Barcelona Restaurant Group is always trying to attract andretain only those employees who reinforce its service-orientedculture and provide top-quality customer service. The manager beinginterviewed in the video is constantly recruiting and hiring newemployees and letting low performers and poor fits go. He alsotries to provide job candidates with a realistic description of thecompany’s expectations to ensure that they know what they would begetting into if they took a job with the company.

Task: Read the “Barcelona” case below andthen consider the following questions.

>> It's funny, when I got hired I had to define thephilosophy. I figured the more I say it and the more I preach itand the more people I hire and tell that to, eventually that wouldhappen. And I think we're getting there three years later. Humanresources is one of the most important things we do in ourbusiness. You can't train people to be enthusiastic, nice, fun,great people. We have to hire that. And this is a transientbusiness. So, people are constantly moving. So, the minute you stoplooking you're actually sliding backwards. So, we're always hiring.And we're always firing. My name is Scott. I'm the COO forBarcelona Restaurant Group. I think in the three years I've workedhere only one or two managers out of quite a few have quit.However, we've turned over probably 60 to 70% of management in thepast three years. And that is because we were not afraid to letpeople go. We demand a certain level of quality. And we'recontinuously raising the bar on what our expectations are. And theother thing is this is a high burnout business. People burn out.Somebody who was great a year ago may not be great this year. Youguys are famous for friendly service. I mean this is how you builtthe business. This is how you guys went from a losing restaurant toa restaurant that is making money that's in the game with everybodyelse. And I'm getting some signs. They did not feel welcome by D.J.They love Barcelona, but they said it just didn't feel likeBarcelona to them.

>> That's what they perceived it to be. That is what itwas. I'm not, I'm not denying that from any standpoint. I just sawhim hustling and doing a really good --

>> Well, let's put it another way. D.J. can be good. Rightnow he's not. So, Yeah, so have somebody else there or make himreal good, real fast.

>> If you think it's somebody who's got, you know, who hasgot the ability, happy in the kitchen, then you owe it to them tospend a night, two nights, three nights glued to them. Figure itout.

>> So, we got to just double our efforts. Does everybodyhave a Craigslist ad in right now for servers?

>> I need bussers. I just hired servers. I needbussers.

>> OK. We're always hiring. We're always, keep the adsrunning. That's our philosophy. We're always bringing in. We'realways calling out the bottom 20%. There's always somebody betterout there than our worst servers. I have an interview every day. Iinterview people every single day. You guys should be too. That'show you get better. You hire your way out of your problems becausewe can train people all day, but we can't find happy people withgood attitudes. We can't train that into people. Either they are orthey aren't. Human resources is the biggest thing we do. And Ireally think for any company that is involved in customer serviceit is the most important thing you can do is have the right peoplein front of your customers. You don't have to have the greatestresume in the world to make it into the interview. I'll have asmany as four to six interviews a day. They last 20 minutes. I don'ttake a long interview. I don't take a long interview because Idon't believe I get anything out of the actual conversation. I'vehired too many people that I thought were amazing in an interview,and they ended up being a dud and vice versa. I do more talkingthan they do quite often in the interview because I am trying tojust kind of get across the philosophy, who we are, what we'regoing to do, and I've got the spiel pretty well nailed now. But myprocess is a three-stage process. Interview them. Send them out ona shop. I send prospective management, whether I like them or not,even if I know I'm not going to hire them I still send them on theshop. And I give them $100 allowance and tell them to go out to therestaurants, one or two of the restaurants if possible and eat afew tapas, sit down, have a couple drinks, and write me an essay.It lets me see what is important to them within the restaurantbecause I think we, as professionals, in this industry cannot justgo to a restaurant and not pay attention to what's going onwhether, it drives my wife crazy, but I see everything. And I haveto make a conscious choice not to get annoyed by it. So, I try totap into that with our candidates. I also get a sense of theirlevel of education, of their intelligence, of their ability tocomplete a task. There's a lot of other ancillary things that comeout of that process, how long it takes them to do it, whether it'stwo weeks later, whether it's the next day, how excited they are.And I think they get something out of it too because sometimesthese candidates come in blind. They don't know our restaurantgroup or, you know, they might be from New York. They might be fromsomewhere else, and they're driving in for the interview. So, thisintroduces them to the brand. So, they're learning about us at thesame time. If it's a good shop, it doesn't have to be a great shop,if it's a good shop I'll go to the Stage 3, which is I want you topretend like you've worked for us for six months, and I want to seewho you are. I want to see you commanding the floor, making friendswith the guests, talking to the staff. I want to see who you wouldbe for me. If they do a good job on that, at that point we starttalking about a job.

>> Would you pass your own test? Would you hire you?

>> That's a good question. I think I would. Well, I don'tknow. I don't know if I would have the floor presence that I demandout of my managers. I am not sure that I would be a great floormanager for Barcelona.

1. (a) How does the BarcelonaRestaurant Group focus on fit?

     (b)What types of fit does Barcelona try to optimize whenhiring?

    

2. (a) How does sendingmanagerial candidates on a $100 “Shop” serve as anRJP?

     (b)Explain why you think this would or would not be effective inhelping job candidates assess their fit with the BarcelonaRestaurant Group.

3. (a) Besides the “Shop,” howelse does Barcelona try to maximize employee fit?

     (b)What other suggestions do you have for the company to improve newhires’ fit with the job and organization?