WEBINAR RECORDING
OVERCOMING THE HOSPITALITY HIRING SHORTAGE
Webinar Recording – Overcoming the Hospitality Hiring Shortage
THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT OUR WEBINAR!
QUestions & Answers from the live event
During the webinar, we received several questions about employee hiring the right employees, employee retention, and implementing technology to help during the labor shortage. While we didn’t get to ask every question during the virtual event, we followed up with our speakers and got your questions answered!
Gardy – I believe “the real” person has less likelihood to come out regardless of the locale if the relationship is not yet established. The only time we take candidates out is to have them meet our neighbors. We emphasize community relationships.
Kevin – We post job openings on Indeed and Ziprecruiter for salaried employees. For hourly employees, I have found posting on Facebook marketplace, Indeed, and Craigslist has been the most successful. We also use the Chick-Fil-A approach, and always have a “Now Hiring” sign up in the restaurant.
In full disclosure, most of our kitchen staff is Spanish-speaking. I have found from experience most of these employees are not looking on Indeed and Craigslist (though I have gotten a few excellent candidates from Facebook). My strategy, as recommended by my awesome first dishwasher at RegionAle, was to post flyers in areas where these employees would shop, do laundry, etc. This has been extremely successful but does require some time to go around posting flyers. I hope that was helpful!
Gardy – Exit interviews are necessary if you do not have constant transparent communications. At Craft Food Halls, team members know where they stand daily.
Concurrently, managers operate in LOVE, therefore, they have a responsibility to request daily feedback from their team members.
If separation is needed, it never comes as a surprise. Therefore, an exit interview is not needed.
*** This is achievable because Craft Food Halls operates in less than 10 locations. Much like the telephone game, more people in your operation will distort the communication.
Gardy – A lot of my counterparts will use headhunters. We have a very strong pillar when it comes to hiring people. For example, we go out to different businesses, Staples, or anywhere we can find good-hearted people because we can train them to do what we need them to do, but you can’t train goodness, and you can’t train love.
This is what has been highly successful for us, and because of this, because of our policies and how we exhibit our business, we have figured out word of mouth happens automatically. They tell their friends and family members, and they are proud to be working with us and for us.
I like to keep my eyes open for great people, and if they need an opportunity, I always let them know that they have an open and accessible way to reach my team to go ahead and switch career paths. You have to be very flexible nowadays.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us below!
Kevin – First off, I will say in this past year we have gotten much better with a more rigid approach to raises. In the past, it was very much a gray area when an employee would receive a raise, and we have done better to make it a more rigid structure in terms of time worked at the company + performance.
To answer the question specifically, we have a tip share program between FOH & BOH. The split is that cashiers tip the kitchen staff out 30% of their total tips. I am in the fast-casual business model, so this might not work for all restaurants, but it has definitely helped alleviate some of the growing concerns about minimum wage. I am also able to get away with this approach considering the cashiers have much less burden than a normal FOH employee would have because of all of the technology integrated into the restaurant. On average, my BOH staff makes well over $15 per hour, and my FOH staff still averages $20+ per hour even after tip-outs. My FOH staff is paid a tipped wage, and my BOH staff usually is paid anywhere from $13-$16 per hour as a base wage.