#29: FM Best Practices in Hospitality: Sheetal Ohri

#29- FM Best Practices in Hospitality- Sheetal Ohri

Introduction:

Welcome to another episode of the modern facilities management podcast brought to you by strap. I'm your host, Griffin Hamilton. This is the show where I interview industry experts who share their stories, strategies and insights into modern day facilities management, from hospitality, to commercial, real estate, and everything in between. We'll learn what it really takes to succeed as a facilities manager. 

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Good afternoon. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the modern facilities management Podcast. Today I've got the guest and the honor to have the guest of Sheetal Ohri to join me. Sheetal, how are you doing today?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Great. Everybody, a very warm hello from California.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

From California. Yeah, we're a three hour difference here. I'm about to wrap up my day and… 

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

And I’m still in the midst of it. 

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Well Sheetal, before we jump into the topics we're going to cover today, why don't you give a little context on who you are, because I know that's a mouthful and what you do?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Well, I'm Sheetal Ohri. I'm the director of facilities and remodel for Yadav enterprises Inc. Yadav enterprises Inc, is one of the largest restaurant franchise chains in America. We are recently covered as number 10 on the Financial Times and so we pretty much you know, basically into restaurants, and then we are into hotels and some of the them are also golf resorts. So yeah, I take care of that. And on the other side, when you said a mouthful…

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

That’s why this is the juicy stuff. 

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

I do have a show for the last eight and a half years called Making a difference on KSGO Bali 92.3 FM in San Francisco. I'm a book author, recently published a book called custodial battle. That's another aspect. I'm a real estate agent. So yeah, too many things I guess. But my main job and which keeps me on my toes for the last seven and a half years is with Yadav Enterprises Inc as Director of Facilities.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

And so that alone, being a Facilities Management, that's a 24/7 gig, in and of itself.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Absolutely. You are you're spot on that Griffith. It’s 24/7.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

How do you have time? I just don't understand. I mean, you already have a job that's crazy busy hours and then yet you're writing books, you're hosting a radio show, consulting… I mean, there's a million things that's going on and you're stressing me out over here.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

No, I am not trying to do that. You see when you have to keep that sanity from the kind of work mode you're in, which is being a director of over 140 restaurants, you need to keep sane. So my sanity, like I tell everybody, including my CEO, that it is by doing these nonprofit work, or you know, volunteering my time, or doing something which kind of keeps me grounded and sane. Otherwise, I don't know what I'm going to do. Every day, there's some issue, there's some inspection, there is some situation which needs my attention and my full dedication. And how I get through with it is you know, by having this side of me which keeps me going. So it kind of compliments and just de-stresses me from my regular job of being a director of facilities and remodel.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

You know normal people to sleep right? That's an option.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

I do. I do. I love my sleep. But yeah, at times, you know, you get awakened by one of those restaurants in the middle of the night when there's a fire, which is very rare but yeah, it does happen. I do sleep for sure. I need my beauty sleep.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Well, that's the world we live in in facilities. It’s fighting fires and sometimes and you just mentioned that it could be a literal fire. So talk to me, and let's dive into the realm of Facilities Management from your perspective. I mean, you have a huge organization with a ton of locations that you had facilities for. So first off, how'd you get into? That'd be my first question. And we'll start there before we get into the technical details.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

