BEST PRACTICES IN RECRUITING FRONT-LINE STAFF ACROSS INDUSTRIES
“When you meet somebody at a restaurant or a coffee shop and you really appreciate their service level, you approach them. Maybe they are looking for a second job or maybe they know someone else with a great attitude, and so you hand out your business card,” said Teri Serrano, vice president of people services, Broughton Hotels.
Being transparent Beer-and-chicken chain Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) employs some 45,000 peo- ple nationwide. For many it’s a first-time job. Restaurant work isn’t glamorous: Long hours on your feet, answerable to the de- mands of an often-finicky clientele. BWW’s best tool for attracting talent: Transparency. “If they want to see what a day in the life
is like, we will give them a chance to shadow shift,” said Julie Letner, vice president for talent management services at BWW. “Even for hourly workers, it’s not uncommon for them to talk to at least a couple of managers so that they can get different perspectives and different points of view.” The more people understand about the
business, the more likely they will want to come aboard. As a recruiting tactic, this takes some effort, but Letner says it is worth putting in the extra energy. “We are willing to share anything about the organization, anything about our plans. When there is a willingness on our end to invest the time up front, it helps them to know they are making the right choice,” she said. Just as senior living must compete against
hospitality, retail, and a range of other in- dustries, BWW vies for the allegiance of workers who could potentially serve in di- verse settings. How to sell them on food service? The BWW narrative focuses on serving hot wings not as an end but rather as a beginning. “There is a ton of room for growth and
career advancement, so we compile success stories about team members who started as cashiers and now are leading teams, run- ning multi-million dollar businesses. We tell them that if they have a desire and an ap- petite to learn and grow, this can be a great place for them,” Letner said. BWW casts a wide net to find such individ- uals, and they make the search personal. “We
36 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE / ISSUE 4 2017
look at our general managers and manag- ers to be their local mayors, so to speak. We want them to know what is going on in their towns, to be connected to the businesses and the schools. The more they are integrated into the communities they serve, the better placed we will be to attract talent,” she said. Managers volunteer with civic groups.
They get involved in youth activities, coach sports, make themselves visible among the labor pool. “For a lot of our team members this may be their first job and we want them to feel that they can authentically be them- selves and feel accepted and be part of the team,” she said. “The more our leaders can connect with potential team members, the more we can create that sense of being con- nected, the sense that managers genuinely care about them.”
Building the pipeline Senior living professionals have been advo- cating for a renewed emphasis on the pipe- line, a need to promote the industry early and often. To that end, the industry might take a
cue from the Mayo Clinic. In addition to its home base in Rochester, Minn., the world-renowned health organization em- ploys some 65,000 people nationwide, many of them recruited from among the same pool of care-minded workers coveted by senior living. Mayo Clinic’s secret to success in hir-
ing frontliners? “Pipelining,” said Jamie Schmitgen, chair of talent solutions for Mayo Clinic. The organization works with colleges, high schools, and even junior high students, sometimes helping to develop skills but more often just raising awareness of health care as a career option. “We talk about working in health care
and we talk about opportunities at Mayo Clinic. We want to have those conversations
long before they are even an active candi- date,” he said. Through the “Bridges to Healthcare”
program, for example, Mayo Clinic teams with Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) to introduce local high schoolers to the industry while helping them to complete their GED work. In addition to building awareness, the program is a direct feeder for Mayo Clinic, which has hired over 100 graduates out of the program. Another effort enables local high school
students to get hands-on experience in health care career paths while earning ac- ademic credits and even professional certi- fications. This too becomes a feeder, with graduates often moving directly into front- line jobs with the health care organization. For senior living companies looking to team
with local schools in order to raise awareness, Schmitgen says it typically will be up to the potential employer to make the first move. “These institutions are more than willing, but you as the employer have to take the initia- tive,” he said. “You have to go ask. You have to reach out to them and that means having someone dedicated to building those relation- ships as part of your recruiting strategy.” While this may sound like a heavy lift, es-
pecially when the focus needs to be on filling immediate vacancies, Schmitgen says that building a pipeline is something that can be done gradually. “You can go in slowly and take it in
phases,” he said. “You can start with a high school observation program. Or you can go to the local workforce board and see if they will help to pay for retraining of displaced individuals. You don’t necessarily need to start a big comprehensive program right away. But you do have to be thinking about the future and convincing people that your industry is the right one to be in.” In a more immediate sense, Schmitgen
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