PRLA Spring 2017

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22 • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • Spring 2017
EDUCATION & TRAINING
The Santa Cruz, Calif., boardwalk resembles
a ghost town each winter. Whiting’s Foods,
which operates most of the boardwalk’s
foodservice operations, employs
approximately 40 team members to keep
operations going on weekends. Come
summer’s peak, the boardwalk bustles, and
the number of employees catapults into the
hundreds.
Like many in the industry, Whiting faces the
challenge of hiring and training summer
help. U.S. restaurants are expected to hire
more than 500,000 summer employees—
many of them high school and college
students. Ken Whiting, president of Whiting’s
Foods, offers his advice on how to recruit
these young employees and bring out their
best. Whiting founded and runs Waves for
Success ), a
consulting company focused on this topic.
Staffing up
• Reach out to last year’s employees.
“Their experience is invaluable,” says
Whiting, who recommends offering a
small raise as an incentive.
• Connect with colleges and
high schools. Whiting works with
California’s Regional Occupational
Program, exhibits at college job fairs
and posts openings with student
employment offices. In Pennsylvania,
you can connect with any of the
collegiate hospitality programs in your
area. To reach high school students,
connect with one of the 15 schools
offering the ProStart curriculum.
• Transform your employees into
recruiters. “Referrals are our No. 1
recruiting method,” Whiting says.
His Crew Search program awards
employees $50 after a referral is hired
and has worked 40 hours.
• Put your application online. Make
it easy to apply with a form that can be
completed online.
Training & motivating
Connecting with youth is all about
“speaking their language,” says Whiting, who
has spent nearly 30 years managing his
family’s foodservice business.
• Go to the video. “Instead of an old-
school bulletin board in the back room,
we have a video board,” says Whiting.
Employee photos flash on the video
board interspersed with announcements,
such as reminders about grooming
standards or recognition of stellar
employees. Whiting’s employees can
access short training videos 24/7.
The low-budget videos have led to
huge leaps in operations consistency.
“Employees can refer back to these clips
when they’re on the job,” Whiting says.
• Give them an explanation. When
training teens, don’t just tell them what
to do but why. “This is a generation
that’s used to being able to find out all
the answers,” says Whiting.
• Offer instant gratification. For
years, Whiting’s threw a huge end-of-
summer celebration with awards to
motivate employees. “But suddenly no
one seemed to care about the event
anymore,” says Whiting. Today, the
company rewards exemplary employees
on the spot with a “Star Card,” a scratch-
off card that reveals prizes, such as a
$5 Starbucks gift certificate. A few big
prizes are mixed in each summer to up
the excitement. “We catch employees
doing something right, and give them
a card,” says Whiting. The system also
forces supervisors to closely monitor
team members.
Summer Hiring
See you next summer!
Originally published on the Manage
My Restaurant blog of the National
Restaurant Association website.
9 9 Plant the seeds.
At summer’s end, conduct
an exit interview with
each departing employee,
Whiting recommends.
Encourage employees to
keep in touch, offer to write
recommendations, and invite
them to return next summer.
9 9 Keep them on call.
Invite local students to stay
on your “on call” list. Whiting
contacts these employees
to work as needed. “It’s a
great way to stay connected,”
he says. “About 90 percent
of them will return the next
summer.”