I have been doing a poor job at selecting applicants to hire lately. Building a pizza is not rocket science but I have been able to locate several people lately that can seem reasonably capable in conversation but when they get in the kitchen after 2 weeks they still can not master the skills of operating the scale or applying the cheese evenly etc etc.
I am thinking about working prospective employees a shift and see if they can grasp the intricacies of distributing pepperoni and sausage so there is a fair amount on each slice but not so much the pie becomes a grease bowl. At the end of the shift we would pay them for the night and dismiss the person telling them we would inform them of our decision on XXXday and then the crew that worked that night would evaluate them. I am tired of hiring people that don’t work out and don’t blend in with the crew. I do not need people that want to wash dishes in order to get away from the prep table.
Has anybody tried this and if so what results have you gotten?
Hire EVERYONE on a written and signed 30 day probationary period. I don’t hesitate to let servers and other staff members go if, after 30 days, they are not a good fit. I usually don’t wait the whole 30 days. I can tell about a server in 7 days usually.
I can’t remember where I read/heard this and I have not tried it.
When interviewing a someone to work in the kitchen part of the interview should be having them make a pizza. There is valuable information that you can gather by doing so. Things to watch for, do they do a proper job of washing their hands, do they use the proper method of hair control, etc. Your particular pizzeria techniques can be taught so style is less important than basic food handling procedures.
I am not sure why I have not done it but I think I will try on my next hire.
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.This is pretty much exactly what we do, except we usually say “Can you come back tommorrow?” A few times for promising people, until the weekly schedule comes out. I poll the crew over the phone the first night to decide if it is a “pay-em-off-and-thanks” or a “can-you-come-back” situation. TIP: You (the Boss) CAN’T be present! You will rarely get useful information when the nubie knows the boss is there.
Results? About 19 out of 20 people that get asked back work out over the long term.