How Honestly Good Chicken Fingers cut hours of admin to better feed their community

About the business

Honestly Good Chicken Fingers didn’t set out to build a big menu or chase trends. They focused on one thing. Doing chicken fingers properly.

After more than 20 years working across the restaurant industry, the founding team noticed the same pattern everywhere they went. Chicken fingers were always the top seller. So, instead of treating them as an afterthought, they spent two years in test kitchens getting them right before launching the brand independently.

Today, Honestly Good Chicken Fingers operates two locations with more than 40 team members. Families, kids and professionals all walk through the doors for the same reason. Honestly good food, done with care, in a space that feels welcoming.

The challenge 

Running restaurants is fast. Messy. Unforgiving.

Naomi Kempkes is the Founder and Vice President of Operations at Honestly Good Chicken Fingers. Before Employment Hero, HR, payroll and scheduling lived across multiple tools and manual processes. Nothing was necessarily broken, but nothing was integrated either. Payroll took hours each week. Scheduling relied heavily on gut feel. Visibility into labour and sales often came after decisions had already been made.

That made growth feel heavier than it needed to be.

Hiring and onboarding added to the pressure. Every new team member meant more admin and more follow-ups, pulling leadership away from the floor and away from their people.

The solution

Having worked across multiple HR and payroll platforms throughout her career, Naomi knew exactly what she didn’t want: disconnected systems that slow teams down.

When it came time to choose a platform, Employment Hero offered an all-in-one approach built for the pace of hospitality, creating a single source of truth for the business.

“Employment Hero offered an all-in-one solution that simplified things in a way that felt intuitive for both leadership and frontline team members.”

What changed

The biggest changes weren’t dramatic. They were practical, and they showed up every week.

Scheduling and forecasting

The biggest shift came from visibility.

Employment Hero’s sales and labour insights allowed the team to spot issues early and adjust schedules before problems hit the floor.

“…Employment Hero flagged scheduling issues tied to incorrect forecasting. The system highlighted that labour was trending out of line, which allowed us to adjust schedules before the shift even started.”

That kind of foresight protects margins, supports the team and keeps service consistent.

Onboarding and employee experience

Onboarding is now simple and digital. New hires can access schedules, and time off requests from day one.

What surprised the team most was how quickly staff adopted it.

“On previous platforms, onboarding, and scheduling took hours out of my week. Now those processes are streamlined and efficient, freeing up significant time that I can reinvest where it matters most.”

That organization builds trust. Especially for a growing brand that wants to feel established, even in its early stages.

The impact

Employment Hero didn’t just save time. It changed how the business runs.

Weekly admin no longer dictates the pace of the day. The team has been able to grow without adding back-office headcount, while staying closer to labour costs and catching issues earlier.

With fewer payroll corrections and follow-ups, leadership spends less time chasing details and more time on the floor, coaching teams and shaping the experience that keeps customers coming back.

Why it matters

As Honestly Good Chicken Fingers prepares to expand, consistency matters more than ever.

Employment Hero gives the business structure without friction. Control without complexity. Systems that scale quietly in the background while the team focuses on what they do best.

“If I had to go back to the old way of doing things, the first thing that would break would be visibility and control.”

For a hospitality brand built on care, quality and repeat experiences, that peace of mind is everything.