Finding good people to work with

Mona likes working in her business. She works hard. Her dad taught her that skill. He owns five different businesses.

Every morning, her dad would leave the house before she got up. Many nights, she would be in bed before he came home. 

She spent the next 13 years watching and learning from her dad. Her dad is a hard ass and works his people to extremes mentally and physically.

Mona used to work for me. At 18 years old, her work ethic could battle even my own. I was proud of her. She was dependable, trustworthy and respectful to my business and my own personal needs.

She was not perfect. Mona didn't like working with people who didn't share her work ethic.  I didn't promote her into management because I worried she would destroy the team culture I built.

Despite all of her strengths, she was never going to be one of my managers. She is more than capable to manage things. My managers had to LEAD people. I didn't think Mona had the leadership gene.

One day Mona accepted a job with her dad and she left me. I was sad to see her leave. Good people like Mona don't come along every day.

It wasn't long before she realized that working for her dad was never going to work. They were from the same fruit bowl. With her dad's help, Mona built a business she could call her own. 

It was a great business with line-ups of customers, loads of revenue, and bucket fulls of profit. But little by little, the customers eroded and profits went with them. 

Mona didn't realize she wasn't capable of leading people. She knew how to work hard. She knew how to treat customers. She didn't know how to lead her own staff. So they quickly quit after a few months of abuse. 

The hamster wheel of hiring had begun.

I sat with Mona and asked her what her number one complaint was. It was the same answer I always get. "Staff! If I could clone myself I wouldn't have any worries", was her answer.

Mona didn't want a business. She wanted a personal revenue stream. She fails to understand that without staff, nothing gets done.

I was at Mona's business today. The toilet wouldn't flush. It was no big deal. It needed a bit of a push. It's something I have done a hundred times at home. With no plunger in the bathroom, I had to tell one of the employees. The employee gave me a disgusted look, remarked about it being a dirty job and then went to the stockroom to retrieve the plunger. I watched her walk to the bathroom, pinching the plunger between her thumb and index finger like the previous usage was vaporizing onto her fingers. 

Mona wasn't here today. Her staff would rather not be here. It's not her staff's fault. 

Mona hasn't led them. 

Working with minimum wage staff with minimum wage mentality isn't easy.  

It starts with the hiring process. 

How do you hire your staff? 

What selection process do you use?

Sometimes the key to a good hire is the use of a good employment ad.

Here's a sample of two different employment ads. Which would you rather work for considering the compensation is about the same?

Leadership starts with the first communication that a new potential employee sees.

Ad #1: 

We are looking for the right fit for our brand. 

We are looking for positive, outgoing, energetic and skilled team members for our Kithcen Team. The applicant must have minimum two years of experience. All applicants must be available for evenings and weekends.

Ad #2:

Wouldn’t you like to work for someone who treats you like a person and not a number? 

Working in the restaurant industry should be fun. It’s not a job. Well of course it’s a job. But it doesn’t have to feel like one.

Here’s what XYZ Company believes in:

We believe work is sometimes hard, but it should never be unappreciated. 

We believe work should be fun.

We believe that people come before profits.

We believe that no one is perfect, and there’s always a more human way to deal with issues.

We believe that we could laugh a lot more.

We believe that customers deserve our best.

We believe that karma is a bitch, so we need to work hard to not upset her.

XYZ Company is a new restaurant coming to ABC town. We are now hiring counter service employees to start in mid June.