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Characteristics of Top-Performing General Managers
The labor shortage pressing the restaurant industry extends to management as well. If you need to hire a GM, it will be difficult to field qualified candidates. "Hiring from the outside is going to be near impossible [for] somewhere between now and the end of 2022," which means "we've got at least a year of not having enough solid management ready to go," says Rick Camac, dean of restaurant & hospitality management at the New York City-based Institute of Culinary Education (ICE).
Your GM sets the tone for the entire unit. He or she can help your staff raise the bar on morale and productivity or drag down both. You can't afford to hire anyone but the best. Here are tips on what to look for in your next GM. He or she might be right under your nose with proper development and guidance.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to hiring general managers (GM). The first, to which many operators default, is to hire experience. In other words, find someone who has done it all before, so you don't need to spend an inordinate time on basic training. The second school advocates hiring for soft skills; e.g., emotional intelligence, curiosity, and ability to work well with others. This broadens your applicant pool. Find a natural leader and train him or her the technical aspects of the position.
With restaurant qualified labor in short supply, it is well worth your time to identify the characteristics of a strong GM. They are different from those of a top server or floor manager who might have the technical skills down pat, but lack the attitude and personality of your second in command.
The process begins with mining for these attributes in the recruitment and interview process. It continues forward with the approach you take to foster the hire's management and technical skills. The latter is critical for grooming potential candidates from your current kitchen or wait staff, or onboarding promising talent from outside the organization.
Hire for Experience
Izzy Kharasch, president of the international foodservice consulting company Hospitality Works, Inc., based in Chicago, believes in hiring based on experience, though he admits this is difficult right now. When advertising open positions for his clients, "we put ads at eight to ten locations and we're getting [few responses]," he says.
Ideally, a new manager should complement the skills you have in-house and perhaps shore up insufficiencies.
When you've identified skills you require from your GM, you will be more attuned to picking up on them during an interview and evaluate candidates based on your needs, rather than choosing based on likeability. With a checklist and a job description worked up in advance, you "should be able to ask the right questions and take the right notes, review it after the fact and remember who that person is.
Ideally, Kharasch prefers a GM with at least five years' management experience, as either an assistant GM or a floor manager, and who has been with their previous employer for at least four years. Kharasch says he sees many candidates who have managed a restaurant for a couple of months and are ready to move on. "We want somebody who has stability because it is so hard to find great employees in the industry," he says. When someone has been with a previous employer for several years, it's a good sign (though never a guarantee) they'll do the same for you.
Kharasch prefers candidates with "good work skills" and experience with financial programs, scheduling programs, and POS systems. "We're looking for a GM who understands how to read and react to a P&L (profit-and-loss statement)." During the interview, he recommends spending time asking about the food costs, labor costs, and liquor costs at their previous employer, to determine if the candidate understands how the numbers work.
"The restaurant business is a tough business to make a profit [in] and we're only looking for managers who can help us do that. We're looking for them fully loaded, not to be the ones to train them," says Kharasch.
Kharasch broadcasts GM recruitment notices on job boards with the goal of narrowing the pool of prospective hires of 15 qualified candidates to three suitable hires he feels comfortable presenting to his client, based on qualification and experience. The deciding factors, he says, come down to attributes you won't find on a candidate's resume. They include fit with the concept's culture and personality traits that signal an aptitude for leadership.
Kharasch vets personality through scenario-based interview questions, such as how they would discipline an employee who commits a restaurant policy infraction. He believes the interviewee's answers provide insight into the person's capability to manage difficult circumstances and how they might treat staff.
Says Kharasch, "We're looking for a manager who is able to listen to their staff, direct their staff, get the respect of their staff, and give the staff a lot of respect. A good GM that respects their staff will be able to retain that staff lon- ger than a manager who doesn't."
Nevertheless, Kharasch's clients have final hiring decision. Unfortunately, he has seen them make mistakes, particularly when clients ignore "red flags" during the hiring process. One operator ignored a background check and went forward because the candidate was "a nice person," only to fire him after he was caught embezzling from the business.
Other times, candidates don't have the leadership skills they claim to possess during the interview. In other cases, there have been times when a client hires a GM who ap- pears to have the skills for the position, but then encounters a stressful night when he or she snaps at employees. "We cut them off immediately," Kharasch says, explaining that he doesn't tolerate managers who scream at staff.
