MEGA SESSION: Retention: Hiring on Purpose
The restaurant industry is known for its high employee turnover rates that at times can reach 100-150%. With almost 200 team members, Nick’s Pizza & Pub maintains less than a 25% turnover annually. Learn how Sarillo has turned high school kids into dream employees — smart, dedicated, resourceful, hardworking, eager to learn and willing to go out of their way to make customers happy. He shares interview tactics that will add depth to your perspective on both who to hire and how best to hire them, as well as share stories from his 18 years of experience in the restaurant business.
Nick Sarillo
Nick Sarillo is the founder, CEO and “primary keeper” of the Purpose and Operational Values of Nick’s Pizza & Pub – the sixth busiest independent pizza company in per-store sales in the United States. Founded with the purpose of providing the community with an unforgettable place where families could relax and have fun, Nick’s Pizza & Pub has margins nearly twice that of the average pizza restaurant and boasts an 80 percent employee retention rate in an industry in which the average annual turnover is nearly 150 percent. Nick credits his company’s success to his purpose-driven culture, which is the focus of his new book, A Slice of the Pie: How to Build a Big Little Business (Portfolio; 2012). Nick is a regular speaker at entrepreneurship and HR conferences, and his insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, Inc., Fast Company and Investor’s Business Daily.
Follow Nick on Twitter @NickSarillo.