Never Resign Before It's Time!

Recently, I received a follow up call after an introductory email from a mid-level restaurant operations director looking to make a change from a national brand in the northeast. We spoke at length about her professional credentials, restaurant operations experience (including her reviews and current standing with her concept), and her motivation for looking at another position. Uncertain economy notwithstanding, this was a rockstar candidate and one that I would usually represent eagerly. In fact, even in this market, I still considered representing her because her credentials and operations experience were tremendous. As I was about to say, "Sure,

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Why Restaurants Must Embrace Social Media Marketing

Social media can no longer be dismissed by restaurants as a novel concept for marketing their brand and their specific locations. Potential restaurant guests use online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube ever day, hour, even minute to interact with friends, family, colleagues, friends of friends, and more. When it comes to restaurants, social media is quickly becoming known as an inexpensive marketing tool, especially valuable to smaller concepts and franchise groups that can reach large audiences without incurring heavy marketing expenses. Beyond marketing, however,

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What You Must Know to Get Your Resume Read by a Recruiter

As a restaurant recruiter, I typically review 70+ resumes per day candidates looking for restaurant jobs in a variety of leadership roles. Since I work for the restaurant client and am charged with finding the best candidate for their position, I must quickly review resumes to determine if I should contact this person now, later, or never. I will typically take 5-10 seconds to scan a restaurant resume. Here is how that 5-10 seconds goes:

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7 Qualities and 9 Questions to Help You Select Future Leaders

Below is a guest post from Maureen Metcalf, President of Metcalf & Associates, Inc. about choosing your leadership wisely. Good read. Consider the impact a poor leader has on your organization and the cost the business incurs when recovering from a poor leader. I worked with a very bright leader and CEO of a midsized organization. He had a very high view of himself and he disagreed with any data to the contrary (including board level input). Over the short time I knew him, his senior leadership team turned over 100%. The cost of this turnover was likely well in excess of $1 million just to replace and train the new leaders. The cost does not include the customer impact because of poor service. The financial performance of the organization declined during his leadership and he was eventually removed from this role. During his tenure, his COO filed a lawsuit against him. The company did not recover from this leader and was eventually acquired when they had significant cash flow issues. The problem wasn’t with his intelligence.

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A Quest for the Best: 4 Steps to Reach Your 2010 Goals

As the first days of this New Year tick off our calendars, we may wonder what the future holds for us and our beloved restaurant industry. Some greet 2010 with great anticipation, delighted at the prospect of change. Others may dread the coming year, fearful of “what’s next?” Many more will just keep plodding the same path with their heads down, aware of the calendar change but unwilling to stop long enough to seek anything new or different. But that is precisely what we must do; dream and plan! Whether you meet this New Year with delight, dread or disregard, before you is an opportunity to map out the future you desire. But there are purposeful, planned steps you need to take to achieve your professional and personal best in the coming months. Some are easy, others require effort but all are well worth it. The steps involve dreaming, goal-setting, planning and casting your vision to others.

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The Best Ways Restaurants Can Begin to Use Twitter

This post is a guest post by Mark Berger with Swat Recruiting. Ok…everyone has at least heard of Twitter by now. Maybe you even have a profile on there. If you do you are undoubtedly subjected to a continuous stream of messages, or Tweets, that inform you of what one had for lunch, their stop at the gym, info on a sick child, or maybe some late-breaking news story that you already knew about, or even other mundane, uninteresting, needless information. Sadly, that is all part of the Twitter experience.

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