Poor hiring decisions happen. You interview a prospective employee or are considering someone for a promotion. Their experience, skills and enthusiasm convince you they're the perfect person for the job. But, a month or two later, that sinking feeling hits you -this isn't going to work out.

The original bad decision can result in more than just lost time and wages. Depending on the employees' position, it can cause severe, even irreparable, damage to a restaurant or foodservice company's reputation and loss of revenue due to cancellations, lack of repeat business and poisonous word of mouth.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take before you hire or promote that will help ensure a solid decision.

Up-Front Losses
Before discussing solutions, consider the figures. According to Mary Pille, executive vice president of The Employers Association, recruiting and retaining the best employees are among businesses' most critical issues. Turnover may run from 25 to 33 percent of annual pay.

Turnover costs can be broken into hard or direct costs, which include separation costs, temporary fill-ins, coworker overtime, advertising, interviewing, reference checking and on-the-job training. Soft or indirect costs that impact the cost of doing business are reduced productivity -e.g.,"vacation mode" prior to departure -lost productivity during training, lost productivity of others and lost business.

Consider Pille's turnover cost scenario:
· An exiting employee earns $7 per hour; the supervisor earns $12 per hour.
· The employee gives one week's notice.
· Of 20 applications received, six people are interviewed.
· A panel interview is conducted with two other employees and a supervisor.
· A full selection process takes three weeks.
· After the new person is hired, it takes four weeks of training -one full week off-site, three weeks at 50 percent productivity.
· If you employ 10 employees in this type of position, you lose on average three of these employees per year -30 percent turnover, which is on the lower end of the scale in the overall foodservice industry.

The hard cost of the above scenario is $2,795. The soft cost of the same scenario is $2,537. The total turnover cost is $5,332. Beyond these direct costs, the damage to a restaurant or foodservice business' reputation and long-term detriment to its client base can be staggering.

The Psyche of Foodservice
Most managers and supervisors know that customer service positions are key to an organization's success. But what about the foodservice industry? Does it really matter how the food gets to the customer, just as long as it gets there and meets the customer's expectations?

According to the National Restaurant Association's "2006 Restaurant Industry Overview," the foodservice industry is expected to generate about $511 billion in sales this year. This includes approximately 925,000 restaurants, serving more than 70 billion meal and snack occasions and employing about 12.5 million -more than 9 percent of the U.S. work force and the largest employer outside of government.

To meet increasing customer demands, the restaurant industry is expected to add 1.9 million jobs by 2016, for total employment of 14.4 million. That's nearly 2 million more opportunities for employers to make a hiring choice that can make or break a business' reputation. Because customer service draws a distinct line between success and failure, it is vital for foodservice managers to hire employees who personify their organizational philosophy and have the skills to excel in this type of business.

The Best on Paper
Investing in the right tools to find the best job candidates can help businesses avoid the costs of employee turnover and bad customer service. Therefore, before assessing candidates for service positions, managers need to evaluate the basic skills and abilities, experience and work attitudes needed.

Key abilities include:
· Communication -Being able to express oneself clearly in writing and speaking; listening well; reading and understanding written information
· Learning and applying new information
· Solving problems quickly
· Accuracy and speed in processing information

But attitude is important, too. Research has shown that people who are effective in service jobs demonstrate key characteristics, including courteousness, cooperation, attentiveness and extroversion.

Identifying job candidates who exhibit these traits is all part of the assessment process. But how does one objectively sort out the best performers in important areas and determine who would be best suited for the job?

For years, foodservice managers have used traditional ways to assess talent, such as reviewing resumes, conducting one-on-one interviews and checking employment references. However, that can produce biased results. Interviewers, it has been shown, tend to prefer candidates who share their personality and other qualities, regardless of company policies and laws.

So, what's the answer? One is pre-hire assessment tests, which help determine the abilities of candidates. Assessment tests provide a below-the-surface view of a candidate -characteristics that are not readily revealed during other recruiting procedures.

Pre-hire tests are neutral, third-party assessments of a candidate and help identify which candidate truly possesses the necessary skills to succeed on the job. At the same time, they help weed out candidates who are unqualified.

Here are some characteristics these tests measure:
· A candidate's past behavior in situations that required them to assist others
· How much one values working with people and helping others
· How one reacts when people are rude or hostile
· Level of patience in dealing with people
· Willingness to put other people's needs first
· Willingness to go out of one's way to help others

It is always prudent to gather as much information about the candidate as possible to support a hiring decision. Assessment tests often play a crucial role in the decision-making process and may be used in different ways in support of different decision models.

Usually, these test results are combined into an overall score profile, and the employer will have a pre-set decision policy on what results would warrant moving forward to the next step in the recruitment process. Although such tests are not typically the sole source of information, they provide reliable and valid information -and they can be used to eliminate less-promising candidates.

The bottom line is that old, conventional ways of hiring don't always work in today's driven, ever-changing marketplace where customer service and satisfaction are paramount.  FAD

Doug Walner is the president of Psychological Services Inc. a Burbank, Calif.-based pre-employment testing firm. You can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it