Cultivating Managers From Within the Organization
Cultivating GMs from within the organization is "always our preference," Kharasch says, noting how promoting someone you already employ can be a successful strategy for filling management positions seamlessly in a tight labor market. Before advertising open positions, Kharasch says he'll suggest the role internally to people that seem to be ready. When promoting internally, Kharasch prefers staff who have had a gradual trajectory in responsibilities, such as server to a supervisor, then an assistant general managerial role. Such employees demonstrate an ability and willingness to learn new skills, and tackle and succeed at new roles, and can earn the respect of fellow staff as they ascend in responsibility.
When promoting from within, Kharasch is more willing to take the time to teach candidates skills in areas in which he or she lack experience. "If they have a couple years of floor manager experience and we feel they have the ability to learn, we will give them the promotion to GM. At that point, we will absolutely then take the time to educate that person [while raising their pay over a six-month period on the job]. We're willing to invest the time in that employee because they're proven, particularly in terms of loyalty," says Kharasch.
Another factor supporting internal promotion, says Kharasch, is the waning quality of candidates produced by the job boards such as Indeed.com. This has also influenced his strategy for seeking external candidates. As a military veteran, Kharasch appreciates the leadership skills developed in the service and has a bias for helping veterans advance in civilian careers. He advertises positions through the American Legion and other venues and sites where veterans might congregate.
In addition, Kharasch is exploring the advantage of hiring candidates with management experience outside restaurant and hospitality. "If they understand P&L management and are comfortable working with numbers, we are happy to look at them, [and to] take the time to train them in our business," he says.
Hiring for (Soft) Skills
Given the shortage in many markets of candidates who possess previous experience, it may not be possible to attract and hire someone with a high level of technical skills. That said, as Kharasch notes, technical skills are not the only important attribute of an effective GM. Camac, who came to the hospitality industry after a career in technology, built up his own restaurant group, seeks managers with strong "soft skills" -- personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.
Camac estimates he's hired several thousand people between his technology and restaurant careers and believes that "the resume is a very small part of the process." Anyone can be taught how to take a reservation or read a P&L, but what you can't teach are the soft skills of hospitality. "Can I teach you to be curious? To have perception? To smile a lot and be friendly? If you're not naturally a friendly, upbeat person [how long is that smile going to last]?" Camac asks. Camac places such importance on a candidate's enthusiasm, curiosity, and friendliness because he believes that it's more important to have an employee who can create a good experience for the guest than someone who's done the job before. Guests are spending money and they want value for that investment; the right manager is someone who can help create a good guest experience through soft skills, which Camac doesn't believe can be taught.
It's a competitive advantage to your restaurant if you can identify the candidates who have soft skills during the interview process, as these are the people who will go above and beyond to make sure guests have a memorable experience.
With a GM, "not only do they need all the soft skills, but they need to know how to teach the soft skills, leadership skills, and supervision skills," Camac says. "The biggest problem we have in our industry is that we don't teach managers to be managers and we don't teach leadership."
Instead, what tends to happen is that an operator loses a GM and, in a crunch, promotes their best server and has that person trail someone for a few days before assuming the role. This can backfire, Camac believes, because the skills that make a good server are fundamentally different from the skills of a top performing GM. "We're training people to fail from minute one," Camac says, who has a preferred way to approach hiring from within. The outcome of this approach is one many independent operators know well: high turnover.
Additionally, a top server may be used to a particular work schedule and tipped income. They will soon learn that a manager's salary means a difference in take-home pay and potentially more hours worked for less money. Someone who cares about hospitality innately may be happy with the new role, but if that server took the job for a title and a bit more cash, they may prefer the more predictable schedule of a server, with tips supplementing hourly wages.
While the soft skills Camac mentions might seem to be personality traits, more specifically personality traits of extroverted people, it's an oversimplification to think that a good GM must be an extrovert. Perception, drive, enthusiasm, and innate curiosity are not tied to extroversion; introverts actually have the edge when it comes to some of these soft skills, such as perception. While "an outgoing personality definitely helps" someone be a great GM, the right mindset is another essential, too, and that's not tied to a personality type.
Understanding how these soft skills present in different personality types can help you evaluate employees when you meet them. While you can observe how someone acts when introduced to staff, you can also find ways to test for these skills. Present a menu with a typo to see whether someone is observant; learn from the questions they ask you whether they're curious about the role or believe they know it all.
