Employing Staff

There are conventional ways of advertising for staff: advertising in local papers, going through job agencies or placing details in your local job centre. The trouble is they all use up time and money. Not only that but you will end up with lots of applicants most of whom don’t fit your preferred profile.

Assuming you have chosen a reasonably busy location for your sandwich-coffee bar, here’s the Miller’s Six Step Programme for getting the right staff with minimum hassle and virtually no expense.

• Print three copies of a sign advertising the job, including the hours to be worked. Do this on your computer or using a stencil set, but make it look professional.
• Put one copy on prominent display inside the shop and the other two in the front window.
• Prepare a questionnaire (which can of course be stored in your computer) to hand out to people who come in enquiring about the job. The questions should seek to elicit the basic information which you regard as most important. I have included a copy of our own questionnaire. Applicants should be encouraged to fill in the form in the shop. This enables the existing staff to observe them and form a first impression. This impression should be noted on the questionnaire.
• At your leisure look through the forms. You will be surprised how much of a feel you can get for a person from a spontaneously filled in form. Select those who seem most suitable.
• Arrange interviews as soon as possible. People looking for this kind of work really need the money and will often take the first decent job offer they get.
• Be prepared to make an instant decision after interviewing applicants. Again this is because they will usually want to be earning money as soon as possible and the best people are invariably snapped up quickly.

In seven years we have found this system to be virtually foolproof. It has the added advantage that prospective employees get the chance to look at us – so if they don’t fancy working in our kind of place they’ll just walk on by. Occasionally there are times when not so many people are looking for work so the choice is limited. At other times we have taken someone on within a few hours of putting the signs up.

With regard to our questionnaire, a few comments:

Are You A Vegetarian?

I’ve nothing against vegetarians but if they are going to find it difficult to handle meat, cut off fat or gristle and so on, then working in a (non-vegetarian) sandwich-coffee bar might present problems all round. Clearly this is something which should be raised at interview.

For How Long Are You Looking For Employment?

Prospective staff are notorious for saying what they think you want to hear. Whatever they say it’s not a guarantee of anything but it is good to know what they have in mind. If the reply is three months or less you have to ask yourself whether it is worth training somebody for such a short time. Then again, if they’re good and you need cover for the summer it might be worth it, and people’s plans can change.

Is There Anyone We Can Contact For A Reference?

Prospective staff will often bring a written reference or testimonial to the interview with details of a contact name. Speaking to someone for whom the person has worked is potentially valuable and if possible you should do this. But do it by phone. Remember the time factor. Not everybody is able to provide the name of a referee. If you think they fit the bill don’t be put off by this. Your assessment is the most important thing by far.

New Staff

Don’t drop a new employee in at the deep end. You have to take time to train them to do things your way and also train them in matters of food hygiene and health and safety (see Chapter Nine). There’s no rocket science involved but working efficiently in a sandwich bar involves working around other people and carrying out a lot of simple functions quickly, often under pressure. Training is best achieved by having new staff work under close supervision for a few hours each day for, say, three days. During this time they should get the chance to observe and carry out all the main aspects of the job. They should not be expected to work at lunchtime initially.

Of course, you may be lucky and get someone who has a lot of experience, in which case the amount of time spent training them can be reduced. There are clear advantages in taking on people with catering experience or training. However, don’t disregard those who don’t have any experience. If people have enthusiasm, an outgoing personality and a genuine interest in food – based preferably on having been brought up in a house where there was a wide variety of good food properly cooked – then you might well find they will make very good employees indeed.