40 hours in three-and-a-half days by working one double shift that’s around 13 hours, another longer day of 10 hours, then two shifts of eight or nine hours.
Diehl said by making the change, he and Phillips are betting on workers valuing having more and more predictable days off at the expense of working slightly longer shifts.
“We’re in our 30’s, we’ve got a wife, we’ve got kids. To be able to commit yourself to three and a half days with your family is invaluable. If I have to go to work either way, staying a few extra hours per day is totally worth it,” Diehl said.
“We’re attempting to make it so when you leave work you’re able to turn off your phone and not speak to us until you come back. That’s the ultimate goal.”
So far, Phillips said, response has been positive. He said prior to rolling out the new schedule he would get about 12 applications in a week for a job listing for manager, and that he recently put up a listing for the same role but with the new schedule and benefits and got 77 applications in a day.
“I had to turn (the job listing) off, I had so many people to go through…I’ve never seen a response like this,” Phillips said.
Diehl and Phillips aren’t alone in trying to think outside the box in the service industry. Earlier this year, Alchemy Coffee rolled out an employee-ownership program for workers at its shop at 814 W. Broad St. near VCU.
Diehl said he sees making such changes as being worth the risk, noting that the restaurant industry is traditionally stubborn in the face of new ways of doing things.
“What we’ve been doing since the pandemic isn’t working,” Diehl said. “Even if this blows up, we’re back to where we started. We can’t sit around and wait for change to happen.”
I like what they’re doing for the staff so much that I’m going to order a sandwich for pickup!
Brilliant!
A great business model that is nice to see and read about. Not sure the quality of Chicken is anything wonderful however.
Smart move! Hoping for prosperity and all the success for them and all of our Richmond Restaurants and doing my part to support all of them that I can.
I worked in the food service industry for over a decade and always found the pay and working hours unsustainable, especially for the back of the house staff. Love this move.
By the way, their food is amazing. Ordered a sandwich and wings a few weeks back and was blown away by how good it was. Best chicken sandwich in town.
Their wings crush it! Good for them.
How is working 13, 10, 9, and 8 hours equivalent to 3 1/2 days? That’s 3 days with extra hours and one regular day. So really it’s just a 4 day work week. And no OT for working longer than 8 hours in a day. And $15-18/hour including tips isn’t impressive in any way.
Yeah my thoughts too as childcare (outside of family) for 13 hours in one day??? And I can imagine burnout after a while. Offering it to those that like and want it is not a bad thing but as the only options for staff??? I am sure many back of the house staff do not want to work that long, through two services (three with places that might brunch on Sundays) for that little pay.
Brilliant strategy…change a workday to 13 hours and then apparently 8 hours is close enough that you can call it a half day!
As someone who spent almost 40 years in the restaurant business: It’s not a 9-5 job. If it’s busy, you stay. If it’s not, you try to get out for a bit. It’s more time-intensive if you’re an owner-operator or manager. 80-100 hours/week isn’t really that unusual. Now, more owners and managers are realizing that there’s a reason folks adopt a 9-5, Mon-Fri career. Working 21 straight Mother’s Days sucks. One of the small things that I did for my management teams is add a “third day” to each schedule. Each manager would pull an extra few hours per week,… Read more »
Improving quality of life is on offer, and while it’s not for everyone (and I do concur that calling it 3.5 days is a terminology stretch), factoring in the predictability and other things mentioned, it is progressive. It’s a choice,