So I was 18 when I put my foot in the hotel industry. And I'm not going to tell my age though. I think I look good. But yeah, after all these years, 25 plus years. So I think I have achieved where I wanted to be which is always being in the restaurant and hotel industry. I've worked in India, I've worked in UK in London, the amazing fashion city, then I had the opportunity to be here for last 16, 17 years or maybe more. And I think, over this period of time, I was trying to be a consultant, being a single mom trying to take care of my son during the time share I had. But you know, my heart was also and always been in the hotel and restaurant industry. So I was approached by my CEO, the owner of Yadav Enterprises. I've known him for long. And he offered me a position. And at that time, I didn't think the time was right. Few years later, I approached him, and I said; do you think you have an opportunity for me in this amazing organization of yours? And he goes, yeah, I can create something for you. And I was like, thinking in the back of my mind, oh, yeah, you know, he's going give me some sort of role where it comes to as, you know, maybe management or general manager, or some sort of level of VP or something in the operation side of it. But then here, we sat down for many hours. And he told me about the whole facility aspect, which was really a problem child in his company and there was no department as such. And I love challenges. I've always thrived on, you know, making a difference in some sort, or some way or the other. And I love learning. So I went through a lot of trainings, I went through a lot of the what do you call that, the behind the scenes, a person who's like, somebody who's just trying to not show that I am who I am, but I was working in the restaurants going around with the facility technicians we had, and they all thought she's some sort of a dispatcher whose in. And I'm telling you, that was kind of the best period when I came into the company. Everybody thought she's probably a dispatcher; she's like, somebody who's just going, you know, just manage something from the office. And here I was, you know, trying to go check the stores, check the facility equipment, check the repairs, and buildings. And I think after about 10 days of this whole thing, my CEO finally announced to everybody that there's a new director of facility onboard. And I think, since then, that seven and a half years back, this all happened. And I've grown this whole department to a potential where we have not only managed California, we managed, you know, Texas at one point from few years when I was handling two states, then we have managed many of the other aspects wherever and whenever required by the company. We've done that. And then we got into remodeling. Again, I learned a lot went through with it. There's always learning curves, there's always problem issues. There's always situations which demands that you need to know the franchise agreements, you need to know what needs to be done. And so you keep on learning every day, I think. And that's when it all happened. And so it was facilities and then remodel. Yes. And it's seven and a half years later, I'm still here, surviving.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

That's the key word is surviving. So what's it like, with that big of an organization and it sounds like you really started the facilities department from scratch and took that on. So I mean, that to say that you were having to eat an elephant is an understatement there. How did you really take that big project and break it down into bite sized chunks and where did you start? Walk me through what that process looked like.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

The first and foremost thing was how to get the team together. Because everybody who was on board or the few technicians we had, they were kind of all on their own and they were picking up the phone and calling the vendors themselves. And for me, that's like a lot of cost. So we have these people on board we are the companies paying and then we had this other side which is that you know what these technicians themselves are calling the vendors. So, how do you even justify this cost? And so as a director of facilities, my first and foremost job was to cut the cost down, to bring a budget in, to minimize all these expenses and overheads which were happening in the stores which are happening at the level of in the accounts or in the office or you know how it's going. So I guess that's how it all started. That was the first step. Second step was, I started a dispatch. So I did that dispatch work, I still do it, no qualms about it. You know, I love doing that, because it keeps me informed every day of what's going on. And we work with Kriegel. It's used, you know, nationwide and many of the restaurants and many of the franchisees use it. So we started working… before we bought Kriegel on board, I think I had at least three or four different software's which I tried. Technology, as you understand Griffin is the key today. You know, you and me are talking face to face through technology. So technology was something which I felt was missing when I joined the company. And I believe seven and a half years back, yes, things were just kind of turning around. You know, these things were just coming up. Today Kriegel has a 2.0. I mean, they've grown, you know, phenomenally and so has many other, you know, companies who are coming on board with the same software where, you know, we need it. And so I brought this software in. So we had a dispatch created. So everything can be documented. There's a history of work orders, what's going on from the store level, everything is getting into the system. So putting those systems in place is very important for a company and even a company of our size, it was required, it was required very much because if you don't have systems in place, the company can go down. And that's the key point. Because you know, whether any department you can take it, it's not only facility department I believe. I believe, you know, a company needs to have a structure in place. You know, being a restauranteur and a hotelier all my life, I would say 26 plus years, I have been consultant to many restaurants, I've opened restaurants, done branding management single handedly in UK. I've done it here for a couple of restaurants, I've been a consultant to them. So from that point of view, I believe that it's very important to have a structure in place, it's very important to have the whole thought process in place that anything which is not going to be coming in, it can lead to disastrous situations. And here, we have restaurants running 24/7; operation teams are making our paychecks, you know, they are working very hard in the field, these technicians are happy to be on board, who have been in the company over seven plus years, they have been working very hard, especially last year with pandemic, I think we all learned a lot. Because we have to be on a survival mode. Restaurants were getting shut down. You know, again, being part of this company, I'm very humbled, and I'm very thrilled to understand that look, I was part of this big organization where you know, we had to be on a survival mode, we had to shut our dining rooms down, we were just going through the drive throughs. But then end of the day, we were still there, we were still opened. And today, you know, when we are open back for business, it kind of gives me a sense of happiness that, hey, I was part of that team, which was hands on last year, whether it's the operation team, whether it's our accounts, whether it's our operations leaders or anybody. Our CEO was very hands on. We were having weekly meetings with the partners, with the department heads, with the operation teams, with facilities teams. So it was a very tedious and a very survival mode kind of situation last year. And from that, that process, again, we've learned a lot. And I'm sure you've interviewed many other facilities, management people on your show, who probably talk about that we have learned some very critical decision making experiences from last year. And we still doing it. You know, now the third variant is in, again, we were trying to be on that thought process; masks on, make sure you know sanitizers are there, make sure and I think during last three or four months, it was lacking. You know, people were now getting too easy again and now we're back to wear your masks and then go on. So, you know, it's just as I said again, something of this sort keeps on going keeps us on our toes. And I'm very thankful for my team. You know, management and team support is a must. I'm very thankful to my team. I'm thankful to my operations team, the directors of the various brands we have. Whether we have Denny's, we have Jack in the Box, we have corner Bakery Cafe, we have sizzlers, we have these amazing resorts. So all of those people have been playing a big part and big role in being a support team, just like we are a support team to those operations, they are a support team to us in many aspects. So that kind of goes hand in hand, you know, because we are like together all the time and trying to take decisions, make decisions. And yeah, the final buck stops at the seal stable. But yeah, we all try to make it work.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and you put up some great points there. And, of course, signing the pandemic and the importance of your team and relying on one another in the family environment that you guys have. I mean, you couldn't survive without that. And you know, taking a step further, the processes that you implemented over time and the systems you had in place, I'm sure that that, having the standardization that you do across all those different locations, and multiple locations, geographically speaking, that couldn't have worked without those systems in place. And so I had a follow up to that, where you came in, and there is already a huge organization already, and you had chosen to bring in technology to help you out. Looking at it from I guess an outside perspective, or from someone else that may not have, you know, 150 locations that they're standardizing the processes for, when would you, at what point does it make sense to start thinking about that? Because there's some people that you know, they have two or three locations or nine or ten, or shoot even twenty, right, but hundred plus where you're at, you obviously need those in place. But at what point do you need to start thinking of that, bringing in technology and standardizing everything across the operations board?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

