With industry turnover down and job applications up, restaurant operators are being choosier in their hiring decisions. Many companies have been using behavioral screening to find those candidates with personalities compatible with hospitality and service, but another attribute to look for in a potential employee is entrepreneurship, said Jeffery Elsworth, a 20-year industry veteran. Elsworth started out as a dishwasher and is now an associate professor of hospitality and business entrepreneurship at Michigan State University’s School of Hospitality Business.
“Think Like an Owner,” a new study by Elsworth and colleagues Jeffrey Beck, associate professor, and Ronald Cichy, professor and director of the hospitality school, reveals the attributes of entrepreneurs and ways to strengthen those characteristics in employees. The study is based on the responses of 182 operators, owners and executives in foodservice and lodging. Fifty-one percent of respondents worked in foodservice, and 49 percent in lodging.
What’s the importance of an ownership mentality?
The idea is to communicate to an employee: “We want you to be successful and help us be successful. One of the best ways to do that is to take it upon yourself to think like we do.”
If you think about what we talk about in HR, about empowerment for employees, it seems the next logical step is to give them that ownership-like feeling.
How do you mean?
When you need to make a decision—say, about your shift and how you will wait on tables—you think, “If I’m the guy who owns the place, what would I do?”
What are the characteristics of entrepreneurs?
Agility, problem-solving pragmatist, creative savviness, legacy leader, interpersonal communications and intrapersonal communications.
Let’s talk a bit about each one. Agility?
Being adaptable, autonomous. You are comfortable in making decisions. Independent. Resourceful.
Problem-solving pragmatist?
Objectivity, realistic, factual. Able to balance work and personal life.
Creative savvy?
Creativity, intuition, inventiveness, political savviness.
Legacy leader?
You visualize success and build a legacy and a foundation for the future.
Interpersonal communications?
Listening, empathy. You’re able to communicate the vision.
Intrapersonal?
Listening to oneself, honesty, patience, having technical skills.
Can an employer or owner train employees to have these characteristics?
These characteristics have to be innate, but an employer can provide the environment to make them better. These are what I call implications for hiring, things we have to look for in terms of hiring.
What do you look for?
When you are hiring people, you want them to be honest. You can do the psychological testing; ask questions that get to the honesty of a candidate. Do they have good technical skills, listening skills? Are they a problem solver? Do they know the numbers? Do they have a desire to create a memorable experience for the customer?
We come up with these tests that help us to get attitudes, but in most cases, it ends up being a gut reaction thing as to whether this person is right or not. A lot of it has to do with the concentration on the hiring process. How important is it for us to get the right person?
Say you get the right person, one who thinks like an owner. Then what?
Motivation comes from within. All you can do is provide the environment that enables them to give their best effort. This is why culture is so important, [including] training and coaching and orientation—the things that are taken for granted and we do not do very well, but are so important.
