Alexis Bovalino is the current HR Director for Burgatory and Shorty’s, two restaurant groups in the greater Pittsburgh area. As a teenager, Alexis joined the family business waiting tables until she left for college. When she graduated in 2019, she was eager to return to help build out the HR department and help with hiring across all nine locations. Alexis immediately realized the business was growing in complexity and would need software that could help streamline their manual hiring process.
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Alka Bahal: Welcome to The Think Factory’s Workplace Podcast, powered by OGC Solutions, the podcast where we explore the ever-evolving landscape of workplace dynamics. My name is Alka Bahal. I’m a partner with Outside General Counsel Solutions and the chair of our Corporate Immigration Services Group, and I’ll be your host today.
I’m very pleased to have with me today Alexis Bovalino, Human Resources Director of Burgatory Bar. Welcome to the podcast, Alexis.
Alexis Bovalino: Thank you so much, Alka. I’m really excited to be here.
Alka Bahal: Well, we’re so happy to have you with us. Can we start by telling us a little bit about your career path and what led you to your current role?
Alexis Bovalino: So my career path is a little bit of a non-traditional one. I had started working in the restaurant group as a young person navigating high school, and that restaurant group is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So when I went to college, I also attended the University of Pittsburgh and continued to work for the restaurant group.
I was able to intern with the group, and then I left and did some other things. Eventually something just kept tugging me back into that restaurant group where I really loved my experience, I loved the culture, and I wanted to make a difference.
I had gone to school for Human Resources and Marketing, and so when the role opened up in 2019, our partners tapped me on the shoulder to see if I wanted to interview for the role. So as a very young person, I really took a big risk and joined the purgatory team in the HR role to build the HR department.
Alka Bahal: And it sounds like you’ve done a great job! Tell me a little bit about the organization and how big it is now.
Alexis Bovalino: Thank you so much. So we currently have seven restaurants across the greater Pittsburgh area. We employ between 400 to 500 employees, and we are very thrilled to report that we recently won the Best Burger and PA by Reader’s Digest and Love Food magazine. And then with the employee management and people side, I’m really thrilled about some of the recent stats on our culture surveys, as well as just some of our recruiting and hiring efforts.
We receive anywhere between 3,000 to 4,000 applications a year. 34% of the folks we do hire loved their dining experience so much that they were encouraged to apply and then achieve the position. So 75% of our salaried managers started in hourly roles like me, like dishwashers and hosts and servers and bartenders, and then worked their way into the management capacity and into the salaried capacity.
Alka Bahal: That’s really impressive. How wonderful that you’ve got people who came to eat and then wanted to stay and work. So how did you navigate COVID? How did it impact you? What strategies did you employ? A lot of restaurants just did not survive, and you guys have not just survived, you’ve flourished post-COVID.
Alexis Bovalino: We really did, and it really goes back to our people. At Burgatory, we don’t believe the guest comes first.
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