Hiring is easy, but not simple

I walked in and saw her immediately from a distance. She didn’t see me. Maybe she didn’t notice me. I was no one in her eyes. I watched her as she moved from left to right in slow motion, talking on her headset to some invisible person. Maybe she was talking to herself. I could not tell for sure.  Could I have a large Green Tea please. I smiled at her to see what she would do. She didn’t look at me. She took my money. She then asked if I wanted to put milk in my green tea. I’ve never heard of milk in green tea. But maybe it’s a thing I’m not aware of.

Rip open a tea bag, add hot water. It’s pretty simple to do. I can teach my nine year old how to make a green tea. It’s the level of attention that makes the difference between making me feel like I’m important or making me feel like I’m bothering someone. I felt like I was causing her pain. As I sit her writing this painful observation, I realize that I can buy a green tea anywhere. Now I’m questioning why I even stopped here this morning.

I’ve heard this business isn’t doing very well. I’m wondering if this employee is the reason for its downfall or if there are other issues. As an owner of a business, do we realize how much power we give our employees?

We need employees to help us serve our clients. We need employees to help us build our business. But it is employees that are our biggest problem. Employees like the girl mentioned above have the ability to kill a business. She may always be dependable, reliable, smart and honest. However, she does not like people. And this business is a people business.

Hiring employees is easy. Hiring the right employees is hard. It takes time and effort. It takes a strategy.

Do you have a strategy to hiring or do you just hire warm bodies? No one likes to admit that they hire the first person coming through the door. Competition is fierce. Good people are hard to come by.  Plus we are all busy and we just need to fill a need in the schedule so that we as owners don’t have to cover the shift. We know customer service is the most important thing in our business, but we fail our customers when we hire the wrong people.

Hiring the wrong people can kill your business. Do you constantly evaluate your hiring process? Do you constantly evaluate your team members and give weekly feedback?

You cannot expect what you do not inspect. Remember that the next time your employees don’t do what they are “supposed” to. Don’t blame an employee for a lack of service. Blame yourself. You hired the wrong person or you didn’t provide the right feedback.

As a customer, all I ask is that I’m the most important person in the world for the 30 seconds that it takes to make my tea. 

Is that too much to ask?