Skip to main content

Hire for Attitude - Train for Skill?

This post is quite dear to my heart - and I thought long time ago to write it up.

Todays management is focussed on "hire for attitude, train for skill". But we can't deny, that there is a certain decline of real skill in the global hospitality industry. I am not focussing on few markets, which flourish in craft bartending [Manhattan, Bay Area and few other spots in the US, certain parts of Germany, Paris, London]. Fact is, that in most areas, craft is in the decline.

The HfA-TfS could be one reason for it. Why? Let me explain.

I am working now one_and_a_half decades in hospitality - and especially in the luxury hotel industry. I exactly joined one bar, only, which was working on an adequate level of bartending [by the way, it is a bar, which you would expect the least this kind of quality - only thanks to Ralph Adamski, who was the bar manager].
All other bars had quite poor drinks, a mediocre beverage portfolio and not knowledgeable bartenders or bar waiters.

I believe, that you can hire for attitude, but can't just focus on this. You also have to hire for skills. I usually also hired for attitude [and sometimes plain old honesty] and not for skills - but only, because I felt comfortable to train myself. On the job training and class room training.

However the point is, if you don't have this expertise in your house [and lets face it - you have such a person seldom in your organization], you need to "buy in expertise".
You could do it with a consultant. To be honest: I never really believed in F&B consultancy. Yes- definitely for creating a proper bar [or restaurant] concept. Even for creating a good and contemporary beverage portfolio and cocktail selection. But for training?
Usually I see, that bartenders pick up an adequate bar knowledge after several month. At this time your bar consultant would be long gone…

This might not be a post for my readers in the US - as the bar there is so different.

Then, if you trained your colleagues, there is another obstacle: the best bartenders I trained, did quite a quick career, and are now F&B managers, bar experts, consultants, bar owners.
Ok - most of them would be interested, to work for me again - but not as normal bartenders and not for the usual little money, most companies are willing to pay.

Maybe it is time to have a different approach to recruitment: to hire for people, who love their job and whose priorities are not to grow [classically] as fast as possible in their organization!?

Anyway - for me it is very questionable, to HfA-TfS managers and people who train others. Maybe they are great leaders - however I believe that hospitality is carried equally by being good hosts and offering a great product. If it is in imbalance, the overall quality will suffer [if people are recognizing it immediately or not].





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Agar-Agar Clarification

Not often, I am posting here things, which are clearly not my ideas... However Dave Arnold is clearly a mad scientist [no, he really is!] - and he posted amazing stuff on his website www.cookingissues.com - no - don't click now - just follow the link later. One of the most impressive posts about mixology, besides of demystifying the mechanics of shaking, were clarification techniques. Look, after him, you could use a centrifuge [which would set you back a couple thousand bucks] and a chemical compound, which solidifies sediments. I am not a fan of that. Then there is gelatine clarification; this works quite well [I tried it several times my self] - you gelatinize a liquid [with little gelatine only], freeze it, thaw it [in the fridge] over a colander and a muslin cloth. Thats it. Unfortunately this has several problems: Gelatine is made out of animal bones - hence it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, which you won't usually expect of a beverage. You have to freez...

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time. I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution!  But when Chris, over at A Bar Above  discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion". Here is the video: I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris. What is citric acid? Chemical Compound Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7 Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol Melting Point: 153C Density: 1.66 g/cm3 Boiling point: 175C Soluble in: Water Why is it controversial? In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [ preferably in powder form ] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most ...

"Monin Rocks!" - Really?

R ussell S anchez MONIN UAE MONIN Rocks @ HARD ROCK CAFE Dubai  — with   Rhiandro Gardiner  and Louie Aquias  at  Hard Rock Cafe . I have seen this on my Facebook timeline. And well... I wanted to write about Monin since quite a long time, but haven't. However this message was a catalyst, to speak up. It is already a couple of months ago, that I routinely checked the ingredient list of a Monin bottle. ...and was shocked.... Point is, that I have always defended Monin against my US colleagues as decent brand. At least with the products they offered here in the Middle East and in Europe; they came from their factory in France. Most of the ingredients [except lets say in Blue Curacao syrup] were natural. Long time ago, somebody from Monin explained, that this is due to the quite strict regulations in France for syrup - there it is a family culture to drink syrup sweetened water/seltzer. And off course ...