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By far the biggest expense on our monthly P and L has to do with our people, right? Labor represents an incredible opportunity to impact profitability. And yet our labor is not a liability, it is an asset. Right? We hire people to take care of people. All of those people become our community. But I think we can do a better job of actually managing our employees. I've developed a four step framework that I've been talking about a lot when I take the stage across the country. I've been talking about a lot to my members in my Mastermind and I want to share it with you. A four step framework, a new way, a new mindset for thinking about our people and how to get the most out of our people. All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy. There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking. Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close and this is Restaurant Strategy Podcast dedicated to helping you build a more profitable restaurant. Each week I leverage my 25 years in the industry to help you build a more profitable and sustainable business. I wrote a book, right? It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. I travel all over the world giving talks and keynotes. I run a mastermind, the P3 mastermind. But here's something very, very important. I have released a 10 video playbook. It's called the Server Playbook. Our servers are our greatest asset. This is available to you totally for free. And anyone who gets this playbook also gets a free month of my membership community. It's called Restaurant Foundations. At the end of that month, it starts billing at $97. If you want to cancel it at the end of that month, it's totally. If for no other reason, go to get these 10 server playbooks. They are scripts. They are server tactics that will help make you more money and therefore your servers more money. You get that totally for free. It's such a great time to take advantage of this just as you're starting to look at the year ahead. The link is in the show notes. Go grab your copy right of the server playbooks. Absolutely for free and get a free month of my restaurant Foundation's membership community. Again. You do that by clicking the link in the show notes. Now, are you tired of juggling schedules, tracking hours, worrying about HR compliance, and dealing with those last minute no shows? Well, it's Time to say goodbye to the headaches and say hello to Time Forge. Time Forge is a labor management solution designed for the fast paced world of restaurants with product offerings ranging from recruitment all the way to retention. Always that we can better manage our people. It's exactly what we're talking about today. With timeforge, you can, number one, simplify employee scheduling with automated AI schedules based on sales, weather and other events. Two, you can track attendance and manage labor costs in real time, keeping up with the complex labor laws like fair work week and meal penalties. Number three, it helps you recruit staff who live near your stores from more than 11 million hourly job seekers. Number four, pay employees their wages and tips on a daily basis after every shift. And number five, communicate proactively with your staff using messaging or surveys. And that's not all. Time Forge integrates seamlessly with most POS systems, giving you full visibility into labor and sales performance and suggesting when you should staff up or staff down. Whether you manage one location or dozens, timeforge saves you time, money and stress so you can focus on what really matters, delivering exceptional service and growing your business. Thousands of restaurants already trust Time Forge. Why not yours? Visit timeforge.com Restaurant Strategy today and see how they can help your team run like clockwork. Again. T I M E F o r g e.com/restaurant strategy. As always, you're going to find that link in the show notes. Okay. It's apropos that Time Forge is a sponsor of today's episode because we are talking all about our people and specifically how to manage our people. There's a four step framework that I've developed over the last year that I've been talking about a lot when I take the stage. Talking about a lot to the P3 members, right? The members of my Mastermind program. And I want to share this with you because I think for a lot of people it opens up their eyes for actually what we should doing actually what we should be doing actually how we can manage our people, right? And when we say manage right, we mean getting the most out of them. And when I say manage, I mean providing the most for them. It's a two way street, right? People show up because they are getting something out of this job, something that they couldn't get somewhere else, right? And we keep them on staff because they are providing something valuable that maybe no one else could do. That at its best is the way this relationship would work when we are our best for them and they are their best for us. So how do we Manage them. There's a four step framework that I want to introduce you to. Number one, we have to hire for it, right? So when we, Danny Meyer talked about this, about finding the 51 percenters, he said, I can find people that I can train, right? Like I can teach people how to serve the right way, clear the right way. I can teach them about our food, I can teach them about beverage and all of that. What I can't do is make them want to care. So I have to find people who care, people who have the capacity then to learn what I need to teach