OpenTable Roundtable – Recruiting during the Age of COVID

Thanks to Winston Lord, Chief Evangelist at OpenTable and the rest of OpenTable team, I was privileged to moderate another virtual roundtable last week. This one centered around recruiting and hiring as our restaurant community relaunches their businesses while COVID still dominates how we operate.

We had an all-star cast of top US based operators including several with international operations. We also had the good fortune to be joined by Alice Cheng, founder and CEO of Culinary Agents (https://culinaryagents.com), who brought great information and a broad, national perspective to the conversation. (Take a look at the post on my Sternberg Hospitality page regarding the Culinary Agent survey results https://www.facebook.com/SternbergHospitality/posts/4297985426880084.)  

Our goal was to share and identify the best practices that are enabling a positive outlook on coming back to work as well as discuss some of the issues that have come up so that we might offer some ideas on how to solve the problems that the COVID pandemic has created.

Key takeaways –                               

• Trust and transparency were/are vital. “Over”- communication regarding opening, health precautions, expected work hours and just general checking in, made the difference with the confidence of team members on coming back to work.
  • One company held regular “town hall” zoom meetings with their entire team to keep everyone updated and provide team members the opportunity to share concerns
• A few restaurateurs offered a variety of on-line training courses (e.g. wine education, conversations with chefs about products and preparation methods, sanitation procedures) to keep staff engaged during layoff or furlough.
• Participants in the call emphasized that benefits were really important to employees and how that is a departure from previous attitudes.
• While the participants in the roundtable were a Hall of Fame of the best employment practices in the industry, there was significant anecdotal evidence that poor employers were having a harder time with rehiring/recruiting than those that employees had trust in.
• Big issue without resolution – commissioned sales people. Banquet and Private Dining, which was such a strong contributor towards profitability, is an unknown at this point.
• Most of the participants had done their best to keep salaried management and staff employed by assigning new responsibilities, such as working take-out orders and arranging delivery. Most managers jumped in with a “whatever it takes”. A few (one large employer pinned it at 8%) declined to do such work or had health safety concerns and chose to leave their positions.
• Most assigned one manager the new role of “Safety and Sanitation Manager” in each store in addition to other duties.
• Safety protocols and enforcement of same were essential to make team members feel good about coming back to work.
• All were looking at or had already restructured tip pools or tip-out procedures to incorporate a better sense of teamwork and fairness as they brought team members back to work.
  • One operator with 30+ high-end restaurants said that since re-opening, his team’s tip average has soared to almost 35% (from around 22% previously.)

In the Culinary Agents survey, the indication was that 92% of the workforce intended to stay in the industry, citing passion as the single most important reason for staying. Interestingly, 21% said that career growth was their compelling reason for staying in the restaurant business.

I need to also stress how much all these operators continue to do to for their communities. A couple were working with World Central Kitchen in preparing and providing meals, some were making box meals for their employees and families, and several were offering food for a variety of community efforts. As always, my fellow restaurateurs amaze me with their “give first” mentality. In the midst of a huge downturn in the own financial prospects, they never stop thinking about the needs of others.

Another great session and some terrific learning.