Podcast
Supporting Frontline Teams: Dr. Matt Burchett on Building a Business Where People Flourish
- Explore how Dr. Matt Burchett and Thrive Restaurant Group invest in frontline employees to build stability, strengthen retention, and drive business impact.
About the episode
What does it take to build a sustainable business model when nearly half of your workforce faces daily financial instability?Â
On this episode of Doing Good by Doing Better, host Margaret Rogers is joined by Dr. Matt Burchett, PhD, SVP of Strategy & Social Impact at Thrive Restaurant Group, to explore how investing in the well-being and stability of frontline employees can create meaningful impact for people while strengthening the business.Â
Drawing from his transition from higher education to executive leadership in the restaurant industry, Matt shares how Thrive is embedding real, relationship-based support directly into the frontline employee experience. Through its Success Coach model, Thrive is testing how proximity, trust, and access to support can help employees build greater stability — while also strengthening retention and creating measurable value for the business.Â
From learning from transformational nonprofits to tackling systemic challenges that may take decades to address, Matt offers a candid look at what it means to build a company where purpose and performance reinforce one another, and why caring for your people can be both a human imperative and a viable business strategy.Â
Margaret and Matt discuss:
- Understanding the ALICE Workforce: Defining Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed workers and why an estimated 40% to 50% of the hospitality workforce may face economic instability despite being employed.Â
- Proximity Over Programs: How Thrive partnered with Goodwill to embed Success Coaches inside restaurant operations — and why building trust and relationships proved just as important as connecting employees with resources.Â
- The Business Case for Impact: How improving retention can help offset the cost of employee support, demonstrating that investing in people and strengthening business performance don’t have to be competing priorities.Â
- Tackling 20-Year Problems: Why leaders need to look beyond quick wins and consider how businesses can help address long-term challenges in the communities where their employees live and work.Â
- Leading with Dignity: Why Matt believes leadership begins with recognizing the inherent worth of people — and grounding identity in who we are rather than titles, credentials, or achievement.Â
Episode links
About the guest
Dr. Matt Burchett is the Senior Vice President of Philanthropy & Social Impact at Thrive Restaurant Group. He guides the philanthropic, community engagement, and corporate communication strategy for Thrive to live out the belief that everybody matters, wants to make a difference, and that the experience of work can enrich people and contribute to their flourishing in life. Matt earned a BA in Religion from Baylor University (Waco, TX), M.Ed. in Human & Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & Policy from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent 22 years in higher education prior to joining Thrive.
About the host
Margaret Rogers, the Host of the Doing Good by Doing Better Podcast, serves as the CEO of Pariveda Solutions, a strategy and technology services firm with a mission to help people develop, catalyze, and discover their potential. She found her way into consulting right out of school, back when dial-up, blinking text, and wallpaper backgrounds defined the web. As User Experience began to emerge, she transitioned from technologist to roles where she was able to explore human-centered design. Margaret is fascinated by the uniqueness of human dynamics in business and is deeply invested in advising leaders on how to design organizations that nurture a strong culture and operational excellence. Her love of learning also extends well beyond the workplace, most recently into the curious behaviors of sourdough starters and backyard hens, who, much like people, have a surprising amount to teach about rhythms, relationships, and the environments they need to thrive.
About the Doing Good by Doing Better podcast
Hosted by Margaret Rogers, CEO of Pariveda, the Doing Good by Doing Better podcast highlights founders, executives, and innovators who share hard lessons, bold ideas, and real strategies for purpose-driven growth.
Every conversation offers practical insights you can use to solve forward. In each episode you’ll meet leaders who prove that being impact-driven and achieving meaningful success are not mutually exclusive.
Follow Doing Good by Doing Better on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join us every other week as we keep learning how to do good by doing better.
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