Ask yourself this: do you spend hours choosing just the right piece of equipment for your restaurant– whether it’s a freezer or a fish knife – but leave it to chance when you are looking for personnel?

You are not alone. We have found that many restaurateurs not only take less time than they should over this important matter but also approach the entire process without the same strategic planning that they would apply to every other aspect of their business.

It is an undeniable fact that your people are the most important ‘tools’ of your entire business. Choose the wrong tools and you might as well try to fillet your fish with a fork! Choose correctly and those people will be your biggest assets, playing a major role in driving your business to prosperity and growth.

And make no mistake; if you think it costs a lot to choose, recruit, train and maintain the right people for your business, it will cost you much, much more if you get it wrong. If you do not follow the key steps to proper personnel management, then your business has a real long-term problem that will be many times harder to put right than it would be to get right in the first place. And by the time you have put it right, the damage may be done.

Tonic or toxic…make you or break you…the choice is yours and we aim to show you how it really isn’t that difficult to get it right if you have the right advice to start with.

Have you wondered how the big chains seem to get it right every time while the independent owner may struggle and sweat but still get it wrong? The secret is simple: having the proper professional personnel management must be your first step to success. Without it, you will not gain and sustain the right people…and your business will be disadvantaged right from day one.

Don’t know where to start? If we’ve convinced you of the need for a professional operations manual but don’t have the time or experience to create your own, just talk to Restaurant Secrets…but first, here are a few pointers to get you thinking:

Hire easy, manage tough or hire tough and manage easy

Remember the scene from the movie ‘Game Change’…the one where Senator McCain’s team interviewed Sara Palin? You’ll recall that the team decided to shortcut the usually six-week interview process. The result was a reckless hiring decision that cost them the Presidential Elections.

The entire future of the USA may not hang on your decision…but the fate of your restaurant does. And if your restaurant is your life – as it should be if you are doing things right – then that decision is every bit as consequential to you.

Let’s get one fundamental straight before anything else:

Make Decisions With Data, Not Hunches

Sounds a tough challenge? Don’t worry; you’ll find everything you need in our 73-page manual ‘Restaurant Personnel Management’ with clear and comprehensive tables, text and matrices, ready-to use forms and templates and much more to help and guide you through every stage or personnel management in your restaurant business.

Who do I need…how much do I pay them…how should I balance payroll as a percentage against sales? It’s all done for you.

However, when all the math is done, you still have to read a CV and meet a candidate across the interview table. Here of course, there is room for emotional reaction and gut instinct. But one hard rule must still apply:

If In Doubt…Keep Them Out!

If you are not absolutely sure about a candidate, do not hire; take a step back and go on looking. Remember, it will be ten times tougher to live with a second-best decision than getting it right first time.

We are asked by clients over and over again: “We have learned how to put the systems in place; now how do we make our staff follow them and listen?” The answer is simple – hire the right people and they will do things the right way. And of course, you can only be sure of hiring the right people if you follow the right operations manual!

Think on this: with sufficient motivation, you can teach a farmer how to cook and serve his produce but you will never, ever instill a work ethic into someone who doesn’t have one in the first place.

Energy, Extrovertion, Responsibility, Pride

…qualities we all look for but how do we turn these key traits into raw data when we are screening candidates? An extrovert will get on easily with colleagues and customers alike, energy is essential in the fast-paced world of foodservice and, well, pride and responsibility speak for themselves. Restaurant Personnel Management will not only talk you through the process but also includes a ready-made form for you to quantify and compare each candidate.

Tip: Not every rule of thumb fits every restaurant. However, the ground rules relating to financial and operational matters will give you a valuable starting point for many other decisions.

The Heroes Of Your Business

Whatever else makes up your restaurant – the design, the menu, the equipment, location or pricing – never lose sight of that one fundamental truth that the people are the most important element and the choice of the right people is absolutely essential.

Repeat business is the key to the success of any restaurant and customers will only come back if the place is clean, the service is fast and friendly, the quality is consistent and the prices are fair and a manager can only achieve this with the full support of the right team.

Restaurant Personnel Management is an invaluable source of information for any restaurateur, containing a wealth of advice, statistics, tables and templates covering every aspect of the subject.

...So why not talk to Restaurant Secrets Inc., take a look at this professional manual and start doing it right – right from the start.

Get in touch with Restaurant Secrets, Inc. and let us show you how.