Consultant Says Labor Pool is Deeper Than You Think
by Steve Coomes, Editor Pizza Marketplace

Some might find it hard to take Shelley Solomon Cull seriously. Her business materials claim she’s a respected
restaurant management consultant, but in public speaking she likes to act a little silly; making the most
outlandish claims about hiring employees, such as:
• The restaurant talent pool is teeming with good help.
• Turnover can all but disappear when you hire the right people.
• Operators should only hire employees perfectly suited for the job.

Truth is, Solomon Cull is dead serious about those statements. And anyone at any level in the business who
doesn’t think he should aim for the same lofty standards is asking for trouble, in her opinion.

“You need not hire out of desperation, ever,” said Solomon Cull, founder of Rave Reviews, a front-of-the-house
restaurant consulting firm in Grafton, Ohio. Solomon Cull shared her ideas in a seminar: “Relationship Recruiting:
Hiring Intelligence, Experience and Motivation Isn’t Enough,” at the Mid-America Restaurant, Soft-Serve and
Pizza Show, held Feb. 23-24 in Columbus, Ohio. “But that’s exactly what people do sometimes in our
business because they think there’s no help out there.”

Finding good employees, she said, isn’t about looking harder, but looking always, interviewing regularly
and selling one’s restaurant as the place in town to work.

That begins by attracting quality employees with an inviting, intriguing help wanted ad placed in the
classifieds. “You need to write the ad that sells the job,” she said, “not just tell people you’re hiring.”
In the ad, the job description should include statements about some of the company’s goals (growth
and excellence), its and values (high integrity and customer service), and the fact that the company is
looking only for “winners and leaders.” Solomon Cull gave a few pointers on making an ordinary ad eye-catching,
such as placing the letters “AAA” in the top left corner of ad box, in order to make it fall at the top
alphabetically of the hospitality section in the classifieds. Below that, she said to leave a few lines of white
space in order to make the bold-type title of the position you’re hiring for stand out from the other ads.

Interviews provide inner-views
Bad restaurant hires also result from poor interviewing techniques, Solomon Cull said. Sometimes operators
sabotage an interview by projecting a negative attitude to prospective hires. More often, though, they fail
to ask the right questions that will reveal the true nature of the candidate before them. “You need to make
sure that whoever is doing the interview applies the energy to the meeting of minimally greeting a friend,”
Solomon Cull said. “Be nice, be interested and make them feel at ease.”

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