I am currently reading a really eye opening book regarding Daniel Meyer the Chief Executive of the Union Square Hospitality Group which covers the Union Square Cafe and other restaurants throughout New York. His companies vision and values are based on his belief that if you treat your employees well and recruit the right people then your customers will be well looked after and the bottom line will follow. I think we all try to do this but Danny Meyer has built a culture and a set of behaviours within his organisation and this is all geared around trying to engage his employees to know exactly what the company’s values and beliefs are.
Daniel Meyer the CEO truly values his employees and the importance of teamwork within his company. He has various restaurants including Indian, street food and fine dining however manages to make all units a success due to the recruitment and development of his team. His focus is if he recruits the right people, inducts and welcomes new starters then looks after and develops them then their service to the guests will be second to none. He recruits on what he calls a 51%/49% basis. He is more interested in a candidate having more emotional attributes than technical. He believes that great characters and emotionally intelligent people will pick up the technical aspects of their role but it is very hard to teach the skills of building relationships with guests and having that connection and passion a team member or chef would require. I think we can all take on board this focus on our front facing employees.
They then have an induction period which is structured and the new employee cannot move on until signed off by a team member on each aspects of their role. As well as welcoming this person to the organisation it ensures they are integrated within the team and this in turn reduces turnover.
I have seen various induction programmes and in my experience some are not given the appropriate focus and the employee is left to flounder, which takes more time for them to become effective. I think we all recall being new to an organisation and role and a poor induction experience can affect us and our initial impression of a company. We want to feel that the expectations we form at the recruitment stage are delivered and that we are making a difference. In short we want to be able to contribute and understand where we fit in as quickly as possible.
Here at the Talent Development Consultancy we can assist in the implementation of induction and recruitment processes ensuring your new employees are ready for the step into the business to make a difference. We have produced some personal effectiveness training dedicated to new starters and feel this is an excellent way for them to understand how they deliver results and a consistent level of service excellence based around your company’s values and beliefs.