Key Points:
- The old-fashioned Employee of the Month program is a popular way to boost morale – especially if it comes with a cash bonus.
- Sales or seasonal contests can boost competition between stores.
- Holiday and other all-staff parties are a time when ownership can get to know their employees on a personal level.
A personal story of connecting with staff through incentive programs
Today, everyone is always focused on hiring and trying to fix their employee shortage. At Caliente Pizza & Draft House, we have been able to combat that by switching our focus on hiring to fully focus on retention.
The biggest ways that we have been able to do that is through tweaking existing employee programs and building out new employee incentives.
Employees generally can tell that you care about them when you put forth meaningful ways they can benefit from working at your pizzeria. In the end, an employee wants to feel three things (in no particular order): respected, useful and valued.
Creating the right programs can cover the valued part. When we think of creating things that our employees will like, we understand that what they like the most is consistency. That means having things that they can look forward to and that they know will happen at an exact time, along with the parameters of how it will happen.
Employee of the Month
One of the easiest and most often overlooked programs to implement is an old-fashioned employee of the month program. We bought a plaque online that lets you insert a picture. Each month, we proudly display it and also give the employee a $50 Visa gift card. We share their picture in the team’s communication app and congratulate them, and that usually has everyone on the team hyping them up and congratulating them.
We have found that some stores now have a tradition when taking the pic of the newly crowned team member. One store has the current employee of the month holding the pic of last month’s employee of the month. It has become a cool way to show off the team spirit in the store.
For our manager of the month, we give them a $100 gift card, an extra paid day off and a special shirt that makes them a member of the Caliente Wolfpack.
Having special shirts that recognize employee accomplishments is a fun way to show you care. Another way we incorporate this is “years of service” shirts. They are a fresh-looking shirt with our old school logo that is only on this shirt. On the sleeves it displays how many years they have worked for us.
Our managers look forward to being part of our “Wolfpack,” and our employees proudly wear their years of service shirts. They look forward to the years of service shirts and always ask for them when they get close to their next milestone.
Pizzeria Contests
We run many standard contests throughout the year that our team members look forward to. Here are some of the contests that they always look forward to.
A spooky pizza contest each October: Anyone on the staff can enter, they must make a pizza that is “spooky.” They get bragging rights as it is a contest that is voted on by the whole company, and they also win a set of tickets to a sporting event. We have done this contest for 10 years, and each year the participation grows – and so does the creativity of the pizzas. We share all the pics of the pizza on our social media.
A store-wide decorating contest for Halloween: It begins after Labor Day, and judging starts the last week of September. It becomes very competitive, and the winning store wins a taco party.
Our annual Winter Wonderland Store Decorating contest: It starts in November. The winning store gets announced at our annual holiday party and wins a Chinese New Year-themed party.
To drive home how much our teams look forward to these store-decorating contests, I want to share a current message from a team member. We had just announced a special Red, White and Blue decorating contest to celebrate America turning 250 years old. I announced it in the all-store chat. In one of the store’s chat two minutes later, this was posted. “Hey guys, I know you saw the new contest. Our store used to win those all the time. We are winning again, I want it to look like Uncle Sam yacked in the place. Buckle up buttercups, we’re gonna win!!!!!!!!!!”
Staff Parties
We have found that shutting down the stores and throwing two big employee appreciation-type parties each year has become one of the most highly anticipated events of the year.
We throw a summer picnic, where we rent out an entire park and their swimming pool. All employees bring their families. We cater to summer picnic-type foods and have done entertainment like magicians and live bands. We always do it on the first Monday in August.
Then each December, on the first Sunday of the month, we throw our annual Holiday Party and Caliente Awards Show. We move the venue every few years, such as renting out an entire restaurant, a river cruise boat, and the past two years we have held it at PNC Park.
What makes this one special is early on, when we started to host this party, our employees showed up dressed to the nines. We were quite surprised, and it showed how much they look forward to and appreciate this party. We have built in an awards show that selects the Iron Manager of the Year, Customer Service Fanatic of the Year and nine more categories that celebrate excellence. This year we even rolled out a new category called “The Rookie of the Year”
Each is awarded either a week’s paid vacation or a 65-inch TV, depending on the category. Then, there are store awards for highest ticket average and most orders taken. They receive sets of sporting event tickets. Then, of course, there are many door prizes throughout the night.
Even when we had one location, we had modified versions of each of these programs. We found that if we can care about our employees first, then they will care about us.
Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza
Photo by Denise Greer; design by Katie Wilson
Read the July 2026 Issue of Pizza Today Magazine
This issue of Pizza Today magazine is dedicated to the employee experience. From our cover story – “Secrets of the Best Workplaces” – to columnist Nick Bogacz’ first-person account of debuting employee programs, we cover everything from creating employee pay scales to restaurant technology that makes your staff’s lives easier. Plus: We dive into the practice of teaching dough-making, local sourcing and pesto. It’s a delicious issue from start to finish.
Check out the full Digital Edition – Pizza Today July 2026.
