It is no secret that it is getting harder and harder
to find great restaurant employees.
So stop looking for restaurant employees
and start looking for employees everywhere.
My name is Ryan Gromfin. I am an author, speaker, chef restaurateur
I am the founder of TheRestaurantBoss.com
as well as ClickBacon.com
and I'm gonna teach you a simple three steps,
you can use to find restaurant employees everywhere.
See, chances are you're looking for restaurant employees.
You're looking at Facebook, Indeed, Craigslist
wherever it is that you find your employees
and you're putting an add up or something that says,
"Hey, I'm looking for a cook."
Cook's needed, server's needed, cashier's needed.
That's fine. You should still be doing that.
That's not what this video is about.
What this video is about is, poaching but without poaching.
See, I don't want you to go to restaurants
and try to poach employees.
I want you to be on the lookout
everywhere you go for great people.
Some of the best employees
we ever found in our restaurant,
some of the best employees my clients find
or when they're just out in there every day
doing their everyday things.
A client of mine
picked up a phenomenal employee at a gas station.
One night, the general manager was filling up a gas, it was late,
the guy was incredibly helpful there.
Incredibly nice, helped him to get a pack of cigarettes
or something, whatever.
They sparked up a conversation.
That guy, like four years later
is one of their best servers that they've ever had.
This happened to me multiple times in the rationale,
where I would run into people at the grocery store.
We found great employees checking us out at the grocery store.
We found great employees just sparking up conversations
standing in line to get into a movie or something.
See, the trick is just talk to people
and if someone seems to have a great personality
and is exactly what you would want in your restaurant,
just ask them a simple question,
"What do you do right now for work?", if you don't know.
Obviously, if they're checking out at the grocery store,
you know, what they do
but ask them if they're happy?
Are they happy with what they're doing?
If they say yes, then say,
"I'm just curious if you'd ever explore some other options.
We own a restaurant here in town. Here's a gift card,
if you'd like to come in one day for lunch and ask for me."
Or hand them a business card.
Don't ask them for their phone number.
That's pretty intimidating. That could be really intimidating.
Especially, if you're an older male
and you're talking to a younger woman. That could be pretty scary.
But give them your business card.
See, we did something at our restaurant.
We had business card, gift cards. I'm sorry.
We had gift cards made up that looked like business cards
and we would hand those out
to prospective catering clients or at events
but also, in this case, we had some that had $10 on 'em
and if we found someone at a grocery store, it was great,
we just handed them what looked like a business card
but it was actually a gift card
and we said, "Hey come on into the restaurant one day.
Have some lunch or dinner on us
and ask for me or ask for so and so,
and let's just talk."
Now, sometimes they're gonna come in,
sometimes they're not.
Worst case scenario, you hand them a gift card.
Maybe they'll use it, maybe they don't, right?
No skin off your back.
Now if they do come into your restaurant,
just have a little chat with them.
Find out what's going on, right?
Keep this process moving all the time.
Don't just wait till you need staff to start talking to people.
Bring them into your restaurant, have a great conversation with them.
If you still think that they're a fit for your restaurant,
even if they don't have restaurant skills,
good people are hard to find. You can train them.
They're probably not gonna want to leave their steady, safe, secure job
for something they've never done.
Especially, in the restaurant business.
So, this is the trick and this is the trick to finding and keeping
any employees long-term.
You have to offer something that no one else can offer
within the pay range that you're offering job. All right?
Within your line level employees, your management employees.
Not just something other restaurants can offer
but something other businesses can't offer.
See, our special trick, our special talent when it came to staff was,
I trained people great.
I prepared them for the next step in their life, whatever that was.
Some of the people who worked for me came in
because they needed jobs but they wanted to be barbers.
Well, they're barbers now.
They own their own barber shops. They are doing great.
Some of them came in to me and worked at my pizza restaurant
but wanted to be Las Vegas bartenders,
well, they are Las Vegas bartenders and they're doing great right now
and the reason they're there is,
I sat down with these kids, when they were kids
and I promised them that I was gonna teach them
the skills they need, that if they work for me for a year,
I would teach them the skills they need to do anything they wanted in life.
I help them navigate their way through their college education.
I help them with certain things,
like sometimes their homework or applying for schools
or applying for jobs.
I've made them right. I coached them into being great people
and then, I helped them out. I connected them with people.
My friend who wanted to open up a barber shop,
I introduced him to people.
I helped him negotiate his lease.
I helped set him up for success.
Very quickly, we got that reputation as the place
that you wanted to come and have your first job.
Look at the McDonald's advertisement right now.
The best first job in America
is I think what they're advertising.
Maybe it is the best first job in the world
but I think it's the best first job in America.
Be the best first job in your community.
Take the kids that need their first job and make them amazing people.
They will pay you back tenfold
but more than anything, this cycle will continue.
So I know, we kind of went all over the place here
but the moral of today's story is,
don't just look for employees that have restaurant experience.
Look for great people. Open up your eyes.
Look for them anywhere, invite them into your restaurant.
Have a conversation with them but most importantly,
what is it about your job or about your business,
about your restaurant that you're able to provide
that they are not getting anywhere else for the same pay.
I hope you enjoyed this week's tip.
I look forward to bringing you another one
just like this, next week.
Have a wonderful day!
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