The 3 Types of Hires and How To Find Them

There are three types of hires that your restaurant can make, and only one will allow you to make more and work less in your restaurant. Stick around and I'm going to tell you what they are and how to avoid the bad apples before they ruin your restaurant. So when it comes to hiring, I have some good news and I have some bad news. The bad news is that you're probably making some mistakes right now that are costing you dearly. But the good news is that you can fix them. The first thing you need to understand is that hiring is a skill. It's something that can be learned and developed with practice. Just like you learned how to drive a car, you can learn how to hire better. The first step is to understand that there are three different types of people that you will hire. They are one, the good fit, two, the wrong fit, and three, the perfect fit. So let's take a look at each one. The good fit. The good fit is the person who is basically a good cultural fit and a solid contributor to the team. They're the kind of people that will consistently do, I mean, just a little bit above the minimum requirements to do their job. They're reliable, they're trustworthy, and they're the team members that are very steady and consistent. They're just never going to elevate the restaurant. They're just going to be able to maintain it. Next up, the wrong fit. These are the people that have the skills to do their job but don't have the character to be a good fit for the team. They tend to be unreliable. They like to create drama. They show up late. They call in sick. They lie about being sick. They gossip. They tend to be negative. They're not trustworthy. And you need to get these people off your team as soon as possible. They are slowly destroying your restaurant from the inside. And then you have the perfect fit. Now, these are the A players. This is the person who has the skill and character to be an amazing team member. They exceed the minimum requirements of their job and are solid contributors to your brand. They are loyal and trustworthy. They are brand fanatics. They are constantly wanting to learn and improve. They crave to be better. And you can turn projects over to these people and you can count on them to get the job done. And A players push those around them to become better. These are the people that you really want on your team. All right, now that you know who to look for, let's dive a little into how to interview better and get more A players on your restaurant team. One thing you need to understand is that when you're hiring, you're not just hiring for today, you're hiring for tomorrow. Think about the people you have on your team right now. How many of them would you replace if. If you could? Now, you might be surprised that that number is probably a lot higher than you want to admit. And you might be thinking that, you know, the economy is just too tight right now to replace people. That's a bunch of bs. If you have people on your team that you would replace if you could, then you need to find a way to replace them. You need to use the skills of interviewing to hire and bring in the perfect fit team members, the A players. The key to outstanding interviewing is to ask open ended questions that allow the person to talk about themselves. You want to find out who they are, what they want, not what you want. You got to make sure you understand the power of behavioral interviewing. Most interviewers ask questions and then they sit back and wait for an answer. They're not really listening to the answer. They're just waiting for their turn to ask another question. This is a huge mistake. When you ask a question, you need to listen, I mean, I mean really listen for the answer and then probe a little deeper. Let's say, for example, you ask someone, hey, what do you like to do in your free time? And they say, well, I like to go to the movies. You could say, all right, cool, well, what movies do you like? But see, that's not really getting the information you need. Instead, you want to probe a little deeper by saying, hey, that's pretty awesome. Hey, what are your favorite movies? And then listen to the answer. If they say, I don't know, you could probe a little deeper again by saying, oh, I see, but what do you like to do on the weekends? And then you listen to the answer. Probing is an art form that requires the interviewer to be actively listening to the answers. If you're just going to wait for your turn to ask another question, you're not really going to get really great answers. Also, to hire better, you need to be very clear about job descriptions. Most restaurant owners and managers write job descriptions that are way too vague. They have a position open and they write some simple job description that says something like, we need someone who can do office work and assist at banquets. Then what they end up with is someone who can do office work. And then they put them in the banquet department part time. And then they get upset that the person's not working out. They simply didn't hire the right person for the job because they didn't get clarity on what the job really is. When you write job descriptions, you need to be crystal clear about the specific task that the person needs to be able to do. You should make a list of the top three to five things that the person needs to be able to do to make that position a success. Oh, and here's a critical step to hiring better. You need to put the person through a probationary period. Most restaurant owners and managers will hire someone and out of desperation to have them start immediately. They have no idea if the person is a good fit for the team or for the job. And if you're going to make a significant investment in hiring someone, it's only fair to give them a probationary period. It doesn't have to be a real kind of super solid set in time. A probationary period could be based more on what the position is. For example, if you're hiring a line cook, you could give them at least maybe four or five shifts. If you're hiring a bartender, you could give them one or two shifts. If you're hiring a manager, you need to give them a few weeks. Now, during that probationary period, you should work with the person on some of the soft skills. You need to make sure that they are the right fit for your team and that they have the soft skills to do the job. Probationary periods are awesome because they also give you the opportunity to get rid of those people that are not in a good alignment with your culture and your core values. Most restaurant owners and managers will tell you they don't want to fire people. They want people to quit because it makes them look better if they quit instead of getting fired. But firing someone is not something to be ashamed of. And the thing you have to look at it is it's actually your right as an employer. You need to understand that you need to let people go when you need to let them go. Now, be honest. If you have someone on your team who is a bad fit and you've tried everything you can think of to help them and they're not improving, you need to let them go, and you need to let them go quickly without any drama. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is let someone stay in your team who has become a negative energy vampire. That negativity, I'm telling you, it's going to spread like wildfire and will infect your entire team. It's better to get rid of those people before they cause a lot of chaos and drama. And the final step to hiring better is you need to understand that you need to train your people better. I know you're going to say, you know, hey, I train my people. Well, honestly, you probably don't train your people enough. Too many restaurant owners and managers fail to train people when they hire to the level that they must be trained to. They have this idea that if they just hire the right person, they'll be able to do the job with just a little bit of training. And that's not very realistic. If you hire someone for a position, you need to train them to be successful in that position. You need to teach them the skills and, and the details that are behind the expectations of that position. Training is a skill just like anything else. But you need to be able to train people better to become better. Anytime you're hiring, you should always be thinking about how you're going to train them to be successful. Most restaurant owners and managers hire people and then they sit back and expect them to perform at a high level. That's not how it works. You set the expectations, you communicate the expectations, you and then you train the expectations. That's how world class teams are built. Hey, make sure to like and subscribe for more tools and tips to grow your restaurant. And in my next video, I'm going to share three common mistakes restaurant owners make that stops their restaurants from growing.