them. But if people don't care, if they're not warm, gracious, generous, hospitable, I can't teach that. You have to want to do that. You have to want to be that kind of person. So when we talk about how we find and retain great staff, it starts for when we hire them, is that we have to hire the right kind of person. We have to be really clear on what kind of person we need. We have to hire people who have the capacity to do what we need them to do. If they have the capacity, man. Meaning if they're curious, if they can apply themselves, if they have passion, maybe not even passion for this industry, but they have passion in their lives. They know what passion is, right? They know what it means to be excited about something. This is something I used to ask all the time when I was, when I would interview new staff members. I always say, when I talk to my mastermind members, I say spend more time talking about the present and the future and less time talking about the past, right? So questions that I really never ask is tell me about your last job and why you're leaving it. Obviously it's not where they want to be anymore. There's something that's not working for them. There's something that makes them not want to be there anymore. So let's not focus on that. Another way of asking say, you know, and I always used to say, so listen, I don't want to talk about the past. I'm sure there are reasons why you're leaving that job. What I'm more interested in is understanding what you're looking for next. Maybe something that you didn't get in the last job that you actively want to have in the next job. Maybe that's, hey, the last job I didn't make much money and I'd like to make more money. That's fine. That's something you didn't have and something you're looking to have. Whatever that Is keep it focused on the present and the future. Another great question, and this has to do with that passion piece I always used to ask. People say, hey, if I gave you 300 bucks today and I gave you the day off, what would you do with your day? Right? The way they answer that tells you a lot about who they are, right? They're going to say, oh man, I'd get in my car and go skiing. Oh, you know what I would do? I would go treat myself to a really nice meal. You know what I would do? I would take the day off and just go get a massage. You know what I do? I go to a movie, go get a burger and a beer and go home and like hang out with my kids. Like whatever they tell you is gonna tell you a lot. And really it doesn't even matter what they tell you. What matters is that they have something in their mind is that their eyes light up. You see a little fire in their eyes when they start thinking about what they're gonna do, right? Sometimes you even say, if I gave you 300 bucks, what are you gonna do? And the day off, what would you do? And then their eyes light up and you say, okay, don't even tell me. I just wanna make sure that you know what it is, right? If you see that thing turn that fire turn on, that tells you that they passionate about something. That's things that they're excited about in life. For me, in a restaurant industry, you have to be excited about food and beverage and wine and beer and all the great stuff that we get to serve, right? You have to be excited about taking care of people. If you're not that, that's, that's a problem. One of the ways I get to that right is not asking for some pat pre rehearsed answer, but getting them to talk about what they're already passionate about, right? Hey, what do you guys, what are you guys up to this upcoming weekend? You know, when are your next days off? What are you guys going to do with those, right? That will tell you something about who they are. So when we start this four step framework, number one, to get talent, to keep talent, to develop talent, number one, it has to do with how we hire, right? And that looking for the capacity, looking to make sure that people have the capacity to be able to do whatever it is we need them to do. And there are different ways to figure out if they have the capacity to do that. That's the step. First step of this framework, number two, right? We hire for it. Number two, is we train for it, right? That responsibility lies solely on you. So if you find people who have the capacity to learn what you need to teach them, then you need a really great system to be able to teach them what they need to learn. Right? I've talked about this a lot, that really there's a three tier, three tier system for training, right? Training for the most part is, hey, you're going to train, you're going to follow somebody for three days and then we're going to put you on the schedule, or you're going to train with somebody for five days, you're going to go on the schedule, whatever that is, right? That's tier one. I always say there's tier one, tier two and Tier three. Tier one says something to the effect of what do you need to do to get these people to be skilled enough, knowledgeable enough, good enough to be able to take a station on their own in seven days? Tier 2 then says, what do you need to do to make this new person as good as your best person by the end of 90 days? And then tier three says, what do you need to do to make sure this person stays with you for the next decade? Simply by asking the question in that way, that will tell you what you need to do. So when you build a training program, don't build it. Just like every other restaurant builds it. Think in terms of that. What do you need to do to get this person ready to go in seven