In the first Pre-Shift Podcast episode of 2025, we chatted with Jason Berkowitz, founder of ArrowUp Training, to discuss—you guessed it—training! While training might not seem like the most exciting topic, Jason found a way to end boring, monotonous content: ArrowUp.
Listen to the episode
Meet Jason Berkowitz & ArrowUp
From heading operations at household names like Tocaya Organic and Umami Burger to building his own company, Jason holds a wealth of industry knowledge, especially regarding training.
When it comes to work, he believes that everyone just wants to know two things: first, “What is my job?”, and second, “How am I doing?”. It sounds simple, but processes need to be put in place to ensure answers. This means organizing what it looks like, providing the proper training, and offering feedback (be it through formal checklists or informal reviews).
As the CEO, he explains his business best: ”ArrowUp helps restaurants strengthen their employee experience so that they can deliver stronger guest experiences. And we do that through off-the-shelf training––custom training, as well as off-the-shelf for custom checklists and then helping standardize SOPs. The meat on our bone is our courses that people license from us.”
Some examples of courses on the ArrowUp site include basics like harassment prevention, workplace violence, and restaurant safety. You can also take soft skill courses for leadership and collaboration designed specifically for hospitality.
Relatability: The ArrowUp factor
ArrowUp courses are unlike conventional training courses––a presenter speaking without much personality against a white, overlit background. Jason explains the idea behind creating relatable content instead. “Take legal speak like anti-harassment. How do we turn that into something that’s relatable and not cheesy? Well, tell a story. Take a sensitive conversation where we interviewed somebody, and overlay it with some amazing visuals.”
He’s also all for memes and gifs. “ The art of it all matters, right? It’s got to look pretty. It’s got to feel pretty. And it’s relatable. It’s transferable across multiple generations. 85, working in the industry, or 15—it lands.” With attention spans becoming more and more limited, the ArrowUp factor helps capture interest and keep it.
The importance of proper training
Jason emphasizes the need for consistency: “Put a consistent training program. Have consistent follow-up with a few checklists, check-ins, five questions a week for somebody—things like that. You lower turnover by an astonishing amount, you lower risk, you lower liability, you increase sales.”
And as for the biggest training mistake restaurant owners make? Jason says, “I think lack of attention is the biggest mistake. How do I feel like you’re paying attention to me? How do I feel like I’m part of something, not just a number?” It’s important to tell lay out the basics and answer all the questions the trainee may have on their mind, such as:
- What’s my job? What does it mean to do my job?
- How does it work around here?
- What’s the style of service? What’s the vibe?
- What’s the story we’re telling?
The first impression of onboarding
Jason believes that first impressions are key to onboarding new team members. “The most important thing out of the gates is when I walk in the door as a new employee, does somebody expect me to be there? And does somebody care that I’m there?”
By offering a proper introduction firsthand and setting expectations for who will conduct the training, employees are less likely to turn over. It’s also important to answer questions on how you’ll set the trainee up for success and get to know them on a personal level. “It’s part work. It’s part personal. Because you’re going to figure out what matters to ask, and then I’m going to tell you what matters to me.”
Jason also advises that day one should be balanced and not completely focused on policies alone. “I don’t like day one HR everything. I really don’t. Sure, anti-harassment training, but you could drip that in a little bit. Get the fun in. Get the moving around, take them around, and introduce them to people. Bring them into the fold so they feel comfortable and excited walking into work the next day.”
It’s also important to review a scorecard after the shift. A supervisor needs to be responsible for the trainee, track their performance, and be available to answer all their questions. Plus, every quarter, there should be reminders about the restaurant’s standards, such as on service style and cleanliness.
Growing restaurant careers from within
Regarding growing careers within the restaurant industry, Jason says, “I love putting people on the growth trajectory. The worst thing you can do is not have people in the pipeline, so when you lose a supervisor, you need a supervisor.”
There are two points he notes about supervisors:
- Supervisors are the bridge between expectations and execution.
- To succeed, supervisors need more than comped food and a pair of keys.
He explains that supervisors should be empowered to know that holding everyone accountable is the coolest thing you can do. “ Organized people want to work in organized environments. Accountable people want to work in environments where everyone’s held accountable.”
Because of this, Jason emphasizes the importance of training soft skills early on. Offering something as small as a weekly two-minute or monthly five-minute update––or a few training courses here and there––to future supervisors can be huge.
“I’ll get the alert as a manager that [he’s] doing this, so he showed me he’s caring, and he’ll elevate. So, give him the opportunity to manage that information up.” When it comes to Jason’s philosophy behind the growth trajectory, everything goes back to building relationships.
Managers matter, so training matters
When asked about the why behind building out a ‘Managing Friends’ course, Jason cites the importance of investing in leaders once again. Our 2024 What Restaurant Employees Want Report revealed that 45% of employees have left a job as a result of poor management or negative interactions with a supervisor.
When putting together a course like this, he starts by interviewing others about their management experience, as well as their experience with managers––good or bad. “We’re constantly getting new stories from people that reinforce that if you’re dealing with something, chances are somebody else is dealing with it over there. [People] don’t want to hear a stuffy course. They want to hear, somebody’s experience who just dealt with this.”
Core values, building culture, and checklists
In the service industry, treating customers like a friend is often easier said than done. For example, during the pandemic, we had 16-year-old servers suddenly tasked with enforcing public health laws.
Jason’s advice for this is to treat everyone like you’d like them to treat your favorite family member. Along with that, “assume every person you’re walking into just got really bad news. And so when they walk in the door, just know that they might be carrying that in. How can you help them?”
“It’s giving a bit of leeway, but that takes investing in your team so that they feel like they’re empowered to do that. They feel like they can make calls on the spot. They can buy somebody something. They feel like they’re supported. It’s more than training. You gotta put a strong employee experience together.”
Jason also explains that checklists are mightier than trust falls if you want to build a healthy culture—and that accountability is key. You can have all the core values you want all day, but if one employee leaves without tracking any side work, somebody else will need to pick up the slack. And then, the whole team will have it out for one another.
The future of ArrowUp
Jason’s vision for the company’s future is to build out a matrix for ‘the ArrowUp way’ of doing everything. In his opinion, training doesn’t need to be so different from restaurant to restaurant. He wants to simplify the employee experience and standardize everything.
“ I’ve worked with some of the best chefs literally in the world and some of the local mom-and-pop shops. What’s great is once you divide between full service and cashier quick service, or fast casual— pretty much unless you’re real fine dining—90% of it’s going to be the same of the training and of the standardizing it.”
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Jessica Ho, Content Marketing Specialist
Jessica Ho
Content Marketing Specialist
Hi, I'm Jessica, Content Marketing Specialist at 7shifts! I'm writing about all things related to the restaurant industry.
