Operators Are Hiring Early to Secure Top-Level Talent

The heat is already on for summer seasonal hiring, as quick-serve managers are hiring summer help earlier in the year to have their pick of top-shelf applicants.

Snagajob, a Richmond, Virginia–based hourly employment network, released its annual summer job survey in March. The report found that 23 percent of summer positions will be filled by the end of April, while 79 percent will be filled by the end of May.

Rick Parker, Snagajob’s senior vice president of marketing, says that during the recession, restaurants knew there was a qualified pool of applicants they could tap into at any time. Many waited to hire until they were confident they’d have enough summer business to justify the headcount, he says.

Now, however, with a stronger economy making operators more optimistic for summer traffic, they’re no longer waiting to fill positions.

“They’re hiring earlier this year, and that shows they feel like they have to hire sooner to get quality hires,” Parker says.

Jamba Juice hired early, holding its first National Hiring Day on March 27. The early hiring was a part of the Summer Jobs+ program announced by The White House in January. Summer Jobs+ aims to increase employment opportunities for young people during the summer, and hopes to add 180,000 jobs through public-private partnerships.

After a trip to Washington, D.C., by CEO James White, Jamba Juice signed on to the Summer Jobs+ program and committed to 2,500 jobs. (The company made a summer jobs commitment last year as well, hiring 2,700 for the season.)

The company’s National Hiring Day, held at 80 stores from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., was its first, and some locations saw lines of applicants 25 people deep. General and district managers interviewed the applicants, says Kathy Wright, vice president of human resources at Jamba Juice, and a select number were selected for a follow-up interview.

“Feedback from our general managers is [that] this was perfect timing,” Wright says of Jamba Juice’s National Hiring Day.

Jamba Juice expects all of its summer hiring to be completed within the next month and a half. The company also expects to go beyond the 2,500 Summer Jobs+ pledge. Wright says the leadership team is very pleased with their hiring outreach. “We would say it was a resounding success,” she says. “The number and quality of the applicants we received was stellar.”

About 23 percent of summer positions will be filled by the end of April, while 79 percent will be filled by the end of May.
Snagajob reported that 10 percent of hiring managers will hire more summer seasonal help this year than they did last year, while 30 percent intend to hire at the same level.

Fazoli’s, the Lexington, Kentucky–based Italian chain, has experienced 20 consecutive months of sales growth. Anticipating a busy summer, the company is looking to increase its staffing by about 500 people for the season, says Dave Craig, vice president of human resources.

“As the recovery continues, business has improved dramatically, so we’re staffing above and beyond what we normally would for the summer,” he says.

Fazoli’s uses a variety of methods to recruit summer staff, Craig says. About 25 percent of hires are found online, with the rest found through more traditional methods, like college campus outreach, in-store recruiting, and open houses.

The majority of Fazoli’s applicants are in their 20s, Craig says, the demographic hardest hit by the recession. This is slightly older than the majority of summer-job applicants, who are mostly high school and college age, a return to the pre-recession norm, according to Snagajob.

“There’s less competition from older, more experienced workers going into the summer market out of desperation,” Parker says. However, the average pay remains about the same as last summer’s, at $10.90 an hour. “The market is a little tighter, but not tight enough they feel they need to pay more.”

Bucking the trend, Fazoli’s is expecting to increase its pay levels. The company’s midpoint compensation is up about 6 percent this year, Craig says. The company also plans to institute referral and sign-on bonuses for staff, anticipating a tighter labor market this season as unemployment eases in some markets.

“We’re going to be adding some more cash compensation to the recruiting process than we’ve had to in the past few years,” Craig says.

A new report released by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in Washington, D.C., says restaurants have added more than 200,00 new jobs in the past six months. In fact, job growth in the restaurant industry has outpaced the economy, although the industry has yet to hit pre-recession levels.

Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the NRA, says the organization expects 2012 summer jobs to match last year’s more than 400,000 positions, and possibly more.

“The restaurant industry really is a jobs juggernaut,” Riehle says. “There are almost 13 million individuals employed in the industry now … so the industry is an important jobs generator in the national economic infrastructure.”

Of course, all of the new hires could force quick-service and fast-casual operators to dust off their human resources and training skills. Fazoli’s Craig says the company is looking to do some retraining for the operations staff, which hasn’t needed to hire for the last three years.

(Source: By – Danielle Beurteaux, QSRMagazine.com)

There is a certain level of boredom associated with staying home every night and most weekends. Eventually, humans, by nature, want to venture out of the cave and into the sunlight to find and mingle with other humans. Summer’s heat may well be the catalyst to bring out the most die-hard fiscal conservatives and return them to the restaurant scene.

While we at the Epicurus Institute don’t believe economic recovery will be felt in the average home by summertime, we do believe that the public will be far less willing to hibernate throughout the year.

