Every company has a culture. Successful companies have growth culture. Rudy Miick defines that as, “Growth culture would be one that is positive; meaning positive in attitude, positive in action, and positive in outcome. All of which lead us to profitable, high performance, on purpose. So, I’m growing with intention.
“There’re multiple kinds of growth. There’s growth in dollars, growth in volume, growth in square footage, and equipment/assets. Another way to look at growth is in a sense of worth, personally, sense of purpose, sense of environmental impact or something that makes us better human beings, living in a better world.”
A big part of a growth culture is the right team. Inbound recruiting is the difference between hiring someone to fill a slot and recruiting capable, like-minded team members. Like all things Miick it begins with grounding your business in purpose and values.
Applicants that are simply looking for a paycheck are easy to find, and just as easy to lose. Great teams have low turn over rates. Turnover is inefficient, it costs time and money.
The first step of inbound recruiting is to tell the story of your business. Who are you? How do you fit into your community? Other than making a great product or delivering great service, what do you bring to the world? What sets you apart as a work place? If you can paint the picture of your vision, it will attract people who want to make a difference in the same way you do.
Rudy explains the difference between hiring and recruiting as,
“Your sign says ‘Now hiring cook.’ That’s what I’m going to get – at best – is a cook. At worst I’m going to get a cook that’s got a cocaine or meth habit and they call themselves a cook.
“Versus I could recruit, and even though I’m a restaurant, not even a fancy restaurant, just a local one, I can put my story in the paper – meaning Indeed, Monster, Craig’s List, wherever it posts. Maybe even in my window. But instead of saying ‘Help wanted, cook’ I’m going to tell the story of our culture and how we build a community through our food and our service. How we are a place of restoral, so if you want to be treated with dignity and respect, if you want to create and learn, not only are we hiring and paying top wages, we’re doing open books and profit sharing.
“At the same time we say ‘Here’s our purpose, here’s our values’ we take it seriously. Before you even fill out the application, make sure this sounds like the place for you. Just that kind of a statement in the recruiting does filter about 10 to 25 percent of the applicants. And we know that for a fact from research we’ve done with our own work.
“So the recruiting piece is first we’re filtering for attitude and action. Second, we’re interviewing. Part of the interview then is also looking for the fit. ‘You say you are interested in our values, let’s now see how you articulate those values in action. And if we bring you onboard, the likelihood is you will stay.’ In the restaurant business, typical turnover is 200% per year. Ours is 20%. We still have turn over, but it’s healthy, were people move on to a better opportunity, a new adventure.”
