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Toppers Pizza Invests in Training for the Future
New technology has streamlined how employees learn 'The Toppers Way'.
The world of pizza-making is often fast-paced and frantic, and on a busy weekend night when the flour is flying and lines stretch out the door, a good pizza joint needs to know that its employees are ready to handle it all.
At Toppers Pizza*, a Whitewater, Wisconsin-based chain that is enjoying impressive expansion throughout the U.S., store managers know that a busy night is no match for the unparalleled training program each team member undergoes.
“Anything good or bad that happens in any restaurant can be linked back to training,” said Matt Martin, Toppers Pizza’s director of training. “But detailed training like we do at Toppers has a butterfly effect on everything and gives us the best shot at being successful in all we do.”
That training takes many shapes and happens at almost every level of the company, from the day one training of drivers to specialized training courses for shift managers and area supervisors.
When Martin started with Toppers in 2001, the brand consisted of eight stores and training involved a handful of one-page documents that trainers used to cover everything.
“We were all veteran pizza people, and everyone knew everything,” said Martin. “There was no need for a big system back then, but we knew we had to grow our training platform in preparation for the inevitable growth of the brand.”
As Toppers expanded out from those eight stores, more new employees meant more gaps in knowledge that needed to be filled and streamlined. That single page of training quickly grew to 12-13 pages just to teach new employees how to properly answer the phones. Toppers brass also knew that as the system grew, a blended learning approach was necessary, and Toppers training now includes a mix of checklists, hands-on training, e-learning videos and tests.
But that varied and hands-on approach is not the number one thing separating Toppers training from the competition. In a company known for its attitude, humor and bravado, Martin knew it was essential that a large part of the training process be dedicated to what the brand affectionately calls the “Toppers Way.” And that initiation into all things Toppers begins on day one.
“Many pizza companies go right into ho-hum training…we have a twist,” said Martin. “The first day for any new employee is our Toppers Way Orientation Day, which is two to four hours just learning the brand, taking a tour and eating with the crew.”
And when asked what single component of Toppers’ training team members take away as most valuable, Martin doubles down on the “Toppers Way.”
“We carry the spirit of Orientation Day through all the training we do. On top of all the systems and processes a new employee has to learn, the passion for the Toppers brand that we all share is what will drive success.”
As the brand has boomed in recent years, it is more important than ever for Toppers to focus on the future and the training technology that will power the company into its next phase.
“We already had a great training website, using existing training website solutions,” said Tommy Mashuda, instructional media designer for Toppers Pizza. “But unfortunately, none of these solutions have everything we need for our ambitious training plans.”
While the old sites were not necessarily missing components the team was looking for, the solutions felt cluttered.
“So we thought, why not build our own from scratch?” said Martin.
According to Martin and Mashuda, the biggest difference between the old sites and the new training website is the way it is branded from top to bottom in the classic “Toppers Way” and the scalability and adaptability it will allow the Toppers team.
With a from-scratch solution, the Toppers training team was able to broaden the scope of what online training means for the brand, expanding beyond the day-to-day basics of working in a Toppers location.
“With the new site we are also introducing a ‘Leaders’ path,” said Mashuda. “In the current system we have two paths for Team Members to follow: Insider and Driver. Although these paths are great in developing hourly Team Members, it doesn’t show them that Toppers Pizza can be a career.”
Despite the challenges of creating a from-scratch training website, both Mashuda and Martin see it as a powerful tool to help shape the future of the Toppers family. And in hearing the team passionately discuss this newest project, one thing is clear: Each team member truly does continue to embrace the “Toppers Way” they learned on day one.
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
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