The truth is, as diligent as you may be, you will still end
up with a few doozies (and you should document these for later reference so you
can a good laugh out of it… eventually!). But there are ways to increase your
odds of finding good people. Remember: people
are your biggest asset. And when you’re hiring front of the house staff, they
become the face of the company.
While the entire hiring, interviewing, and onboarding
process is much more comprehensive, here are some basics to screen for
initially:
- Availability—does it match what you need currently? If not, thank them for applying and let them know you’ll be in touch when something else opens up that jibes with their schedule.
- One year out—does it look like they’ll be around for at least a year, or are they really just looking for seasonal work, in which case you’ll be wasting your time and money only to be hiring and training someone else in three months? Believe or not, they may not be completely honest about this, so you’ll need to be clever about getting to the bottom of it.
- Attitude and personality—are they genuinely interested in serving people, and will they do it with a smile? My mantra is: I can train almost anyone to do this job, however I cannot train anyone how to be nice. There are more personality traits you’ll want to screen for, but if you have any hesitation here, it’s time to move on!
- Appearance—whether you want to admit it or not, a person’s appearance matters. As we already said, this person becomes the face of your company. On top of that, they are handling food, and your customers tend to be picky about that, as they should be. Aren’t you? And it’s not just personal grooming (check for clean fingernails, trimmed facial hair, clean hair and clothes). Customers tend to be critical of everything. So, let’s minimize the chance they’ll Yelp about “hipsters with an attitude” (on your free Wi-Fi, no less). Tattoos can be charming if that person is outgoing and friendly. Personally, I put my foot down at the septum ring; it’s distracting and unappetizing. (I will hire a qualified septum ring wearer of course, but they will know they need to turn it up.) At the end of the day, your customer should remember their meal and how they were treated (and rate you based on that), not their barista’s or server’s appearance.
Like every other part of your business, you should have systems in place for hiring.
A nicely buttoned up package of instructions, documents, checklists, and presentations
will prepare your manager to hire efficiently and effectively, saving your
entire operation time, money, and aggravation. At every step along the process,
from the want ad and application, to interviewing questions and follow up, these
systems will help you weed out the headaches and identify the stars. Now it’s
on to training!
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