days? Right? What do you need to do to get this person to be excellent by the end of 90 days? And when you simply by asking that question, you will start thinking differently about your training program, or at least I hope you will. Right? So the four step framework starts. Number one, you gotta hire for it. Number two, you have to train for it. So again, you find people who have the capacity to do what you need them to do. Number two, you have to meet them halfway or you gotta meet them more than halfway to be able to train them to do what you need them to do. That means instilling a sense of culture in them so that they understand what it means to be a part of this community. Right? The employees who work at this restaurant, you have to give them the skills, the knowledge they need, right? Meaning this is how we serve. This is how we clear. This is how we talk about the menu. This is how we ask questions. This is how we move people throughout the meal. This is how we focus on table turn times, whatever it is you need them to focus on. But don't just Expect that somebody comes in, they're going to know how to wait tables simply because they have waited tables before or simply because they have been at a restaurant and watched other waiters work. There's a lot of nuance to a great waiter, for example, right? There's a lot of nuance to a great cook. So again, number one, you got to have to hire for it, make sure they have the capacity for it, whatever that is you need them to do, make sure you, you know that they can do it. And then number two, you've got to fill that vessel, right? If they've got the capacity, they're, they're, they're an open, they're an open bowl. You've got to pour all that knowledge and culture and skill set and everything into that. And that's your job over the first seven days, 90 days and decade. Right, the decade. The tier three has a lot to do with what we're going to talk about next. In just a second, we talk about the third and fourth step. After a word from another one of our sponsors. 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And that's just the beginning. You have a passion for food. Pop Menu has a passion for technology. Together, it's a recipe for restaurant success. And now even more digital ingredients are in that technology pantry. And Pop Menu is helping restaurants attract, engage, remarket and transact with their guests on a whole new level. Trust me, if you're a restaurant owner, you need Pop Menu to take your business to the next level. And for a limited time only get 100 bucks off your first month. Plus you get to lock in one flat unchanging monthly rate. Go to popmenu.com restaurantstrategy to claim the offer. Again, that's $100 off your first month by visiting pop m e n u.com restaurantstrategy as always, you'll find that link in the show notes. Ok, so on today's episode, we're talking about our people. Mostly we're talking about how we manage our people, not just how we get, we do more with less. It's not just about limiting our labor, our labor expense. It's about properly managing our people. Because if we have better people, we can run with less people and then those people actually make more money. It is a win win all the way around. I said there's a four step framework for managing and properly developing our people. And here it is. Number one, we hire for it, right? So we find people who have the capacity to do what we need them to do. Number two, we train them for it. Meaning we take an open vessel or an empty vessel and we fill it. We fill it with knowledge and culture and passion and excitement and we, and we continue to instill a sense of curiosity in our people. So we hire for it, we train for it. The next two are even more crucial and it's something we totally forget often, right? Number three is we model it. We model the behavior, right? So leadership has to exude all the qualities that we, that we believe our staff should hold. So if I want them to do first approach in a certain way, I'm going to find people who will do what I need them to do, then I'm going to train them to do it the way I need them to do it. Then I'm going to model it. I'm going to show them how I want it done, right? So let me greet table 10 for you. Watch how I do it, right? And we go over and we do it the way that we want them to do it, right? So we show them, we model that behavior. If I want them to focus on teamwork, I have to model teamwork. I have to build that into my day to day. I have to build that into the minute by minute workings of my management team. For example, right? If teamwork is key, I got to make sure teamwork is all around us and is obvious, is visible, right? So I hire for it, I train for it, I model it. The last piece to this, then the last step in this four step framework, right, is we coach, we hire for it, we train for it, we model it and we coach it. So here's something that I see missing all the time is actually working with people in real time during the shift. And I'm sorry, you're not that busy that you can't pull somebody aside and say, hey, and then tell them what you need them to do, right? So again, if I say I want first approach done a certain way here, I hire people that will that I believe have the capacity to learn my way of doing it. I train them, meaning I show them what I need them to do. Ready? I teach them, I model it, meaning I actually show them so that they can see it in practice. And then I coach them on it, meaning when they do first approach, I sit and I observe, I eavesdrop in, and when they step away, I pull them