I think it has to start even with one location Griffin because if you don't have that software, where you can manage things on your phone, just like you just have to have an app, you know, and just go on from there, getting your work orders in through the system, having a history of it, making sure your invoices are put through that and then you are basically paying the vendors through that, there's a history created. And even if you have one location five or twenty, it's required because in today's world where technology is the key and you're having all these amazing kiosks, you know technology oriented kiosks created at the restaurants where all you have to do go don't stand in the line go put in your work order from there in your orders ready, we need to have that. And especially when you are a franchisee brand, you need to have that because your brand also looks up to the fact that hey, is this franchisee good enough to be given and granted more extension? Or are they in compliance with what is going on in our brand standard? So all of these things when you think of it's very much required. Technology is the key today, no matter what. AI is coming on board, you know, bringing so much of diversity. So we need to make sure that we have the key to our working environment, which is technology.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah. And so beyond the work order component of it, what other tools have you guys implemented, whether it's software or not? What else has helped you stay organized and reduce the overhead as that's the goal for every facilities department?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Negotiations. The best compliment I think I've ever received from a CEO, you know, is that I'm a better negotiator than him. And my CEO I think he's managing over 500 restaurants. And then now we've just recently taken over another branch chain, which is Taco Cabana in Texas over you know, 150 locations. So it's just that it's a compliment coming from him that I'm a better negotiator than him. So negotiation is the key. Whether you're bringing or renting a vendor, bringing them on board, whether you are trying to get materials, whether you're trying to do remodels, whether you're trying to do any of the work which is related to facilities or remodels, you have to have that other tool and know how to use it, and that is negotiation. And when you're going out to meet with these vendors sit on these costs, you have to do parking lot, you have to do, you know, remodels, you have to do the brand standards compliances in your restaurant, you have to have that negotiation power. If you don't have it, you can't do it. And you can't add at the position I'm at, I can't run to my CEO for every little thing. He's dependent upon me, in fact, to make sure that, you know, I can take decisions and make things work. Because you know, he doesn't have the time or the bandwidth. And you know, you just cannot afford to have somebody on a higher position, who's going to run to the CEO or the owner of the company for every little thing. So yeah, I take my own decisions, I do my negotiations. Yes, there are challenges at times, yes, there are situations where I get stuck and then I use his expertise, I go to him. But that communication level with him, just being one on one is something which I believe has kept me going because I look up to him for experience, expertise, knowledge, anything, which I think I may lack in and I go to him directly. So we do that. So even after being the owner of many, many restaurants, him being available for the team is a big deal. I have seen him as a hands on owner, he goes to the restaurants. And I've done those walkthroughs with him many times. It's like you go to everything and he'll just pull up his shirt and pair the apron, and he'll start making tacos, or he'll just start going to the register and start doing things by taking the orders for the guests or on the drive thru. And for me, from the day one when I've seen him do that, it's a humbling experience. You know, especially for someone who comes from my background and I'm like, okay, you know what, this, this is something which I want to do. And I think I've been there, I worked in restaurants, taking trainings, you know, over the last few years, we're for few days trying to understand what the store employees are feeling when the AC goes out, what the store employees are feeling when the grills or the fryers are not working on time because they have to go by the time. So I have done all of that to understand and I try to push and motivate my team to do the same. We've just had some real big challenges, which again, I'm sure you've heard about his staffing. It's just just a very sad situation right now, with government giving out these paychecks to people, they've just stopped coming to work. So our restaurant and not only our restaurants, I've seen many other franchisees, you know, you just don't go to your own restaurants to eat sometimes, you do go to others and you're standing in a drive thru, and there's just maybe one person, and you're stuck there for 15 minutes just to get your order. So staffing is a challenge and facilities we are having such drastic challenges to even recruit people or even the vendors who were on board, some of them actually have shut shop last year. And some of them just told us clear cut; sorry, we don't have technicians anymore so you have to wait. So when you're the support system of all this 140 locations and 150 locations, what do you do? How do you do it? And that's where I guess I use my brain here and then I get on to the whole thought process; how am I going to do it? How do I coordinate it, because here we have some projects going on here. We have some situations going on which needs these technicians which are on board or the vendors on board. We make it work. We make it work. And I think I've done it for the last seven and a half years. And with this challenging times we’re in through the pandemic since last year, we’re still making it work. But I'm seriously telling you on this show I really hope the government is listening and they need to think about it. The businesses are suffering and people who are employees who are hardworking, who are actually coming and showing up to work, they are suffering because you know some people are just staying home or most of them are staying home just to get those paychecks. And it needs to stop somewhere. You know, it really needs to.