Don't Let Chef-Poaching Competitors Raid Your Kitchen
Does your competition have their sights set on your employees? If they do it may be time to up the ante on employee loyalty.
The practice of employee-poaching -- stealing employees from nearby competitors --costs businesses time, money, and resources they could allocate elsewhere if employees simply said "no" to outside offers. However, earning your employees' loyalty takes time, patience, and in some situations stock in the future.
In the restaurant business chefs are the primary target of poachers. While kitchen raiding is not new, culinary groupies and the dining public have elevated chefs to rock-star status. If your chef is a rock star, then he or she might be exactly what your competition needs to fill their own dining rooms -- and empty yours.
Many restaurant owners are oblivious to the reasons why they continue to lose quality employees. Dealing with the tasks of hiring, training, and integrating a new employee into an already-established team is frustrating, and it robs owners and managers of time needed to solve other problems.
With today's media attention targeted on food, restaurants and which soon-to-be-star is in working the kitchen, chefs are in the media spotlight daily. When a chef jumps to another restaurant they usually bring the feature story with them -- announcing to the world they have left your employ and nestled into a new gig down the street.
Chef-poaching even happens outside "traditional: restaurants. Take Facebook and Google: When Facebook's strategy called for an aggressive march towards the top of the Internet power chain, the company began raiding Silicon Valley neighbor Google's talent pool. And in one of those raids they enticed Josef Desimone, one of Goolge's top chefs, to change companies (and most likely email addresses) and join Facebook.
Today, Desimone serves over 11,000 meals a week to Facebook employees. Now I am sure the Google guys are not eating swill or going hungry, but the publicity Facebook received because they stole a Google chef was stellar..
On another level, Brix Restaurant in Napa Valley, a location that has had its share of tumultuous times over the past five years, recently looked to a Sonoma Valley restaurant for an executive chef in an attempt to stabilize their organization. Although they managed to raid a competitor's kitchen the Sonoma restaurant hasn't missed a beat, and Brix is still Brix.
In many cases restaurant owners only have themselves to blame for the loss of great employees. Touting, highlighting and featuring your key employees in advertising and marketing campaigns is a solid strategy -- as long as the person being featured is loyal and has your company's best interest in mind.
But for the rock star chef looking to climb the celebrity ladder, appearing in an ad may be more about finding a hotter dining room with a larger stove in the kitchen.
Beware of the accolades bestowed on talent that you helped create. Before you begin highlighting chefs and their talents make sure they are marching to the same drummer (in most successful restaurants the owner plays the drum).
Also remember that nothing keeps employees more loyal than sharing in the profits -- even if it's a small share.
