Shiny Happy People

Staff turnover in the on-trade is roughly on a par with Jordan’s husbands. Andrew Catchpole finds out how to turn a marriage of convenience into everlasting love.

Our armed forces have, in the past, come up with some pretty intriguing answers to the perennial problem of recruiting and retaining staff. There was, of course, the old army and navy wheeze of recruitment by the King’s shilling. The press gang, preying on a presumably sloshed barfly, would slip the said coin into his tankard. If the ale was fully drained, and the coin revealed, then the poor unfortunate would be deemed to have agreed to ‘impressment’ unless he could pay £1 (a huge sum in the mid-19th century) to be free to go on his way. Understandably, glass-bottomed tankards became quite fashionable.
New conscripts were encouraged to serve their term of duty for King and country by an even more persuasive management technique. Deserters were shot.
Imbibe isn’t suggesting that you pop euros into glasses of Pinot Grigio, or threaten surly staff with 50 lashes. The point is that, even in these slightly more enlightened times, recruiting the right staff and then retaining those staff is difficult enough in any walk of life, let alone in the bar and restaurant trade where churn is high, pay low and hours anti-social.
But with good staff selection, the right attitude, good management, ongoing staff training, reasonable pay, a spot of empowerment and by encouraging a clear path for progression, the rewards can be high, not just for the business but for the morale and loyalty of its staff.
First up, as most successful operators agree, comes employing the right staff from Day One. Sounds obvious, but balls this bit up and you’ll be wishing they go AWOL on you before their first week is done.
As Martin Gilbert, general manager at West London retro-Americana music venue Miss Q’s puts it, ‘Speaking good English and some experience is good, but most important is how they first come through the door.’ Gilbert suggests that nothing can replace the tell-tale signs of ‘eye contact, smile, personal presentation, body language, energy and punctuality’ in those first moments. If a new recruit doesn’t rock and roll from day one, then they will never deliver for the customer, no matter how hard they (or more likely the management) try to make it happen.
If this sounds a little freewheeling in approach then a surprisingly similar message comes back loud and clear from big players like Punch Taverns. ‘The biggest mistake you can make, and this especially applies to small businesses, is making the wrong recruitment decision in the first place,’ says Catherine Smith, talent and resourcing business partner at Punch. ‘What you really need to understand is that this business is all about personalities, and not only do those personalities work together to create the personality of the business, but also to ensure that the guests enjoy the personality of the pub.’

‘Offering as much as

you expect back is essential

to staff satisfaction’

The right attitude

So, it’s widely agreed that it’s better to take a green recruit with bags of what Gilbert calls ‘energy’, than experience coupled with all the pizzazz of an old turnip. But the next point is crucial. ‘Ask not what your recruit can do for your business, but what your business can do for your recruit,’ is the message that comes back loud and clear from those who retain their staff.
Dan Heath, operations director and business partner with Richard Bigg at the Cantaloupe Group, owner of Camino and recently-opened Spanish hotspot Pepito in London’s King’s Cross, agrees. ‘The key to retaining staff is, really, just to treat them really well,’ he says. ‘We have around 30% annual turnover of staff, almost the  reverse of some places. And while people don’t go into this [trade] because they are mainly motivated by money, it still helps to pay a little better, allow the staff to split the tips, and encourage them to work as a team.’
‘Let’s face it, you don’t become a bartender or waiter for the money or sociable hours,’ adds Richard Wynne, co-owner of Callooh Callay in London, who himself started out waiting on tables. ‘It’s fairly simple, really, you have to treat your staff with respect, you need them to treat you with respect, and be honest with them.’ For Wynne, who now has, to coin a Jabberwocky phrase, the most brillig bar among the slithy toves of the Shoreditch cocktail scene, offering as much as you expect back is essential to staff satisfaction and running a great business.
‘Training is hugely important and it’s part of why we almost have a waiting list of people who want to work for us,’ says Wynne. ‘If we can take people on and help them become really good bartenders, ask them to stay two or three years with us before they move on and become the next great mixologists, bar owners or Dale DeGroffs, then we get a reputation, and as a result, we have good, inspired, motivated people knocking on our door.’

What’s in it for us?

