Class: Join Karen Bornarth, executive director of the Bread Bakers Guild of America, for a workshop on how to improve your business performance and employee experience simultaneously by combining an investment in people with operational choices that raise the productivity, contribution and motivation of employees. We will explore 4 operational choices—focus and simplify; standardize and empower; cross-train; and operate with slack—that have been proven to lower employee turnover and increase profitability. You will come away from this workshop with concrete ideas and tactics for your own operation and an understanding of why good jobs make good business sense.
Who is this session for? Business owners and operators working in food who manage teams
When/where: Saturday, April 22nd // 12:30 - 2:00 pm // KBR Warehouse, 14 O’Henry Ave, Suite 110, Asheville
Instructor: Karen Bornarth is Executive Director of the Bread Bakers Guild of America, a nonprofit membership association dedicated to supporting the sustainable growth of the artisan baking industry through education, training and community. The Guild’s 2000+ members are bakery owners, professional bakers, ingredient and equipment suppliers, educators and others dedicated to the production of the highest-quality baked goods and to advancing the baking industry.
Through her years of experience as a bread baker and educator in New York City’s culinary landscape, Karen brings a passion for education and advocacy for frontline food production workers. She is particularly interested in breaking down the systemic and structural barriers to career and economic advancement for people of color and women in the culinary industry.
In her current work with the Bread Bakers Guild of America, she supports bakery owners and professional bakers to achieve success in their baking practices and businesses through classes and events in baking techniques and the business of baking, and opportunities to connect with and learn from their peers.
During her 7+ years with Hot Bread Kitchen, a nonprofit workforce and small business development agency in NYC, she developed an initiative to improve job quality and business performance in small food businesses, and oversaw a team to design and deliver a dynamic workforce development program in New York City.
She launched her career at Amy’s Bread as an overnight production baker, taught bread baking for several years at the French Culinary Institute, and developed products and processes for Le Pain Quotidien, an international franchise of bakery-cafes.