A Waiter and HR Pro Walk Into A Bar
I resigned from my HR position in Austin, TX in the middle of a global pandemic because I was reprimanded for emailing my business units about the “injustice in America.”
Additionally, I was asked to terminate an employee for reasons I felt were racially motivated. When I put my foot down about the termination, I was told to get in line and “do my job.”
The email I sent to my business units was sent the same week as the murder of another black man in America and the racially motivated termination. My email simply said: the world is on fire, there’s injustice in America, and we have EAP to help. You aren’t alone, I’m here for you.
The company wouldn’t say black lives mattered. The company tried to force me to fire a black employee for no reason. The company allowed white men to treat me in a discriminatory manner, they didn’t handle Covid19 with an employee-centered mindset, and my morals were being crushed, so I left in June without another job lined up. The company did not let me clean out my office; they mailed back my items destroyed.
None of that really mattered, because black lives will always matter more than my job.
As I embarked on a job search during a global pandemic I knew I would be in the search for a long time. I decided to be picky, to stay away from another company that picked profit over people despite how well the marketing department said otherwise, and I knew my salary range (which I will not budge on) would be tough for some to swallow. (Side note HR pros: never allow an economy, a hiring manager, or your own insecurities change your financial worth. Women and people of color, do not ever budge on your salary requirements, ever).
I was right about the long haul of the job search.
It’s October and I’m still trudging through the dehumanizing candidate experience.
This post is not about that experience, however (that will come once I’ve accepted an offer, have no fear).
A few weeks ago I went back to the trade that saved my ass when I couldn’t make ends meet working as an entry level HR professional - bartending.
Going back to bartending in 2020 was easy because I’m not classist and have never allowed my job to define my worth. It was also easy because I am deeply passionate about waiting as long as it takes to pick the right HR role and bartending allows me to do that. Bartending has taught me more about HR than SHRM ever has, but who’s surprised there?
A week into bartending I was asked to manage all the servers and bartenders for the restaurant. The owner and lead Chef of the restaurant is a great owner and knew he had the opportunity to tap into a people managing expert, so he did.
In the two weeks I have been managing this extremely diverse team, profits have dramatically increased, positive reviews have poured in, business is booming, and the culture of the front of house team (FOH) has done a 180.
This post is about how those changes happened. It’s about how Human Resources can, and does, change the bottom-line of any industry simply by influencing the humans employed by a company; it’s about how when we Let There Be HR, remarkable things happen.
What I implemented the moment I started managing this FOH team:
Weekly team meetings that all shifts attend - I provide a printed agenda and there’s time built in for each team member to talk, and I listen. Getting opening shift and closing shift together can be a nightmare, but it’s worth it. Giving serving staff a printed agenda seems silly to some until those some realize when you treat FOH like humans they’ll make you a profit like you’ve never seen. After our first meeting each team member came to me individually and told me how much the meeting meant to them, how heard they felt, and how happy they were to have these on the schedule. Putting both shifts face to face reduces the animosity that can come when opening shift blames closing shift and closing shift blames opening shift. We became a team instead of serving staff in these meetings.
A culture mission statement - This FOH is one of the most diverse groups of people I’ve worked with, and that caused friction. I created a culture mission statement sentence and presented it to the team in a meeting. The end of that sentence said, “and we do it with legit dance parties.” Then, the team created a second sentence for that culture mission statement without me. Together we all owned that whole mission statement, put the friction behind us, and they’ve been vibing since. If an issue comes up they stand on the statement they have ownership of and they hold themselves, each other, and me to that statement. This statement is not a company mission statement, it’s a culture mission statement. If you don’t have one of these, it’s time.
Training - We did training on the restaurant’s concept, how to upsell, and how patrons should feel during their time with us for everyone. Then we practiced on each other, and kept up little micro trainings. If someone got a table, they’d grab a table set up platter, look at a fellow teammate and say their concept pitch quickly before going to the table. They made the pitch their own, got to know our food and drinks so they could upsell with pairings that made sense, and they really started to take pride in how happy patrons were with their meal experience. Tabs went from $45 to $125 because FOH felt confident upselling and having a good time doing it. Training isn’t just about getting the knowledge into a human’s mind, it’s about getting their brain to feel confident and comfortable with what they’re doing. Anxiety can be the main killer of your profit and as HR you should be able to have a game plan for this.
Aggressive transparency - I have always labeled myself as aggressively transparent; it’s why I’m such a phenomenal employee relations expert. It’s also why teams and leaders trust me. The owner of this restaurant is very transparent and once he and I sat down to look at the financials, I started a daily goal of how much money we wanted to make in sales. My goal has been to increase profits by $1000 a week for the next four weeks. I began writing a daily profit goal on a piece of paper and each shift knew the goal. Throughout the day I would tell them where we were at, and we would blast a couple great songs to get us pumped for big reservations to help us get ready to make that number. After a few days of this I now have FOH close a tab, then come to me and ask how much closer we are to our daily goal. They’ve caught the wave of reaching the goal together and we’re becoming more profitable together. Instead of stressing about my own new goal I have the team join in. Instead of scaring them with a new goal we shake our butts, feel confident that we can make this happen, and check the numbers.
Measurable unmeasurables - HR pros have become experts in creating metrics for seemingly unmeasurables like productivity and work satisfaction. Most of this is fueled by our deep need to be accepted as business partners and not just admin support, however the truth is we can actually measure people-related matters if we have a legitimate understanding of our industries. Restaurants, especially in the time of Covid19, depend on making patrons feel something positive so they can forget the hell this year has been. FOH is almost entirely responsible for that feeling, and that feeling can be measured. In addition to rolling up my sleeves and making margaritas, bussing tables and joining in every dance party, I’ve made it my job to visit every table before they leave and ask how their service was. Each FOH team member that gets a shoutout from a table gets a tally mark, and the person with the highest tally marks at the end of the pay period receives an Amazon gift card. Running a spiff is equal parts motivating the team (and trust me, they check those tallies and they’re proud of them!), showing the team that I’m visiting their tables and care about how they do, and measuring how my team makes patrons feel so the owner can have a measurable for a formerly unmeasurable item. Lastly, celebrating FOH staff should be the heart and soul of what management does. Value your humans, tell them you value them, watch your profits soar.
Profits rising, business booming, positive reviews flooding in, and the FOH team dancing and singing because they’re comfortable where they work are all just a few benefits of HR’s influence at an organization. Whether HR has a seat at the table, is an army of one, or a bar manager waiting for their next opportunity, the influence of a legitimate human resources professional is tangible, profitable and powerful.
As always, go do the damn thing HR.