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Home  Articles Hiring, Training and Retaining Great Employees
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Hiring, Training and Retaining Great Employees |
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Saturday, 09 July 2005 |
by Matt Milletto
Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup - Consulting Director
American Barista & Coffee School - Instructor
Viva Barista - Creator
As I sit sipping a latte in the cafe that I managed years ago I think
back to the first opening day, and the months of hard work prior to
it’s opening. It has been great to see this place come to fruition. I
still see many familiar menu items, the Italian theme still very
prominent, the panini are still as delicious as ever, the wine
selection looks great, and the baristas are still here, the same ones I
hired and worked along side, with an additional
face or two. Many of
them have been working here for 3 years now.
In their white shirts with black aprons they look like true
professionals, dedicated to their craft. Three employees on the bar
now, almost dancing around each other, calling out specialty drinks and
panini orders. They are focused, but very relaxed, when I came in I see
beautiful latte art on the two to-go lattes being carried away. When
the line dies down we chat about how things have been, and I hop behind
the bar to pour a couple rosettas. The grind is perfect and everything
is immaculate, I feel like I am at home.
These employees are the glue that holds this successful operation
together. The owner has put together a beautiful cafe, bought all the
best equipment, we put together a great menu, and kept quality in mind
in every aspect of the operation, but as an owner or manager you can’t
be there every second and it is so important to have faith in your
employees.
The following is an article and some tips on how to go about creating that pinnacle staff:
1. Interviewing & Hiring
A. It is important first to understand the responsibilities of a
barista and the importance of finding great employees to work in your
operation.
Your employees first off will be making all of your beverages and food
items. It is important to hire people that can share the same passion
for quality that you as an owner have for not only your espresso and
coffee beverages, but every menu item you serve. Your employees will
also be providing customer service to your customers. Having worked in
the service industry for almost a decade, I can express enough how
imperative excellent customer service is in any operation. Maybe
parallel to product quality, positive or negative customer service will
leave a lasting impression in you customers mind for sometimes hours
after they patronize your operation.
Also remember that your employees will be maintaining your store’s
appearance, maintaining your costs, and giving you the time to be
outside of your operation either administrating your business or
marketing.
B. The topic comes up often when I am speaking with new or to-be coffee
shop owners about hiring baristas with coffee experience. There is no
cut or dry answer to this question. What I usually tell people is that
experience is far less important than attitude and work ethic. Having
hired and trained hundreds of people over the last 10 years I must say
that I will always look at someone’s character and personality before I
look at their work experience. It is almost impossible to train someone
to have a great attitude, demeanor, cooperative behavior, and work
ethic if they do not already. Another issue is that not all experience
is good experience. With the lack of education in this industry and
many shop owners not truly serving excellent espresso and coffee, it is
hard to hire someone with experience that will be able to walk right
into your operation and shine. Always remember that you are going
to be training your employees. You will be doing things YOUR way in
your store and anyone that you hire will need to adapt to your rules
and style. If you plan to invest hours or days or weeks into the
training of your staff you really are giving them a skill set that they
will have for the rest of their lives. Let your new employees know
this, and it will only help expand their passion for their craft.
2. The Interview Process
A. When placing your newspaper ad there are some important things to
consider. Make sure that you structure the ad as an “opportunity”.
Again you will be offering any new employee a chance to learn or fine
tune a true culinary art form. You want to fully explain the job
description. Give some insight to your store and make is exciting.
Explain in detail the positions you are looking for and what type of
person (in general) are you searching for.
In this ad be specific when giving potential job candidates a time to
call to set up an interview, i.e. between 10am & 2PM Saturday. If
you get a call at 8:30AM from someone ask them a couple questions ...
“Are you calling because of the ad in the newspaper?”, if they are this
is a quick sign that they did not pay attention to detail in your ad.
Not that you will rule this person out but in the interview process you
need to pay attention to every interaction you have with a person and
evaluate your experience as a whole.
