Question:
Can you really train employees to be nice?
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Answer:
There aren’t any special pills I can give you. Chefs tell me—and I think they’re spot on—that when you’re interviewing someone to work in your operation, you need to look at behavioral traits. Those can be part of your criteria when you’re hiring, and they are almost more important than the actual skills. Don’t misread the message—you need to have the skills—but if you don’t have that baseline of behavior, those skills are harder to teach. So what’s the easy way? Find somebody who has those hospitality skills.
When you meet an applicant, how is their handshake? What are their body language, eye contact and smile like? Are they focused? Are they sitting on the edge of their seat during the interview? Those are how you find the right people—that gets you halfway through the challenge. Then you can weigh their skill set: How are their knife skills; do they know the right tasks that need to be done?
Once you have your staff together, you need to continue to reinforce those behaviors. You need to educate your personnel that it’s your goal to create “wow” moments for the customer. And you need to teach by example. When I hold the door for a student or employee, I will say “It’s my pleasure.” It’s not, “No problem.” Show that it truly is your pleasure, and mean it with sincerity—don’t just say it. That will go a long way.
—Lynne Eddy
Associate Professor
Business Management
The Culinary Institute of America