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Losers and Winners: High Minimum Wages

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From minimum wage to salaries, compensation for employees is a never-ending topic for business owners to research, discuss and work through. With a rise in the conversation of wages in recent years, including law changes to minimum wage rates, there’s a lot of confusion left for sorting through when it comes to cutting a paycheck.

Let’s set the groundwork for why the minimum wage battle has both business owners and employees uptight.

As a whole, the goal of any minimum wage increases can be seen as both good and bad. When you stop and consider the goal, minimum wage increases are set to help reduce income inequality and to increase the earning of middle-class households.

On the flip side, if your goal for an increase in wages is to help the least experienced and most needy job seekers find their place in the workforce, then the minimum wage increase can truly hurt them and your business.

Recall the 2014 analysis of the effects of increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from $7.25, where it has been since 2009. It was found that the boost would increase the earnings of millions of workers by a total of $31 billion. It also found that the increase would reduce employment by hundreds of thousands of jobs, and that less than one dollar in every five of that $31 billion would go to households living in poverty.

So, what is the lesser of two evils? Higher pay for employees, or less employees in the workforce?

Following the federal wage increases, individual cities and states have stepped up to raise those minimum standards even greater. Take Seattle for example, the Seattle city council voted in June 2014 to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour over a period of a few years. Seattle’s minimum wage hit $13 last year (on its way to $15), and the consequences aren’t pretty.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington found that the number of low-wage jobs in Seattle declined considerably as a consequence of the $13 per hour mandate. They also found that the number of hours worked by low-wage labor declined by 9 percent, while wages increased by only 3 percent. Since hours went down more than wages went up, the net result is that the amount of money earned by low-wage workers actually fell.

So, what’s the workforce and business owners supposed to do about the good, the bad and the honest stats from minimum wage increases?

We’d propose one thing: there may not be a perfect blanket solution for all employees in every industry and in every city across the United States. Perhaps it’s more of a city by city or industry by industry standard which should be set.

We want to hear your feedback. What ways has the change of wage requirements affected your business or career search? Are you running an establishment on less employees but paying more?

When Is It Time to Promote?

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When is it time to promote an employee? That question could cost you a lot… a lot of time, money and energy. The reality is, not every employee wants to be promoted, even if you can see their leadership skills developing. Plus, for the ones that want to move on up, there’s no sure path to working with hourly employees to develop their leadership skills and get them to the place you’d feel comfortable offering up a promotion.

Staffing is one of the biggest challenges a business owner overcomes. There’s a lot of juggling between interviewing, training and maintaining employees. The stats are in favor of promoting current employees when hiring managers with exceptional characteristics and work ethic.

The less time as a business owner you may have to spend seeking out new management, the more time you’ve got to begin hiring and training hourly employees to grow with your business.

So, what does it take for an hourly employee to look and act ready for a promotion into management?

They’re self-managed.

There’s a lot to say about an employee who arrives on time, takes care of business and is always solving problems for themselves in a professional manor. From the get go, it’s usually easy to see what standout individuals are a part of your team.

They lead in a way they’d want to be led.

Among the restaurant industry, there can be a lot of personalities which sometimes result in some unpleasant moments in the back of house. An employee ready to manage carries themselves in the way they’d want their own manager to handle conflict and works to keep themselves clear of causing personal conflict. Whether it’s getting along with every employee or you use her or him as an example of patience, performance and productivity – employees working towards promotion lead by example.

They invest their time with quality employees greater than themselves to learn.

It’s been said that you are the cumulative sum of the five people you spend the most time with. Outstanding team members tend to hang with people who they can learn from and look up to.

They set goals and achieve them.

Leaders set goals and develop a roadmap to accomplish them. And when they need help to accomplish their goals? They ask! Look at your timecards… who is putting in the hours during the busy days and during the times it is somewhat inconvenient to work, whether that be holidays or evening. The best future manager you can hire is the one who puts in the time today.

Working to identify and continue developing leaders within your staff who can grow with you and become a manager is one of the most stressful yet rewarding roles of owning a restaurant.

What’s been the top way you’ve been able to identify todays leaders that will be tomorrows managers?