Camac believes that an operator's focus on hiring based on previous experience and particular skills is wrongheaded. He believes that many operators "don't look for the right things" when interviewing. Too many operators want someone who is familiar with the software they use, but that's far easier to train than the personality traits and mindsets of good hospitality. Borrowing a phrase from leaders in the lodging sector, says Camac "the absolute hardest thing for us to find in the hotel business is hospitable people."
Rather than investigate someone's hospitality skills, Camac says owners and hiring managers often focus on how many years someone has worked, where they've worked, or how busy their previous employer was. These variables say little about how that person will perform for you, other than perhaps indicate their loyalty. When operators focus narrowly on experience with a particular reservation system or POS, in other words, they could be throwing out qualified candidates who have what cannot be taught over something that is very easy to learn, like a new software.
In addition to not asking the right questions when interviewing GM candidates, operators may not be sure what skills they really need because they haven't carefully considered the job requirements in advance. "A GM job can mean many things. Some are very operationally minded and some are a glorified floor manager running a dining room and wouldn't know what a P&L was if it hit him or her in the head," Camac says.
Ideally, a new manager should complement the skills you have in-house and perhaps shore up insufficiencies. For one concept, that person might be a "systems thinker" who can improve operational efficiency. For another, it might be a charismatic person who can soothe tables during busy nights. For a third, it might be a calm personality who reads the temperature of the room and can motivate employees without yelling. When you've identified skills you require from your GM, you will be more attuned to picking up on them during an interview and evaluate candidates based on your needs, rather than choosing based on likeability.
Camac recommends operators use a checklist to stay organized during the hiring process. He also suggests grading each interviewee on a 1-5 or 1-10 rubric after the interview is complete. With a checklist and a job description worked up in advance, you "should be able to ask the right questions and take the right notes, review it after the fact and remember who that person is," then compare candidates against one another without forgetting anyone.
Hiring should be systematic, but "we're always in a rush, doing it reactively," Camac says. He recommends always talking to people and saving resumes for future consideration. When there is a database of qualified candidates, you can avoid the rush when a position opens up and check with the talent you've already identified.
Rather than a single interview, Camac believes in meeting candidates twice, because people tend to be more relaxed the second time around and "will always reveal something that they won't the first time around." He also recommends that operators ask the same questions across both interviews to see if "if you can trip them up." If their story changes from the first to second interview, they're not as qualified as they think they are.
He encourages operators to "do more listening than talking." The best way to get someone to open up, in his experience, is by asking open-ended questions. One of his favorite interview questions to ask is "tell us a story about you." This prompt gets the right candidates to open up with an entertaining anecdote, while the wrong candidates -- the people who aren't hospitality-minded -- are likely to close down.
Camac also advocates hiring from within. "There's never been a better time to move people up the ranks. We're all struggling with [finding management and] you can't afford not to train," Camac says. Rather than appoint the most successful server as the new GM, Camac advises to begin by determine the interest level in the job of potential candidates who appear to understand your workplace culture and possess hospitality soft skills. In other words, you need to ask yourself if they want the job, and are not applying only for a bump in pay but are excited to assume more responsibility. Once you've identified these individuals, then you can feel more comfortable investing in their training over time so the eventual candidate has the confidence to assume the new role seamlessly.
To address the lack of qualified candidates, Camac is developing a two-week boot camp to get employees ready to become restaurant managers, something he says he developed "out of a great need" for qualified managers.
Beating the Odds
Says Camac, "What COVID taught us operationally is, we don't know our business very well. The
margins are narrow and you don't have to do too many things wrong to fail."
He believes hiring the right people is critical to beat the odds, and hiring is going to be challenging for the foreseeable future. Understanding what makes a good GM and how to avoid the
mistakes operators make in the hiring process are vital to overcoming these hurdles.
THE ROLE OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE RESTAURANT LABOR CONUNDRUM
Wages tend to be the focus of discussion why restaurants are struggling to find qualified workers. Izzy Kharasch, president of the international foodservice consulting company Hospitality Works, Inc., based in Chicago, believes quality of life is also a critical factor. With the economic uncertainties and stress imposed by the pandemic, it also gave service industry workers something their schedules did not previously allow: nights and weekends to spend with their loved ones. This was often life-changing for people who were accustomed to working holidays, nights, and weekends, he believes. He also believes these workers are seeking positions outside the restaurant industry that afford continuation of this lifestyle, such as managing apartment complexes or working in warehouses. He cautions hiring businesses to consider this going forward and to ensure new hires can anticipate a better quality of life as restaurant workers than they might have experienced in the past.
