Hiring should never be as complicated as crime scene investigating. So when the largest owner of an Applebee's franchise reduced management turnover and saved $345,000, the HR director was pleased to see another sudden benefit: simplicity.
“It’s not CSI – it’s ABC,” says Frank Romano about the ProfileXT®. Romano is the Executive Director of HR at Concord Hospitality in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The company, which operates 50 restaurants and similar properties across the Midwest, has a stated mission to be the destination of choice for all guests.
While the business as a whole was successful, one location was facing serious issues. Despite their best efforts, turnover among managers was becoming increasingly higher and stuck at 41.1%, a figure that is 20% higher than the industry average.
This one issue in turn resulted in a ripple effect, increasing turnover among hourly staff and eventually affecting service and sales.
An experienced HR executive, Romano knew he needed an assessment tool to help better analyze future candidates for the available jobs.
The fast-paced culture of the restaurant business is not for everyone; it can be a very high-stress position with managers often dealing with thousands of customers and complaints each week. Therefore, Romano needed to identify certain types of people for the manager positions.
It may be obvious that managers of restaurants must have particular qualities; however, finding out if a candidate truly possesses them is the tricky part. A person can look and seem like a good fit on paper, but in reality lack these critical qualities. Concord’s approach to using assessments in order to manage their turnover rates have yielded some staggering results to date:
Estimated savings of $345,000
687% ROI at the end of 2010
5.1% reduction in turnover in year one
5.6% reduction in turnover in year two
2011 turnover reached 31.9%
$1,480,000 reduction in hourly associate turnover costs
“None of our other systems for manager hiring, training, and retention changed over this time frame,” says Romano. “The only change was switching to Profiles, which has given us greater feedback to better determine the success potential of candidates. I believe it has caused us to hire managers that fit the casual dining restaurant industry standard.”
Finally, Romano relates that the assessments provided leaders at the hospitality organization with an “A ha!” moment. “We found that we were able to tailor the assessments to our company’s top performers. We know who they are; once we identify them, we then look at reasons they are top performers and put that into the assessment. So you are matching up to top performers if you are going to be a general manager with us. It’s a great way to hone in on success by using the assessment. That is very exciting.”
Learn just how Frank Romano and Concord achieved these outstanding results, register for our complimentary webinar.
Date & Time: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 @ 11:00 am CST
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