aside and I say, hey, that was perfect. That's exactly the way we want it. Thank you, great job. Or we pull them aside and say, hey, I just heard you at that table. Can I just give you a little bit of feedback? When you said X, Y and Z, I would have said A, B and C. Or somebody asked you this question and you should have done this right? At the end of a shift, if we want to talk about the shift and we know what it's like when you finish a six, seven, eight hour shift, you know when you go through war, right? You're exhausted, you're not going to hear anything. So at the end of the shift you're going to go, oh, hey, I meant to tell you, can I give you some notes from the shift? They're not going to take it. They hardly remember the table that you're talking about and you're hardly going to remember it. So what happens is you do it in real time. Here's a perfect example, right? So again, the way this four step framework works, number one, I hire people who can do what I need them to do. I train them, I teach them how to do it, I model a behavior and then I coach them in real time. And maybe I go and say, hey, I just saw you at table 10, really great job. But there was one moment where I think you missed. You just got sat at a new table. Let me greet that table. Let me do a first approach so I can show you, I can show you what I think you need to do. So you have already taught them, you've already shown them, you're coaching them in real time and then you're showing it again, right? All of it is cyclical. Hire for it, train for it, model it, and then you coach for it. One of the biggest failures that I see in the way that we manage our people is that we don't give them feedback in real time, positive or negative. And if it's negative, it should be constructive. Obviously, unless someone is flagrantly not doing what you want them to do, well, then it's a different conversation. And we have to have a. We have real come to Jesus as to whether this person is right or a real fit for us. But this four step framework and it has to work. You can't drop any of these right now. When I say you have to model, you have to coach. You plug in your surrogates, right? Your managers, your gm, your, your chefs, your floor manager, whoever it is, they are the surrogates. They are the stand in for you. Leadership has to be working with the hourly employees in that way. They have to train for it. They have to model the behavior, they have to coach in real time. That's the only way this works. To go back a couple of clicks when we were talking about this training, right, what do you need to do in the tier one training to get people ready to take a station in seven days? Level 2 says what do we do to get people to be as good as our best people by 90 days? There is a way we do that in training, in ongoing training, in ongoing modeling and coaching in real time, shift by shift, minute to minute, right? And then that tier three, which is how do we get it so that people would stay here for a decade. We have to acknowledge the fact that what people want from this job when they walk in on day one is different than at the end of year one. It's different than the end of year 10. Hopefully they continue to grow even if they want to be in the same position. Hopefully there is some sort of growth and development happening. Not saying you got to go from Porter to dishwasher to prep cook, to line cook, to sous chef to executive chef to, you know, director of culinary for the group. I'm not saying some people are just totally happy to just stay put and be a cook or stay put and be a really good chef at that location. They don't want to oversee, that's fine. But you keep developing them up to the level where they are ready. So somebody comes in as a server and that's all they want to do. They want to be a server forever and ever. Let's help them continue to be better as a server, be the best version of that role, the best version of themselves as they can be. That's what ongoing development means. That the way you do that is through ongoing modeling, ongoing coaching and continuous training, teaching them more and more and more. The best part about food and beverage is that there's always something new to learn. There's always new flavor profiles, there's flavor combinations. There's always new wines, new beers, new sodas, new juices. Whatever it is, we can always be leveling up. So whatever that means for you and your people, and it's going to be different for all your people. We have to make a commitment to doing that. So this four step framework, right, we hire for it, we train for it, we model it, and then we coach it. If you can remember that four step framework and instill this into your management team, it's going to make for a much, much better restaurant. One final note. I want to remind you, the server playbook, again, it goes all in keeping with what we're talking about today. The server playbook is totally free. It's 10 videos. Each of the videos is between five and 10 minutes long. They are a script. They are a specific tactic for a specific point in the meal. How do we make more money? How do we increase check average, grow revenue for the restaurant and therefore grow revenue for our servers and bartenders? How do we utilize those employees in the best way possible, again, so that they make more money for us and for themselves? This server playbook is absolutely free. You get it, right? You get it by using the link in the show notes. I appreciate you guys being here. Thank you very much and I will see you next time. Sa.