MOD Pizza

How a culture of “doing the right thing” can be good for business

Challenge

MOD Pizza was founded with the goal of using business to make a positive social impact. Like many other companies, MOD was having difficulty recruiting entry-level workers to keep up with the 2,000 MOD jobs created every year through their rapid expansion. MOD was also challenged with high turnover. Although their rate was typical of the restaurant industry, it was higher than they would like and represented an opportunity to reduce costs.

Solution/Project

Through FSG’s Innovation Lab program, MOD set out to discover whether a partnership with a community-based organization could help address their high turnover and recruitment challenges through providing them with both a pipeline of career-ready youth and the wrap-around supports these youth needed to be successful. MOD decided to focus their pilot partnership in the Bay Area where MOD restaurants were facing upwards of 67% turnover at the 90-day mark. Next, they identified potential partners in the region and ended up forming a partnership with JUMA, a national youth-centered social enterprise that was also interested in piloting a new employer partnership model.

The Outcome

MOD found that their collaboration with JUMA did have an impact on their recruitment and turnover. Of the young people hired by MOD during the pilot, only 50% turned over by the 90-day mark compared to 67% for MOD’s restaurants in the region. Given the success of the pilot, MOD plans to scale partnerships at a national level by creating a database of community-based organizations that all MOD general managers can tap into for talent and support. Additionally, through the Lab MOD learned that 70% of their 6,000+ employee base are 18-24 years old. As a result, they are launching several new initiatives to support their employers more broadly such as new KPIs that track turnover, education benefits, and more transparent career pathways.

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