Cheese Focus: 6 Tips for Recruiting and Retaining Cheese Staff

With unemployment at historically low levels, finding good employees for the cheese counter has never been more challenging, retailers say. Even widely admired employers like Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco report that they struggle to fill positions. And in some communities, high-paying entry-level jobs in technology are luring young people away from careers in food.

To keep the cheese department fully staffed, today’s retailers need to be more strategic about recruitment and more thoughtful about retention. Conversations with several top cheese merchants around the country reveal some tactics for successful staffing in these competitive times.

1. Cast a wide net. Of course, you use online sites like Craigslist, Culinary Agents, and Good Food Jobs and post your openings on the pages of relevant Facebook groups. But does your own site have a page listing open positions? Do you have in-store signage to alert customers to the opportunities? Your own customers can be good targets as they probably live near your store and clearly like cheese.
   
   Bi-Rite senior recruiter Faun Skyles recommends networking with local organizations, from the community college’s placement office to the city’s economic development department. Make sure they know about your company and its core values. If you can’t get away from your store, invite the economic development officer to come tour your facility and have lunch. Get informed about local job-training programs and mission-based hiring programs for people, such as veterans, who need an assist to get back in the workforce.
   
   Zingerman’s targets local culinary schools. “Because we’re retail, we can give the grads better hours than restaurants,” says manager Grace Singleton. The store has also recently developed an internship program to create a pathway from school to a fulltime job.
    
2. Incentivize employees. Your staffers understand the company culture and can be your most effective recruiters. Good people want to work with other good people. Several retailers use financial incentives to motivate employees to recruit capable friends. Typically, they offer a small reward for facilitating a new hire, with a bonus if the recruit is still on the job after three or six months.
    
3. Be flexible. People expect competitive pay, of course, but money isn’t always what seals the deal. For some—especially students, people with young children, or those who have to work multiple jobs—a flexible schedule is like gold. If you can promise someone Sundays off or no early morning shifts, that may be more valuable than higher pay.
   
   “What I think attracts people is good hours: not too early and not too late,” says Gina Frieze, proprietor of four Venissimo stores in the San Diego area. “We’re very flexible and word gets around about that. We don’t have strict dress codes. We work with people on their schedule if they’re going to school or want to hold two jobs.”
   
   It also pays to think creatively about where applicants might fit in your organization, beyond the position they applied for. “Our recruiter tries to think about what role they might be best in,” says Virginia Sheetz, human resources director for Di Bruno Bros. in Philadelphia. “If you apply for cashier but you have the potential to work behind the counter, we’ll consider you for that.”
    
4. Get creative with benefits. Not every employer can afford to offer healthcare coverage. But can you offer a free or subsidized meal for each shift worked? Can you subsidize a worker’s commute? Venissimo staffers can take any of the store’s cheese classes for free and bring a guest. Installing a point-ofsale system that prompts customers to leave tips can also boost a clerk’s takehome pay significantly. “When a monger spends 30 minutes with somebody, that person is very willing to offer a tip,” reports Frieze. At Venissimo shops, tips are shared among all who worked on a given day. “I’m surprised how much that has added,” she says.
   
   When you can’t offer a higher wage, think about what you can do. Frieze says her employees really appreciate that she encourages them to work occasionally in her other stores, to get exposure to different cheeses, shoppers, and management styles.
    
5. Provide opportunities for education and growth. Invest in your employees’ professional growth by helping them build skills or deepen their cheese knowledge. Some stores organize field trips to local dairy farms or creameries; others bring vendors into the stores for staff education. Di Bruno sponsors selected employees who want to try for the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional credential, providing extra mentoring and help with related expenses.
   
   For small companies that aren’t adding stores, carving paths for advancement for valued employees can be tricky. At Venissimo, a longtime employee who had sensed customer interest in classes suggested growing that side of the business. The employee developed and now oversees the company’s Academy of Cheese. Frieze also hopes to make use of another employee’s culinary skills to build her offsite catering business.
    
6. Communicate early and often. Employees want frequent feedback. They love praise—who doesn’t?—but they also deserve to know quickly when they’re not meeting your expectations. Zingerman’s managers are trained to aim for a four-to-one ratio of positive to negative comments, which keeps leaders on the alert for behaviors to praise. To structure feedback, the Michigan retailer uses a “Liked Best/Next Time” system, says Singleton. A manager might sit down with an employee after a tough shift and ask what the employee liked best about the day and what they think they should do better next time, followed by the manager’s perspective on the same questions. “These are coaching moments,” says Singleton.
   
   Bi-Rite encourages staffers to nominate colleagues for a “Big Cheese” award for going above-and-beyond in customer service or another realm. Honorees get a small store gift card and, perhaps more important, recognition throughout the company. Frieze gives her managers a monthly budget to reward superstars or to use on an employee bonding experience, like a pizza party.
   
   “Nothing is more fulfilling than catching people doing great things and praising them for it,” says Steven Rosenberg of Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake City. “And there’s nothing better than watching an employee blush from getting praised in front of their peers.
   
   Asking employees for feedback is another practice among leading retailers. Bi-Rite surveys its 300-person staff annually. Employees can fill out the survey anonymously on company time, using company computers. The results help the human resources team know what benefits people most value and provides insights that might not emerge otherwise.
   
   “Employees want to be heard,” says Liberty Heights’ Rosenberg, who has been in business for 27 years. “They have great ideas and it’s important to listen. You think you know it all and have done it all, but a day doesn’t go by that a new person doesn’t teach me things.”

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