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I think that most restaurateurs have lousy hiring practices; the tendency is to check for a warm pulse and hire them immediately. In some cases, start them that very evening. Where did this practice start? The time has come for restaurateurs to take a step back and examine the ramifications of this detrimental practice that plagues our industry. We need to take this process seriously and start to reverse this awful trend, which will ultimately lead to fewer turnovers with our employees, and in most cases, a higher employee moral.
The restaurant business is a very unique business, we have daily deadlines that have to be met, we have the public who demand good service and can be difficult at times. We need a full staff on duty everyday in order to properly service our customers. Being short staffed is a way of life and wreaks havoc on our daily lives. We tend to always be in hiring mode, searching for that missing employee. We rely heavily on our employees to network with their friends and introduce potential new employees to us. Some restaurateurs have a standard ad for hiring in the local papers that runs continuously.
Restaurateurs live a different culture than most businesses, we work when most people play. This in itself presents a whole list of negatives, including attracting good employees. Our industry doesn't require a degree, you aren't licensed and on the job training is practically an industry standard. We tend to attract high-school dropouts, single moms, transients, and people who just don't conform to Monday thru Friday nine to five. Sprinkle in a few trained professionals, a couple of laid off school teachers, housewives looking for some extra money and you're starting to see how this puzzle comes together.
Where we tend to fail the most is by rehiring past employees. When we're short handed and a past employee walks through the door, we re-hire them on the spot and put them to work immediately. We tend to overlook the fact that we fired them the last time they worked for us, or worse, they quit on us with no notice on the busiest weekend of the year. We pretend the past was an anomaly, and it won't repeat itself. If history has proven one thing to us, it's that it always repeats itself. The problem is that the cancer just keeps spreading and eventually taints more employees. Even good employees become affected by your hiring practices; they're the ones left cleaning up the mess when you're re-hiring eventually implodes. It's not if they'll implode, it's just a matter of when they implode, and hopefully not lead to full blown explosion and a mass staff exodus.
If you want a staff of trained professionals, who show up on time and take pride in their job and portray a sense of ownership, this takes planning. You need to develop a hiring process, which includes an employee manual. You have to develop your ultimate staff and hire towards it. This is a process that takes several years to complete. Included in this process is a training program that is ongoing, including an evaluation process each year. At the end of each fiscal year, we sit down with our management team and discuss our staff, along with our upcoming year's staffing needs. What we try and determine is who and if we need to replace on our staff. This can sound cruel and without compassion, the reality is, you can't build an all -star team with second stringers. Our goal is to constantly improve our staff. In order to do this, there's going to be some culling involved. As owners and managers, we need to understand that as we improve our staffs, our job actually gets easier. Our costs go down due to the efficiency of our staff, and the decrease in re-cooks coming out of our kitchen.
Speaking of kitchens, stop hiring the cheapest person available for your kitchen, a good chef or cook is worth their weight in gold. A great dishwasher can save you a fortune in breakage and theft. If you're cheap to your kitchen, they're going to get their money out of you one way or another. If you have a superstar dishwasher, pay him or her what they're worth. You'll be way ahead of the game in the long run. A happy staff is worth a million dollars, start assembling your dream team and watch your turnover decrease and your business grow. A staff that love where they work is infectious, your customers will notice and enjoy dining with you for all their occasions. Write down what your dream team looks like and make it happen, you'll be amazed at the results.
