by Lindy Gullett, PhD
Today, we're venturing into the event space, with an inside look at a Denver, Colorado catering company that puts culture first. Footers Catering is a full-service event catering company. They provide fresh, delicious food for corporate events, non-profit galas, weddings, anniversaries, and more.
The team at Footers Catering has three goals: love what you do, make it better every day, and create exceptional experiences for clients and their guests. Those three main goals are so central to the business that every team member can recite them from memory. They are printed as the focal point on the wall in Footers' main room. And at the end of every meeting, the team rallies together to cheer, "MIBE," which stands for Footers' goal of making it better every day.
Footers Catering is a multi-generation business. It was started by current owner Anthony Lambatos' dad, Jimmy, in 1981, and Anthony and his wife April bought the business from Jimmy in 2010. When they bought the business, Anthony and April had a big goal - they wanted to create a great place to work. They wanted to have fun every day. They weren't trying to grow Footers Catering. They just wanted to be excited to go to work. As Anthony said, "Our biggest goal was to create a great place to work. If we are going to work here every day, we want to have fun and enjoy it. We weren't trying to become a big company. We underestimated the impact that it would have on the customer experience and the impact that it would have on our events." Anthony and April's focus on internal company culture paid off big, with the company's revenue tripling over the last ten years. Anthony and April believe so strongly in the importance of company culture that they started a whole new business focused on company culture in the hospitality industry called the MIBE Tribe.
Footers Catering has a tradition of going the extra mile. Founder, Jimmy Lambatos, used to drop off free meals to expecting moms and dads at the local hospital. Over twenty years later, those parents still remember the gift of food on such a joyous day, and recently, one of them hunted down Footers Catering to cater their daughter's wedding. Footers Catering maintains that connection to clients to this day. The kitchen team doesn't just chop carrots. They chop carrots for salad that is for John and Carrie on their wedding day. And that human-centric appreciation doesn't just apply to clients. It also applies to how the team interacts with one another.
Footers Catering's warehouse, kitchen, offices, and tasting area are all housed under the same 13,000 square feet. And unfortunately, the tasting area isn't all that close to the kitchen, which means that the event coordinator has to make lots of long trips between the kitchen and tasting area before and after tastings. When the dish steward saw the coordinators struggling with load after load of dirty dishes, he decided to put together a time-saving solution, and he created a makeshift wheel-cart for the coordinators.
Footers Catering has a Culture Club of six team. And they aren't just a party planning committee. They are truly focused on developing and improving Footers' company culture. They have three goals: create fun, develop relationships, and provide recognition. Owner Anthony Lambatos says, "Those are the three things that we keep at the forefront in everything that we we do. When we are doing an event, how do we make sure that we develop relationships? How do we make sure that people have fun? How do we recognize great performances?" When Footers Catering had a company-wide Summer Olympics Games, they were thoughtful about forming teams that crossed department lines and incorporated people from throughout the company. They made sure that they publicly recognized team members who did a great job. And, obviously, they made sure that the event was fun!
At Footers Catering, they take on-boarding seriously. Every new team member watches a Footers-created set of orientation videos. The videos aren't about how to set a table or how to put a plate down. They are about Footers Culture. They are about what it's like to work at Footers and what it takes to succeed. For full-time positions, Footers maps out your schedule to the hour for the first two weeks. You spend your time cross-training with every department in the company. You visit the kitchen. You go to events. You learn to understand and respect the importance of every job. You get to know everyone. And for part-time positions that don't have the luxury of extra time for training, Footers is proactive about pairing every new hire with a mentor. This apprenticeship model allows part-time hires to bond with the current team and learn the ropes in a safe, communicative environment. Every new hire at Footers has a customized training regimen that gives them the tools that they need to succeed.