KEY HIRING ESSENTIALS TO AVOIDING TURNOVER

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From what goes on the plates to who serves it, it all comes down to who you hire.  What are they like? How do they interact with the guest? What’s their reaction to conflict? One bad hire can infect and affect an entire staff and bring a line of issues for yourself and your guest.
Beyond a bad hire ruining a guest experience, the cost of a bad hire is high.  According to the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers, the average cost wasted on a bad hire is $20,000 per manager and $2,225 per hourly employee. Let the numbers speak for themselves.
So before your cash goes down the drain and a bad reputation spreads from poor guest experiences, consider these 2 key hiring essentials – it might just save you both time and money!
Hire the candidates with a level of high engagement. 
What’s the employee’s engagement level? It’s a candidates market and individuals are looking for the greatest and newest opportunities consistently.  Beyond the hire that stands out on paper with the skills to perform well, who are the ones with a genuine interest in the food and beverage industry as a whole? They are the ones likely to be satisfied in your working environment and therefore a steady employee.
More than just engaged in the industry, hire the candidate with shown social engagement skills too.  When employees are socially engaged in their career, guests notice it too. So what’s “socially engaged” mean? We’re talking about the candidates who like to lend a helping hand to their fellow co-workers, find importance in celebrating accomplishments and are not out to just make a buck or two…We’re talking about the ones who speak with the guest dining and are eager to ensure their experience is the best and most welcoming possible. Whether you’re after a close knit family culture, a strong team emphasis or any other cultural work ideas, hire the candidates who have shown you the social skills to meet your goals.  Your guest and other employees will thank you for the engagement levels each new employee possesses.
Hire the candidate you have screened fully.
It’s the 21st century and that means a whole new world of opportunity to automate the age-old hiring process.
From online applications to personality test, take advantage of the tools available to help “do the legwork” for you to weed out the candidates who don’t make a qualified fit.  Find out more than just previous work history and education… discover their character and outlook on work with a variety of online questionnaire surveys.
There’s far more to screening a candidate for hire beyond a one-time face to face interview.  In fact, it’s the hires that you interview one time with just a paper application who are costing you the big bucks we call turnover.  One example to setting an automated screening process to help eliminate high turnover rates could include setting up online surveys for previous employers and references to reply with detailed information on each candidate’s performance.
There’s more to the age-old practice of hiring than ever before… what are you doing to make it not only hard for candidates to want to walk away from your company after their hire, but before even accepting the position to ensure you’ve got the right hire?

4 Ways to Improve Your Hospitality Hiring Process

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Hiring the right people and limiting employee turnover are two of the biggest challenges every hospitality manager faces. Bad hiring decisions can affect customer satisfaction, team morale, & increase turnover. Fortunately, making good hiring decisions will have the opposite effect. Use these 4 tips to be sure that you’re investing your time training people who plan to stick around and will be a positive addition to your team.

 

Cast a Wide Net: What’s the first step to be sure you attract the best candidates? Be sure they know about the opening. Don’t just post a position to your website & hope for the best. You want to get your job listing in front of as many job seekers as possible. Tell current employees, put notices where your target employees would see them, add the listing to online career boards in your area, and post on job boards specific to your industry like Hcareers.com. The more applications and resumes you receive, the better your chances of finding a stand out candidate.

 

 

Interview Each Candidate Consistently: Every candidate brings something different to the table. There are those with stellar resumes but a more reserved personality, and those who will walk into an interview & win you over with their confident demeanor before you even glance at their experience. It’s important to know exactly what qualifications are needed to effectively fill your opening & then interview each candidate consistently to find the best fit. Don’t let a big personality win you over without asking them the same questions as everyone else to be sure the skills are there as well.

 

Consider Your Current Staff: A team that works well together is the key to a successful business. You need to hire a team player who fits in with the way your current staff works. Be sure to ask questions in the interview about the candidate’s past team performance and be on the lookout for too many answers that begin with “I” rather than “we”.

 

 

Emphasize Long-Term Benefits: This is the best way to find employees who will stick around. Interviewing and training new employees takes time and costs your business money, so you want to be sure you’re investing in people who are in it for the long haul. But potential employees want to know what’s in it for them too. You should discuss benefits such as vacation time & health insurance. Great employees are also looking at long term goals, so consider implementing mentoring and professional education opportunities as well.

 

 

PUTTING "HOSPITALITY" BACK INTO THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

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Whether you own the finest dining in town or the cafe on the corner, what’s happened to hospitality in the restaurant industry?
True hospitality in a lot of cases is simply a lost art.  Not so long ago you would have been greeted at the door of anyplace, the gas station attendant would wash your windshield and the host would happily take your coat upon arrival for dinner.
For every owner, front of house host and server, we know what you see when dining out the good, bad and ugly of hospitality. So if it’s been seen, what’s the hold up to putting it in play on the job?
Perhaps the answer lies in the basics of hiring and what we do with new staff once we’ve hired them. Restaurants are very much transient employers. People come and go and, unfortunately, service is negatively affected by turnover. Unless you have figured out that regular and consistent training is the absolute foundation of your restaurant and your first priority, your guest experience will be inconsistent at best.
The key in hiring is to look for approach, attitude and true desire to serve over prior experience. If these core values are present and you take the time to develop and train your fledgling staff, your customers will notice and reward your restaurant with their business. Once you believe in and practice effective consistent training and recognize and reward your standouts, your restaurant will have a lasting powerful advantage over your competitors. This is a simple concept, yet too often overlooked with all the other important details in running restaurants.
Don’t let hospitality be a lost art in your restaurant. Develop a new game plan that begins with your staff understanding and practicing the nuances of what service really means and what your guest seeks. Train consistently, over deliver on each guest’s expectations and take pride in sustaining the magic.