For restaurants, this means an increase in business volume, but with strings attached. The days of spending frenzy of 2005 and 2006 are over and gone, probably for several decades to come. The consumer is totally worn out and candidly, frightened to spend lavishly, on themselves or their family or friends.

Restaurateurs, particularly independent operators must adapt and revalue their menus. By this we mean to deflate the expectations of high priced guest checks to more moderate pricing that will be affordable to the average Joe or Jane.

That means toning down the extravagancies of haute cuisine to a much more comfortable level, with nothing on the menu that would scare away a customer worried about their job security.

It also means using unique in-house marketing efforts to retain business and pump up sales. Unfortunately, it also means giving away things like desserts. Even more unfortunately, it means restaurants must make up for lower tickets by building volume and that means shorter seating times. In some sense, you may have to give your guests the bum’s rush to re-fill that seat several times during the evening.

This is not easy to do. But in-house marketing, fortunately can be cheap. A server walking through the dining room with a plate of freshly baked bread or sautéed onions will usually do the trick. Another great one is to give the children a warm, freshly backed chocolate chip cookie; the scent of these items prompting the senses to trigger hunger, which prompts people, by nature, to order just a little more.

There is a seed change taking place in the consumer’s thinking and the profitable restaurateur will understand this change. Essentially, the desire people held for luxury and things “upscale” has come down to Earth, and is now converted, as it was in those post 9/11 months, to one in which consumers seek comfort, security and sound economics.

In the restaurant world, the days of snooty servers who rattle off a list of complex specials and look impolitely down on their guests is over. Today, servers must be much more cordial, gracious and friendly, giving the guest a feeling of being welcomed into the restaurant as if it were a neighbor’s home.

The food, not merely prices and attitudes must change to meet these altered states. Menus must reflect that desire for comfort and ease. Gone are the days of the truffle and back are the days of the mushroom.

The fundamental desire for comfort food does not mean people want food poor in appearance or lacking flavor or creativity. Rather, a balance must be struck that affords a warmth and security, yet is still visually appealing. The fortunate part of this for restaurants is that often the cost of comfort food is far lower than haute cuisine.

But despite a potential period of growth during the summer season, many of our fellow restaurant operators, laden with heavy debt will not make it through the season. The Institute predicts another wave of closures by mid July and again in mid September as restaurants review quarterly and annual reporting. Many, we fear, will have defaulted by that time on mortgages and business loans, unable to meet their debt loads even with improved summer sales.

We strongly advise these restaurants to invest in a meeting with their banker to see if existing debts can be refinanced, provided the accounts are not already in arrears. Many bankers, aware that businesses are struggling at no fault of their own, are still viable, but could default. It may be possible for the bankers to work out a restructuring of the loans.

It is also particularly advisable to switch operations to a largely cash economy. Another difficult process, but one your accountants or consultants should be able to help with in quick time. This means providing discounts to guests for cash payment and paying your bills on a COD basis, whether necessary or not. Converting to cash will prove to your bankers that your business has taken the major, essential steps towards self-sufficiency.

By doing so, you’ll also save greatly on credit card processing costs, which are going up, not down, as the banks and processors are under their own constraints and cost pressures.

As your client base resumes social life this summer, you have to work twice as hard to build their interest in dining in your eatery. This is going to mean innovative marketing efforts in the community. Consider community incentive marketing. For example, you tell your customers that for every $100 spent, you’ll donate $5 to the local health clinic or food bank. While in past it was more socially acceptable to think in terms of the little league or soccer team, today, people are more concerned about social responsibility than sports and fun.

If you donate food to charity, let people know it and invite people to contribute. You might, for example, have a Thursday Canned Food drive. If someone brings in 5 cans of food (not expired), you’ll give them $5 off their guest check of $30 or more, and let it be known the canned food is destined to a local food charity. Do the same thing with clothing on Tuesdays, and on Wednesday afternoons, use your space to create local job fairs, inviting local businesses to set up tables to interview potential candidates for jobs in your neighborhood. You will find your goodwill rewarded with customer goodwill and loyalty.

Tourism activities this summer more so than any year since the 1930’s, will be local, not regional, national or international as in the past as more people learn to enjoy local attractions. We expect far less vacations and many more staycations. But a staycation is an equal tourism opportunity for restaurants. Network your business more than ever before with local tourism attractions, hotels, and organizations and be creative about it. Put up signs that say “Rediscover Your Hometown”. Try creating local tourism packages… like mutual discount offers with cinemas, attractions and even the town hall. Yes, when someone pays their water and sewer bill, let town hall give them a coupon good at your business. Do the same with banks for mortgages and auto dealers.

