A brief advisory talk by Donald Burns on hiring practices for restaurants/teams, warning against 'panic hiring' and urging focus on cultural fit and personality over experience. It advises maintaining high standards, knowing core values, and prioritizing trainable skills while avoiding bringing toxic hires into the team.
Poor hiring decisions are the number one cause of having bad staff on your team. Believe me, desperation does not mean lower your standards to fill a slot in the schedule. This is commonly known as the panic hire and it causes a lot more problems than you think. Not only do you allow a toxic and poor performer into your culture, you allow them to spread their negativity and infect the other people on your team. The best defense is to have high standards for who is a great match for your culture. Know your core values and ask new candidates what values they have. Stop hiring for experience. Instead, focus more on personality. Remember, you can train skills if the skills are trainable and coachable, but you cannot change personality easily.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