Wynne describes a virtuous circle whereby the energy and creativity and input of the management feeds the enthusiasm and interest of all the staff.
‘Andrea, our bar manager, runs sessions every Thursday afternoon with the spirits companies and staff come from other local bars like The Last Days of Decadence, The Hoxton Pony and elsewhere, to train and learn at Callooh Callay,’ says Wynne. ‘We also have to embrace the idea that people don’t want to be bartenders for the rest of their lives. So we also train people to write a balanced drinks list, to do the accounts, the GP, to work as a team, and to have the skills to move on.’
Training is the word that crops up again and again. That, and showing clear possibilities for career progression, both within the bar or restaurant and beyond in the big wide world. ‘Everyone has a different ambition,’ says Smith at Punch. ‘And there has been a big change from the past when people in the business didn’t really understand that there could be a clear career path.’

Punch has won several awards for its training programmes, and recently launched both a Recruitment Tool Kit and a Retaining and Development Tool Kit for its managers to help show them what longer term opportunities are possible.
‘We do get people in the managed side, for example, who want to go on to their own business and have their own pub so we can assist them with this transition, giving them the tools to help them start up successfully,’ says Smith. ‘Conversely, some people want to move from a tenanted pub to a management position, while others may want to move up through management away from the bar, so it’s all about listening to people as individuals and helping them to achieve where they want to go.’
Large or small, the same rules of thumb apply. Experienced restaurateur Trevor Gulliver takes a ‘nose to tail’ approach to staff (as well as nosh) at the two St John’s restaurants where chef and co-owner Fergus Henderson weaves his ‘back to British basics’ magic.
‘We look at it as a natural thing to make sure that staff are always busy learning, so they leave knowing more than when they came,’ says Gulliver. ‘We make sure we ground them in a range of skills, generally empowering them in the whole process. We are honest and open with them, pay ’em reasonably well, and are as nice as we can be, so hopefully they will treat us the same way and enjoy working here.’ Over time, St John has built up a long-standing roll-call of loyal staff.

Hannibal Lecter’s guide to smiley staff recruitment

Note: Only 10 of the 12 suggestions above are serious. Imbibe takes no responsibility for it if you choose to take Dr Lecter at his word and go about grilling your staff.

Business insight

Gulliver also mentions wine training, which is also picked up by Heather McKnight, currently manager at The Harrow at Little Bedwyn, though soon to head off to the Fat Duck for six months’ training herself before going on to manage a new Heston Blumenthal modern British troughery at the Mandarin Oriental.
‘Training is very important, along with constant encouragement and getting staff included in a lot of things, but this can also be imaginative and doesn’t have to cost a lot of money,’ says McKnight. ‘For example, we have taken staff out to see where our food is sourced, to a local pig farm, to an eel smokery in Somerset, on a local truffle hunt, and there are trips to wine regions and plenty of tastings
which we encourage staff to attend.’
The more serious side of this training is revealed in Wine & Spirit Education Trust exams, management courses, and liaison with local community and tourism groups – all things that both boost the business and help individual staff members to grow in experience.
If there are any lingering doubts out there that this business – at least at the entry level - is still little more than a part-time repository for resting actresses and fugitive ne’er-do-wells, then a few thoughts, facts and figures from Sean Wheeler, group director of people at Malmaison and Hotel du Vin puts them to rest in a jiffy.

‘It is essential to let people know that this is a structured business and what their path for development can be,’ he says. ‘We have 22,000 staff across the whole group, with 15 Hotel du Vins and 12 Malmaisons in the UK, and a very strong philosophy of recruiting from within, which means 92% of our managers, 90% of our chefs and 78% of our GMs have come through the company.’ And Wheeler says the GM figure is only lower because of necessity due to recent fast expansion. Add in staff meals, fantastic staff B&B rates up and down the country, medical care, pensions, all manner of training, wine trips, and much else besides, and the picture is of a sophisticated and enviable business in which to work.
The message from those with the best staff retention in the business is clear. Unless you yourself run a great business, with passion and flair, innovation and honesty, and allow staff empowerment and development, you won’t attract or hold onto decent staff. The days are long gone of the King’s shilling and the loaded pistol to retain loyalty. And of course, as Gulliver points out, the working environment should also be fun.

Staff Retainer
Restaurant manager Adele Stebbings on continuity at La Trompette, Chiswick
‘We’re lucky, the team has been with us for a while. Matthieu Longuere, our head sommelier, has been here for seven years. His wine knowledge is a big draw for the restaurant and people want to work with him. Matt has bags of knowledge, encourages training, includes all staff in tastings, has everyone on the list for wine education (and most staff have been through WSET courses), and makes a big effort to ensure suppliers come and give tastings and training.
‘We do encourage progression within the company, so if any positions come up
in the five restaurants [including Chez Bruce and The Ledbury], we ask internally
first. We don’t have a huge hierarchy, but do have clear opportunities to develop within the company and having great staff attracts good quality people.’

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine – July/August 2010

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