In towns that usually have an influx of tourists; many locals are accustomed to hiding in season to avoid the crowds. Well, this year, crowds may not happen as they have, but the locals may need a little cajoling to bring them out to enjoy their own community’s features. Use that as a marketing tool.

In other words, while we expect that summer will bring more trade than winter and spring, it will be an uphill battle to maintain your business. We believe it is both sound policy and good economics to try every intelligent and some good old fashioned crazy methods of marketing to build business volume.

As for the future, the media hype about recovery is just that – hype. With more than an estimated 30 Million Americans unemployed or unable to find work, recovery will be a slow process that could take years. The stock markets have effectively scared off young investors for at least a decade. With home values in flux in this deleveraging period, uncertainty will prevail for a few years and restaurateurs must consider that uncertainty as well as the general fear during this economic Depression. If restaurateurs can adapt, not only will they survive, but should do very well.

Remember, it’s cool to be cheap. Work with that in mind and you should prevail and prosper.

(Source: By – Robert Angelone, RestaurantReport.com)

I think one of the biggest reasons so many restaurants fail within the first three years is because owners do too little or they do too much. It is easy as a restaurant owner to want to do everything yourself, from the cooking, to the marketing to the bookkeeping to repairs and maintenance. However, trying to do everything, whether out of financial concern or simply because you don’t think anyone can do it “right” will quickly run you and possibly your business into the ground. Remember, you are a restaurant owner, not a superhero. You can’t do everything and be everywhere at the same time.

Day In The Life Of A Restaurant Owner

Here is a common scenario on any given weekday at any given restaurant:

The owner is prepping for lunch (to save labor cost, of course). He gets called out of the kitchen for a phone call by one of the wait-staff. It is a telemarketer. He waste five minutes on the phone explaining that he does not need a deluxe emersion blender at the moment.

The bookkeeper spies the owner out of the kitchen and calls him into the back office. She has a question about last night’s paperwork. The owner spends fifteen minutes trying to sort out tips that don’t match their credit card receipts (even though the wait staff should not have been allowed to go home with mismatched paperwork).

Finally the restaurant owner starts back to the kitchen when a local fundraising group arrives, seeking a donation. Who can say no to the Girl Scouts/ Boy Scouts/ Jimmy Fund/ Make a Wish Foundation/ Middle School Track Team? Or any of the other various groups that ask for donations on an almost daily basis. So he takes another ten minutes making out a check and getting a tax deduction form and returning it to the office to the bookkeeper, who has another question about last weeks liquor order.

Meanwhile….Customers are now starting to trickle in for lunch. Because the owner has been dealing with every single item thrown at him, he has not prepped for lunch. Which means when things get busy in the dining room, the kitchen will get backed up and customers will leave unhappy. Get the picture?

As a restaurant owner it is imperative that you learn to JUST SAY NO! No, I can’t help you with that at this moment. No, I can’t take a call right now. No, you will have to wait a few minutes.

Take Steps To Avoid Common Restaurant Owner Pitfalls

So, how could this restaurant owner keep his customers happy and still manage his business? With these simple steps:

1. Learn to delegate tasks to others (like the staff he hired).
2. Learn to prioritize tasks.
3. Have clear guidelines that all staff is expected to follow.

Let’s take a look at that scenario one more time, avoiding the pitfalls of the other day.

In the kitchen the Prep Cook is doing the lunch prep. Of course this means the restaurant owner is paying the cook. But sometimes it is more cost efficient to pay someone else than try to do it yourself. All the prep cook has to do is prep and get ready for lunch. He won’t be dashing in and out of the kitchen for phone calls and impromptu meetings. Lunch will be ready to go when customers arrive.

Telemarketers continue to call, almost hourly during the workday. But the restaurant owner doesn’t have to deal with them, because of the policy that wait staff should just take a message.

The restaurant owner reviewed the paperwork policy with the staff, including the night manager and bartender, who collect the server’s money and credit card receipts at the end of the night. No one is to be dismissed until their paperwork matches 100%.  Now the restaurant owner doesn’t have to pay his bookkeeper to try and figure out the paperwork, nor does he have to waste time doing it as well. And all the other questions the bookkeeper has? She knows that the restaurant owner will meet with her each day at 2:00 pm (after the lunch rush) to go over them. Now she can also be more productive, since she won’t be chasing her boss all over the place.

Remember the fundraising group? Thanks to a new policy, there is a standard amount for the first ten groups who ask for a donation every month. Each group gets $20.00. Once the $200 mark is met, that is it for that month. Groups are asked to return the next month, if they would like a donation. The wait staff can track any donations and receipts right in a handy binder next to the cash register or POS system.

So there you have it. Simple steps to becoming a more productive restaurant owner. Hang up your cape and learn to delegate, prioritize and organize instead.

(Source: By Lorri Mealey, About.com Guide)