Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/623506
retail therapy "Going forward, our plan is to use whatever is available." Evelyn Ignatow, Hyde Park Gourmet, Cincinnati, OH We're in the process of instilling a more rigorous [hiring procedure]. Our staff and employees are long term, and we have several who have been here for many years. One has been here since the beginning, another for 18 years, and another for five years. While we do have seasonal help, they are usually college students, or someone who worked for us part time in the summer and then came back for the holidays. We have five full-time employees and with part time, we have about eight or nine, not including seasonal help for gift baskets and extra f loor help. Our staff is on the mature side, especially our full-time employees. They have the maturity and the experience that comes with it. Typically, we relied on personal references and the person's reputation in the local area or industry when considering a new hire. While this has been successful on most occasions, there have been times when we've done a more detailed background check. We've also done some social media audits where we could recognize potential markers of behavior that may or may not be a good fit for our company, our brand, and our standards. In a few instances, we hired the wrong person who would not pass today's level of scrutiny. Going forward, our plan is to use whatever is available. We will look at social media, especially for our management positions. Sometimes you can find f lags on behavior. If someone wanted to work here and was posting a lot of photos of wild parties and drink- ing, for instance, I don't know if that would be a good fit. Checking on a potential hire is very important. We had somebody apply who had worked at too many places and that was a red f lag, but they presented themselves really, really nicely and if we had checked fur- ther, it would have been helpful for us. You should check anything available. Facebook is helpful, but a lot of that is private and can't be viewed. The problem with LinkedIn is that people post what they want to post on there. Self posts aren't always reliable. Look at the history on their resumes, too. Given the intimate nature of our business, we'd still rely on personal references but we plan to spend much more time investigating personal reputations in the industry. One thing we don't do is credit checks. If we were a large busi- ness and didn't work closely together that would be more applicable. Basically, we want to avoid hiring mistakes. We have had hiring mistakes where we thought the person was fine but it turns out he or she wasn't. Otherwise it's difficult to tell when it comes to skills. People say they have skills they don't have. We always check with a former employer, but they're not at liberty to say anything contrary. We're interested in a potential employee's skills, how they present themselves, and their integrity. "Be involved in the hiring and interviewing process. Do not farm this out to your managers." Matt Caputo, Tony Caputo's Market & Deli, Salt Lake City, UT We rely heavily on honesty in an employee's resume and application. I look for red flags such as gaps in employment, not holding the same job for longer than a few months or hopping from job to job, and strange remarks about why they left former jobs. We do not use any formal background checking services. If there are too many red flags or something's not sitting right, we pass on hiring them. I guess we do it on gut for the most part, and it has worked out pretty well for us. As the industry standard goes, we have very low turnover. From time to time, however, we do look at social media accounts and call past employers. That's about it. With warehouse crew members who operate trucks and machinery, we have our insurance company look into their driving records. We also get new driving hires to agree to drug testing. For that, we have a local company that conducts the tests at their facilities where they monitor the process to ensure valid results. We don't continue to monitor current employees on their social media accounts, and we don't conduct periodic background checks even after hiring. My advice for other retailers is to be involved in the hiring and interviewing process. Do not farm this out to your managers. "We had somebody apply who had worked at too many places and that was a red fag, but they presented themselves really, really nicely and if we had checked further, it would have been helpful for us." (continued on p. 124) 108 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com