When you are screening the callers you will want to be setting up quick
screening interviews. These are very quick interviews that will last
only a few minutes. As Ed Arvidson (Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup
Consultant) said when we were giving a seminar at CoffeeFest Las Vegas
“What you are determining in this screening interview is if the
potential candidate is one of the following, an Animal, Vegetable or
Mineral.” (crowd chuckles) As funny as this sounds, it is true.
The purpose of this initial screening is to determine if you want to
re-schedule this candidate for a 2nd in-depth interview.
In this first interview you will have them fill out their employment
application. Ask them a few basic questions like: Are you looking for
part time or full time work? Do you prefer mornings, afternoons or
evenings and why? Is transportation a challenge for you? Do you
participate in any outside activities that might conflict with work?
Are you at least 16 years of age? (or at least the minimum working age
in your area.)
Other things to pay attention to are: Did they show up on time? Did
they bring a pen or pencil to fill out there application with? How was
their appearance? (Remember that in most cases this is the best someone
will look). Did they make eye contact and could they speak clearly and
articulate.
Let them know that you are interviewing a lot of people and that if you
would like to set up a 2nd interview that you will get back to them by
a certain time. If they do not hear from you by that time, most likely
you will not be requesting them to come in for the 2nd interview but
will keep their resume on file.
Now that you have selected your candidates down to one that you are
interested in having come back you will want to schedule a more in
depth interview. When they come on you will again want to look for the
same little things you did before, this is also why it is so important
to conduct multiple interviews with prospective employees. I always
want to see someone 2 or 3 times and want a feeling of confidence that
this person will be consistent in character everyday if I hire them.
Ask them a few thought provoking questions with multiple parts, then
sit back and listen carefully. Some good example questions are:
“Tell me about the most hectic situation you have ever been in. What
happened, how did you manage through it? and what did you learn?” Be
listening to make sure that they direct each part of the question.
“Tell me about the most demanding work you have done ... ?” You can
find out pretty quick if someone has a good work ethic and has
experience working in a fast paced environment.
Do a bit of role playing. “Let’s say a customer returns a drink and
says it’s the worst they have ever had and there is no manager on duty.
How would you handle the situation?”
There is also the classic question many of us have been asked in an
interview regardless of the position ... “What are 3 of your strongest
qualities? Then tell me about 3 areas in which you would like to
improve.” We all know that if some one answers with only positives and
says “Ya know, there is really nothing I feel I need to improve about
myself”, this may not be the easiest person to train or give
constructive criticism to once they are hired.
3. Always Check References
It is important to remember when checking reference that many companies
have policies keeping managers from commenting on employees past job
performances. There are however ways around these policies, you just
need to know the right questions to ask. When speaking with a
candidates previous employer you can ask them “Would this person be
eligible for re-hire with your company? If this answer is no this
should serve as a red flag, but you will still want to ask the
applicant to explain, there may be a good reason and you will want to
respect their side of the story too. Having worked in many and managed
many cafes I would be the first to understand that some situations may
not reflect a person 100%.
Beware of legal constraints! Before interviewing make sure to pick up a
handbook from the Dept. of Labor. There are certain questions that you
cannot ask so it is good to know them beforehand. Some examples are:
How old are you? Do you have any children? Do you have a car? What
religion are you? What is your sexual orientation? Like I state again
below, you do not want to take any qualitative notes on a persons
application or resume.
4. Think About Using a Rating Sheet
It can be a challenge to keep track of each person you interview just
by their name. It may be a good idea to keep a rating sheet (not the
back of their resume or application) to keep notes on each candidate.
First you will (with your manager, or partner) create a list of the
attributes you are seeking and apply a number rating of importance for
each list item.
With this list you be able to rate each candidate in every attribute.
You can then combine their total attribute scores and this will help
you rate and sort them. As harsh as this may sound it can be very
helpful when making an informed decision about future employees.
5. Hiring Your Staff
Now that you have selected your final candidates you are ready to do your hiring.