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and I mean, I hear that consistently across board. I mean staffing is always hard. Right? And, you know, that's something that I've unfortunately heard pretty consistently as well. And, you know, hopefully that's changing, and we feel that change in the near future and kind of getting back to our vendors and our support system being fully staffed so they can go out and help out. But I mean, you bring up a good point as far as getting creative. Because that's part of the job, right? There is no by the book, here's what's going happen in facilities, you've got to adapt.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Yes, you have to be creative in facilities. If something's going down, how are you going to, you know, take care of it, if there's an OSHA complaint, how you going to take care of it right now? We have so much of equipment back ordered, I can't even explain that to you. It's just unbelievable. And when you reach out to these big organizations, whether it's an AC unit, or the parts, places, all of them just have one thing to say, which is sorry, but it's backordered; we can't tell you when. And I just don't know what to do. It's very frustrating. You can’t tell them, hey, we can’t close our restaurants down, our employees are going to file complaints, our customers are going to file complaints. And you just have to get creative, you have to do what you have to do to keep on going and to keep the restaurants open. And facility, as I said is the key. Restaurant is the body, facility is the heart. So I say the heart is pumping so the bodies remaining still, if not, it's going be a problem. So we have to work multi folds in many aspects. And I think I've trained my technicians, I've trained my dispatch, I've trained the people who are around me who are in facilities working under me, I have really trained them in a way to be multifaceted that they have to do whatever is required of us under the boundaries of facilities, and to make sure and to ensure that the restaurants are not shutting down. And I mean, I pride myself in saying it, but unfortunately, as I said, lately, with so much of this whole pandemic situation going on, we are going through a lot of problems.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yeah, and that's like I said, being felt across the board. And I know restaurants in particular, it's tough and you know, we're all hoping that we're pushing through it as quickly as we possibly can. And so just as a quick recap here, because you've said so much great content here, as far as the strategies you've put into place, from starting out and bringing in different technology to manage and very closely the data being collected around your facilities and your assets and work orders and to vendor negotiations and how critical that's been for you. Beyond those points, what would you say has been or would you recommend be the first step for someone that is really interested in standardizing their facilities organization for their multinational group?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Very important thought process for that would be and I think what needs to be done is making sure that you know, you're in compliance with either the brand standards or even if you're not a franchisee, even making sure that your restaurants are not looking into a dilapidated state where you know, when customers are walking in, you're seeing the drive throughs are kind of falling apart or, you know, the lights are not there or landscaping spat. So I guess those things are very, very important to be noticed. And going back into the thought process of how do you make it happen; I always say this, and I'm going to say this, it's a team effort. If the people in the restaurants are not going to pick up the phone, or they're not going to use the technology methods of putting a work order in or advising to the facilities that hey, this is what's not right, and this is what we need help in or get this fixed, it's just not going happen. Walkthroughs are very important, regular walkthroughs by the district managers, by the general managers, by the store managers, and also by the operations team to make sure that they're putting work orders in, the systems are calling in the work orders to the dispatcher are calling the vendors if they do not have this facility system in place, then they have to make that effort because if a customer is coming to your restaurant or a hotel, and they are not having that satisfactory feeling that this place is good enough for me. They won't come back. There's always the mindset of customer which needs to be taken into consideration nowadays. It's not the mindset of the employees, it's not the mindset of what an employer or the owner of a restaurant or restaurant chain is thinking. It's the mindset of the customer. And with technology, we have our negatives too. We have all these Yelps and we have all these other, you know, platforms, social media platforms where people just are going in writing. And then sometimes they're even sending complaints to the brands. And you can afford that to happen. And if that happens, I mean, I know I'm always on my toes, one email, which comes in, which states that the customer complained that this is what the situation was through facilities. I'm not talking about the operation side of it. But anything about facilities, I make sure that you know, we get that fixed right away. Because that's like a big no, no. So I guess everybody has to put that standards in place. It's very important.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Yep. And you mentioned hotels, and I go back to that, in addition to restaurants as well, where, yes, you're going there to eat and yes, you're going there for a place to sleep, but really, it's the experience. And so it starts with facilities right, facilities is what's creating the ambience of a restaurant and the experience of a hotel. And so that's a great point there of having them front of mind. And they are the why behind we're doing what we're doing. Right. Yeah, that's great, great insight there. And Sheetal, before I let you go a question, and kind of switching topics here a question I asked everybody; getting into the career facilities management, you weren't expecting to do it but obviously, you've been hyper successful and have grown the brands that you've managed to new highs, but who or what has had the biggest impact on your career and facilities?

