Welcome to the University of Yuppiechef

Amid the ongoing #feesmustfall debate in South Africa, there is one small educational institution where students are actually paid to attend classes.

Anyone who is new to the Yuppiechef team, is welcomed to the company via a weeklong deep dive into the inner workings of the business during the company’s extensive onboarding process.

Classes take students through, amongst other things: a detailed history of the 10-year old brand, thanks to the sharing of animated historical stories given by the founding directors. Time is spent watching movies of brands and people that we admire, practising the vital skills needed to write a thank you card to a valued customer, completing a personal strengths-finder exercise and comprehensively understanding the brand and possible future megatrends that could potentially affect the company in years to come.

The onboarding experience is exactly the same for everybody and ultimately equips newcomers with the vital skills needed to do just about any job in the organisation.

Everyone emerges knowing the exact procedure for making a memorable cup of coffee, to work in the warehouse as a runner, a product picker, a gift packer or stocktaker and how to deliver the expected high levels of customer service required in the call centre.

Apart from the program being an intensive exploration of the inner workings of the Yuppiechef brand, it hopefully also inspires students to embark on their own journey of self-discovery outside of their life at the company.

‘Know thyself’ — Plato

A brand is only as strong as the most disgruntled team member tasked with creating the experience of the brand. So, dedicating a week of working hours to making sure that everyone is fired up and inspired by the brand story and how to keep on sharing that story authentically — we feel is a fairly good investment of time.

Written by Jon Cherry.