Josh Elchert, the owner of Heavenly Pizza in Findlay, Ohio held employee appreciation day. There were no awards like “employee of the month,” or speeches. Instead Josh took the entire day’s sales and gave all of that money plus tips to his employees. 100% of every dollar went to his workers, or as Josh calls them, his family.
On a normal day Heavenly Pizza has about 90 orders. On employee appreciation day they took in 220 orders for a total of $6,300. They also collected $1,000 in tips. Every employee who worked that day made an average of $78 an hour. That’s almost $80 an hour for making pizzas.
Josh founded Heavenly Pizza on 3 principles: 1) hire good people, 2) take care of them, 3) make great pizza. Said Josh, “Our employees have been so great during COVID. They show up every day, they’re here in a great mood. We wanted to take a day and appreciate them.” He added, “You can have the best pizza in the world, but if you have no one here to make it, it doesn’t matter.”
One employee, Timmy Lemire, who’s worked at Heavenly Pizza for 5 years and is now the assistant manager said he was shocked by Josh’s move. He said the staff at Heavenly really is like family. “Find a place where you feel purpose and you won’t feel like you’re meaningless,” said Timmie.