PUTTING “HOSPITALITY” BACK INTO THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

by

Whether you own the finest dining in town or the cafe on the corner, what’s happened to hospitality in the restaurant industry?
True hospitality in a lot of cases is simply a lost art.  Not so long ago you would have been greeted at the door of anyplace, the gas station attendant would wash your windshield and the host would happily take your coat upon arrival for dinner.
For every owner, front of house host and server, we know what you see when dining out the good, bad and ugly of hospitality. So if it’s been seen, what’s the hold up to putting it in play on the job?
Perhaps the answer lies in the basics of hiring and what we do with new staff once we’ve hired them. Restaurants are very much transient employers. People come and go and, unfortunately, service is negatively affected by turnover. Unless you have figured out that regular and consistent training is the absolute foundation of your restaurant and your first priority, your guest experience will be inconsistent at best.
The key in hiring is to look for approach, attitude and true desire to serve over prior experience. If these core values are present and you take the time to develop and train your fledgling staff, your customers will notice and reward your restaurant with their business. Once you believe in and practice effective consistent training and recognize and reward your standouts, your restaurant will have a lasting powerful advantage over your competitors. This is a simple concept, yet too often overlooked with all the other important details in running restaurants.
Don’t let hospitality be a lost art in your restaurant. Develop a new game plan that begins with your staff understanding and practicing the nuances of what service really means and what your guest seeks. Train consistently, over deliver on each guest’s expectations and take pride in sustaining the magic.

THE LIFESTYLE OF SEATTLE

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Seattle is only the beginning.   Beyond looking for a new career, look for a new destination to plant and root yourself in as part of growing professionally while enjoying your lifestyle to the fullest.
As a resident of Seattle you’re in for an all around exceptional lifestyle thanks to your Pacific Coast location.  You’ll never get over the view of the mountains with Mt. Rainier and the Cascades in sight if it’s a clear day in your backyard.  Plus, when the warm months finally arrive and it’s summer in Seattle, it’s amazing. It’s hot and sunny, but rarely humid or muggy – so say goodbye to all that frizzy hair you may know a little too well living in the Midwest.  But may we be the first to warn you to take note, Seattle is not made for snow.
Spend your weekends meeting new friends at the famous Pike Place market where it’s a one stop shop for fresh flowers, seafood, produce and more!
And when it’s back to the workweek, kickstart your morning with a jolt, as Seattle holds the most coffee shops per capita in the United States, so you won’t be without that warm cup of coffee to get you going each day.
 Engaging in Pacific Coast Hospitalities job openings can launch you into the Seattle market that tops any hospitality job in a traditional standpoint.  Be presented with a career where there is opportunity to maximize the skills you know you portray, and discover a greater passion behind your work.
 
Explore the possibility of reaching an optimal work-life balance from the many benefits of living in the Pacific Northwest region. 
 
Explore the reality that your work matters.  What you do and the decisions you make will have a direct impact on results with the career openings we are currently looking to fill.
 
Explore a career that will not be incidental, but will be the path you choose and don’t regret. 
Seattle, a location PCH places top hospitality candidates regularly and with confidence.  With open positions for Restaurant Managers and Chefs alike, find your place to come alive and design your perfect career centered around an exciting and growing city.

SEATTLE, WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOUR TOP KITCHEN & RESTAURANT MANAGERS:

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In today’s extremely competitive job market, we need all the help we can get to land a job anywhere, and that includes the beloved city of Seattle.
Seattle has got a name on the map for the home of Starbucks, the Seahawks and being a destination of constant rain… but that’s not all! Whether it’s the tourist destination hot spots or locally owned, specialty restaurants… there’s a place for hospitality hires to enjoy life and expand their career in this hub of the Northwest.
Throughout every neighborhood you’ll find a vast variety of restaurants and bars. “Out with the old and in with the new” has been the recent mantra with a steady stream of business development specifically in the hospitality industry – new specialty bars, wineries, casual and high end restaurants with more popping up all over this Northwestern city.
Here at PCH we recruit only the top talent.  As the fall season arrives, we have several outstanding positions open to fulfill for America’s top companies before the holiday rush takes over.  Sound like you could be the qualified candidate for one of our openings?