VP, People & Culture

A Day in the Life

Mo' Bettahs is a Hawaiian style food company started in 2008 by brothers Kimo and Kalani Mack, who grew up on Oahu and wanted to share the Hawai'i they actually knew. We run 80+ restaurants across Utah, Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada, Minnesota, Indiana, and Arizona.

• Reporting to the CEO and sitting on the executive team, the VP, People & Culture owns how we hire, train, pay, develop, and take care of our roughly 2,200 Team Members, in our restaurants and at our Support Center. You will lead the People & Culture team.
• Our mission is Be Aloha, and six values carry it: Pono, Ho'okipa, Mo'omeheu, Kuleana, Miki'oi, and Ho'okuku. Your job is to make sure those words still mean the same thing in restaurant 86 that they meant in restaurant 6.
• This position is in office in Lehi, UT. Travel to our restaurants is approximately 25 percent.

What You'll Do

Culture and Team Member experience

• Keep Be Aloha and our six values real as we grow, in onboarding, recognition, internal communication, and the daily habits of restaurant and Support Center teams.
• Own how we listen to Team Members and turn what we hear into changes people can actually see.
• Build recognition that names specific behavior and ties it to a value or a Team Player virtue, rather than generic praise.

Talent and staffing

• Lead hiring at every level, from hourly restaurant Team Members through Support Center leadership.
• Build a hiring engine that keeps nearly 80+ restaurants staffed and gets every New Restaurant Opening fully crewed and trained before the doors open.
• Own time to fill, quality of hire, and the depth of our General Manager and District Manager bench.
• Work with Operations and Development on workforce planning so hiring keeps pace with the pipeline of new restaurants.

Leadership development

• Grow leaders through the Operations Growth Ladder so we promote from within more often than we hire from outside.
• Run succession planning for restaurant leadership and for the executive team.

Total rewards and people operations

• Own pay structure, bonus plans, and benefits, and keep them competitive for both hourly and salaried roles across multiple states.
• Own payroll, HRIS, and the people data that Operations and Finance rely on, and make sure the numbers hold up.
• Report on the people metrics that move the business, including Team Member an
• d General Manager turnover, and use them to decide what to change next.

Compliance and risk

• Keep us compliant with employment law in every state we operate in, including wage and hour, work authorization, leave, and accommodation.
• Own Team Member relations and workplace investigations and handle them quickly and consistently.
• Own workers' compensation and safety, and the training that keeps injury rates down.
• Make hiring and promotion decisions consistent and defensible through structured interviews, clear job-related criteria, and documented decisions, so every qualified applicant gets a real look and we hire on merit.

Executive partnership

• Advise the CEO and the executive team on org design, people risk, and how we grow without losing what makes this company work.
• Build and lead the People & Culture team and grow the people on it.
• Prepare people reporting for executive and board review.

What You'll Need

• 10+ years in human resources, including 5+ leading the function or a major part of it.
• Multi-unit experience in restaurants, retail, hospitality, or another field-based business with hourly teams spread across many locations. This is the qualification we weigh most heavily.
• A track record hiring and keeping hourly teams at volume and building leaders from within rather than buying them.
• Working knowledge of multi-state employment law, wage and hour, and the practical compliance that comes with operating in several states at once.
• Hands-on ownership of pay, benefits, payroll, and HRIS, rather than only directing people who do that work.
• Real comfort with data. You use people metrics to decide things, and you can defend the numbers when someone pushes back.
• Credibility with operators. You have earned trust from the people who actually run restaurants or stores.
• Bachelor's degree preferred. Equivalent experience counts.

Preferred

• Fast casual or QSR experience at scale.
• Experience through a period of fast unit growth, roughly 50 to 150 locations.
• Workday or a comparable HRIS.
• SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or equivalent certification.