You will want to have an orientation were you invite you new employees
to lay down some groundwork and explain their positions and
responsibilities. It is always good to hire a few extra people
initially to allow for some flexibility in the event that someone does
not work out or they decide the job is not the right fit for them. By
creating an employee manual you will be able to provide a new employee
with a written description of responsibilities, job description,
mission statement and expectations during their employment with your
operation. By having them sign this manual they cannot ever say they
didn’t know about a job responsibility they are not abiding.
You will want to implement a 60 or 90 day probationary period. Any new
staff member will need to show growth and improvement during this time
and it will give you an added edge in the event that you need to let
someone go during this time.
6. Employee Training
training is obviously very important to ensure quality in your operation. Here are some things to remember.
Your employees won’t know something if you do not teach them. You must
fully train your employees on every expectation you may have, even if
it is common sense it is good to incorporate everything into your
training procedures. If you do not tell them to greet each customer
before taking their order, you cannot come down on them for not doing
it. It may be easiest to develop a training checklist for all areas of
your operation. Along with this checklist and employee manual you will
want to develop a training methodology that explains your goals to
create a consistent corporate culture within your business, which
reflects everyone from the owner, the employees and the customers.
When you are training employees it is very important to follow some key steps.
First you will explain the process in depth. Give enough background on why you will be doing things a certain way.
Next you will demonstrate the process. You may want to do this more
than once, explaining each step be it brewing coffee, extracting
espresso, steaming milk, or taking an order. This is your chance to be
the model example and to set the standard for what you expect of them.
Once you have gone through the process you are training to your
employees, you will now ask the employee to demonstrate the process.
Let them go through the process and when they are finished you will
critique with constructive pointers and have them repeat it until they
feel comfortable and do not leave any aspect out.
You want to always lead by example and make sure that you train your
trainers to do the same. Education should always be ongoing and
encourage anyone in your operation to continue to learn more about your
products and the industry in general.
I also recommend using education tools whenever available. There are
many great books and videos out today that greatly reduce training time
and can promote the passion and understanding of the product you want
your employees to uphold.
Training is the key to consistency. If all of your employees are well
trained and have a passion for their craft, you should feel comfortable
about who you have representing your business. Also you have heard the
saying “you are only as strong as your weakest link” ... this is very
true and if you focus on the importance of good and consistent training
no one variable or employee will adversely affect your business.
7. Retaining Your Employees
The saying, “You get what you pay for” also applies to paying
employees, but wage alone is not going to keep your employees happy and
dedicated to your business. Always keep in mind that hiring employees
is expensive, and the more you have to do it the more time and money it
will take. This is why hiring and training great employees is in my
opinion one of the most important variables in operating a retail
business.
Treat your employees with respect and they will work harder for you. At
the last operation I managed I was in my mid twenties and many of the
barsitas I hired were around my age. Early on I let them know that I
was very understanding but demanded impeccable customer service and
perfection in every aspect of the bar. Again, leading by example is the
best way to go. It is important for your employees to see you working
hard and striving for excellence within your operation. You will want
to build a mutual level of respect between them, yourself and your
customers. By teaching them to give respect they will work harder to
please the customers.
By training your employees well it will give them increased pride and
confidence to do their job to the best level they can. By fully
understanding everything from coffee history to preparation they will
have a much easier time educating your customers and will appreciate
the details of preparation that are so key.
I cannot stress enough the importance of rewarding your employees. If
they do a good job, let them know. If a customer compliments one of
your employees and tells you, let them know they are doing a great job.
There is nothing worse than being a barista, trying so hard to do a
great job and then only hearing feedback from your boss or manager when
you do something wrong. If you as an owner do not recognize your
employees for their efforts, they will find an employer who will.
In conclusion, you and your business are only as good as your
employees. Hire great people, train them to be professional,
passionate, friendly and knowledgeable and they will be. Your goal is
create a team that you can be proud of and take pride in your
operation. Viva Barista!
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