At long last! The plan for your food business had been finalised. You feel great about it and you are confident that your new business idea will hit the market. All the best to you and to your upcoming endeavour! But to be able to pull everything off, you will need some help from other people whether they will act as full time or casual employees, consultants or advisers, even partners. Their involvement in your business could make or break your start-up’s triumph. They are the people who will give life to your ideas and will help you build your own brand in front of your target customers. Not having any of these traits could result to difficulties in sustaining their employment much more, the business itself. That is why we would like to recommend that your staff should at least have the majority of these traits.
What are we looking for?
- Keenness in product knowledge. This is a surefire edge if the person you wish to hire can talk the talk and walk the walk. Familiarity gained through a similar experience can easily be detected for someone who knows the hoops. Hiring a staff that has more than enough understanding would mean more sales. This type of staff would have a sharp eye for accuracy, flexibility, as well as comfort in multi-tasking. These are also the employees who are always very eager to learn and do more beyond what they are tasked to do.
- Agreeable personality. Agreeable in the sense that this staff is not someone like you. If his or her drawbacks are same as yours, this might not be good for the business. Appoint someone who can bring something new to the table, something that you do not possess. This person is going to be a great asset as he or she would blend and adjust well with other members of the team. Also, people with an agreeable personality are the ones who are mostly engaged not only with making the business flourish but also sees the importance and difference of better customer service. Remember, customer service is a core function in any food business that needs to be excellent and flawless.
- As things would always be subject to change, your staff should always be able to adapt. Most especially with schedules or workload, as working in a food business can get too hectic. You need to establish early on that employees need to be reliable, flexible, and committed. They need to have that continuous yearning to learn. You can filter these kinds of people from your pool of aspiring staff by asking some behavioural and situational questions. Ambitious members are the ones who are proactive, able to take new tasks, are most likely to be second in command, and can carry out management decisions. They are driven by professional fuel.
Your workers make your organisation. It could lead to either prosperity or disappointment. On a great extent, it will determine the kind of arrangement that you have in the years to come. Aptitudes can be instructed, lessons can be adapted, yet identity is (pretty much) set in stone.
It pays to take time and check references. The interview may go well due to their excellent people skills but you have to make calls to justify and get confirmation that your gut tells you if they are indeed worth of the opportunity. That extra mile can save you of having to undergo the same process of finding a staff just because you failed to verify your candidate.
Trust your instinct too. If there seems to be something that is bothering you about a potential employee, don't offer the contract.
Lastly, take them to a test drive. It’ll reflect if they are really fit for the position that you are aiming to fill.
Utilise this guide as you start the hiring process and watch your start-up go from a hole in the wall food business into an effective and profitable functional unit.
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