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

I never, never thought somebody can make me shop on this side. Exotic think about this answer. But yeah, putting me on the spot, I think the biggest, I think I said it in the beginning; the biggest impact was just working with an individual who is very humble and that's my CEO, [unsure 32:07]; working with him and learning from him. Because I had come from a background of operations, you know, where you pick up the phone and call facilities, you manage those technicians when they come to work under your stores or your hotels. So here I was trying to give my ideas, take ideas, learn. And then I was always welcomed. And I guess that kind of really motivated me and kept me going even till date. Like I said, in most of my interview, anytime I get stuck, all I have to do is send a text or pick up the phone and call and I get an answer. So that rapport when your employers have with you, they listen to you, they try to do whatever you're trying to do for the best interests of the company, then you know, it kind of makes you feel okay, you're valued. So I guess we go on.

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

I love that. And you're very fortunate to be in that type of organization. So that's amazing to hear and I'm very thrilled to have had you on and get the insights on just your career and the strategies you've laid out and the standardization of facilities teams and processes. So once again, thank you so much for the insight. And thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Speaker: Sheetal Ohri  

Thank you so much, Griffin. It's a pleasure. And once again, thank you for inviting me. I wish you the best. 

Speaker: Griffin Hamilton  

Thank you so much. 

Outro:

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