?_Ankerman:

[system]

My husband and I is opening up a small pizza shop in california and we’re building it in a shoe strings (from scratch). I have a question about hiring employees. What is the best way & budget wise to hire employees?

thanks,
Mama Mia Pizza

 

[lawizardpa]

Hire No Employees at first ! You must first learn the business and all of the challanges first hand !

Maybe a Counter Person at first !
As far as the wages > What is your State Min. Wage ?
I 'll Tell you what ! The more you Pay The Better Class of Help you will Find ;Unless you Luck Out and find a person that is Quick and willing to Learn ! Then you give a Proper Wage Increase.
In Order to be Great you must first Learn Yourself.
Work will be good ! If you Put the Elbow Greese into the Buisiness !
If you want the Easy way out at first ; You will pay out a Big chunk of your Profits !
NOT WILLING TO DIG IN AND GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY ? DONT GO INTO BUSINESS ! !

 

[PIZZAMAGOO]

Lawizardpa has some good points, but I would say learn the business by working in another place first if you havn’t already. You don’t want to make the simple mistakes by starting from scratch with no experience, learn from others that have already done it. In your place I would say hire just enough so that you can run the shop rather than work the shop. That being said still work your shop, but you need time to step off the make line in order to build and improve your business. When you do run across an employee that is good make sure that you pay them well so you keep them. The hard workers will cost you fifty or so percent more, but they will turn out more than double the productivity! I wish you luck in your new business!

 

[system]

My opinion is certainly not from an expert, but we just started about 2 months ago and employees have certainly been a big part of our headache!

I have a few items we’ve learned from experience.
1 - absolutely check references. lack of employees are better than undesirable ones (theft, no-show, etc)
2 - charge up-front fee for uniforms that you will refund after 30 days. we went through so many shirts and hats for people that showed up for 1 shift and disappeared. the shirt cost was unbelievable.
3 - have written rules for general policies
4 - don’t re-hire someone that worked for the shop before (if you’re reopening). it’s great to have experienced workers but it will drive you nuts to have people telling you “that’s not the way we used to do it” or actually doing things different than how you instruct because that think you’re wrong.
5 - hire everyone with a 30-day review period. it’s amazing how many employees with overinflate their experience or knowledge.

Good luck!

 

[system]

I think some of the comments from below are quite appropriate. Hiring is first an element of the job description. What do you want or need the person to do and how much are you willing to pay for it. The commentary (depending on state laws) on having a waiting period is fine, but my suggestion is that you create positions based on knowledge and loyalty. (one commentary on the shirt was very appropriate). Make them pay upfront, and then earn the shirt, hat etc. as they become loyal employees. Similarily to the amount that you pay them. Watch the wage hour laws, but keep in mind that you can compensate employees in other ways than money for great performance. The right to have specific days off (like Saturdays for kids who date) once they have “performed” to your expectations. Lots of other ideas, but keep the pay for performance montra in mind and you should do fine.