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Do you only hire when you NEED a warm body? At Nick’s Pizza & Pub, we are always hiring A+ team members. Now this may sound unbelievable to most and it is true for us. We actively interview all year long and after going through our hiring training and doing a few hundred interviews myself, I can say it is absolutely worth it and a great learning experience.

I have hired some team members who have turned out to be rock stars at Nick’s and some who have not. From each of these potential team members I learn something, usually about myself. The great part about our process is that each team member brought on goes through our orientation first and then at least 2 – 4 weeks of training. We have some turnover during that time and find this to be healthy. We trust our team’s judgment and track performance from the second someone applies and each day after given they are hired. Our hiring process reinforces how important trust and track leadership is to our organization.

Recently I have had a few surprises from some new hires that were really interesting. Within the last couple of months we brought on quite a few new team members and 1 turned out to be a rock star and 2 of them no longer work for Nick’s.

The rock star is a host and during her interviews I knew she was someone I wanted to bring on our team. At the same time, I was concerned because she seemed rather shy and timid especially for someone who wanted to be a host. Within the last 2 months, she has stepped up and moved past other team members in her training with consistent A+ performance – all from her own intrinsic motivation.

The 2 other team members showed some of what we would call red flag behavior in their interviews. Yet something pulled at me that made me feel that I needed to give them a chance. What was pulling at me in their interviews was a want to help these people who needed some sort of stability in their lives that I knew Nick’s could offer. This feeling has burned me before and yet in the case of the rock star host it was the right choice. From this I am now learning how to hold onto that feeling and also track the rest of their performance without being blinded by one aspect.

I believe the host needed Nick’s to break out of her shell, become more social, and gain some confidence. She has more than exceeded expectations and is already raising team performance just by radiating energy every time she walks in the door.

At Nick’s Pizza & Pub every day is an interview when Trust-And-Track leadership is in place and part of your company’s culture.  It supports us to have high retention and low turnover by celebrating A+ performance and shifting that which is not.

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I have been receiving all kinds of emails from the National Restaurant Association trying to persuade restaurant owners like myself to vote against affordable health by voting Republican. This argument is built on the premise that if we HAVE to provide health care for our team, the plan will take a big chunk out of the profits of our businesses.

The following is my personal experience with this topic.

We have a situation with one of our A+ team members, Jhonny. This is guy is outstanding.  He’s a bright, hardworking young man in is late twenties that has been part of the Nick’s team for over 4 years now.  Prior to joining us, Jhonny had been working for one the fastest growing and most successful fast-casual concepts known for their burritos.  To keep this company nameless, we’ll just call them Ch-something.  Jhonny was a full time kitchen manager at Ch-something working 40 hours a week and working part-time with us.  He is just simply a Rockstar.

While this was taking place, Jhonny had the great misfortune of becoming incredibly ill and experienced kidney failure.  After visiting the hospital, he was told that he would need to be placed on the donor registration list and since then has been awaiting a new kidney.  The problem was his “full time health benefits” at Ch-something only covered doctor visits (not hospital stays or prescription drugs).  Clearly, Ch-something and I have different definitions of the phrase “full health benefits.”

To make matters worse, after learning about Jhonny’s condition, the leadership at Ch-something demoted him back to a crew member.  They told Jhonny his manager duties would be too much for him.  That may have been so, but with that meant also losing the few health benefits that he was entitled to as a manager.  Jhonny explained to me that crew members are not eligible for any health benefits no matter how many hours they work. I found this to be kind of odd coming from one of the “most successful” fast-casual concepts in our industry. I mean really?  This giant corporation puts a higher value on the results for it’s shareholders than the  health of it’s people?  A similar story features the choice Papa Johns is making shared on this episode of the Bill Maher show.

Jhonny came to me, explained his situation and asked if it would be possible for him to be eligible for our insurance. I could not believe what Ch-something was doing to him! I shared with him that if he was able to work the required 30 hours per week, I would certainly allow him to be on our insurance plan.  I couldn’t even think about discriminating against him by denying him the opportunity to receive our benefits.  During our conversation I let him know that I would be addressing the situation with all of the team members on our company’s insurance plan at the time.  My intention was to openly and honestly communicate the impact this would have on our premiums and see if anyone had any objections.  We unanimously agreed that Jhonny would be a great asset to our team and having him work full-time for us would raise the performance of our entire company.  Shortly after, Jhonny became part of our full-time prep team working 40 hours a week with us and continues to work about 15 hours at Ch-something.

As you might imagine, his medication is very expensive. On our plan he pays $50 for medication that normally costs $1,000 and $30 for doctor visits that normally cost $300. Yes, with Jhonny on our plan the price increases health insurance  for our entire team, but he’s the one that needs it most.  It’s a challenge for a small(er) company like Nick’s Pizza & Pub to incur this type of health issue and if we can do it, I’m sure it would be much easier for one of the most profitable restaurant concepts like Ch-something.

Jhonny is currently on medication and undergoes dialysis three times a week.  For the past two years, he’s been able to live his life without being in a financial choke hold thanks to our benefits.  Just a few weeks ago, Jhonny shared with me that he has a long term friend that has stepped up and offered one of his kidneys.  All the blood tests are a match and right now he is on schedule to undergo his kidney transplant this March.  He and his family continue to express their gratitude and we could not be happier to have Jhonny as a part of our team –  not to mention the fact that his A+ performance at work continues to have a positive impact on our team. Our gain, Ch-something’s loss.

It is that time of year again, when we have to get pricing for renewing our health plan coverage. It looks like we could see about a 15% to 20% increase in cost to us all (we would be considered working middle class folks).  Although our broker reminded us that it would be a lot less expensive for us without Jhonny on our plan, there is no question that we will do the right thing for the right reason. Each of us has the opportunity to improve how organizations in this country do business by doing the right things for the right reasons. You get your chance to have an impact on it on November 6^th.

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Rudy Miick for his incredible work in developing our Purpose and Values.
Norm Brodsky of Inc Magazine, a trusted friend who has always looked out for my best interest.
Bo Burlingham of Inc Magazine for his help in sharing our story and ultimately bringing clarity around our leadership style by coining the term Trust-and-Track.
And finally, Jim Nixon for helping us work with our bank purely out of the kindness of his heart.

Our recent feature in the New York Times is a tribute to ALL the hardworking, passionate individuals I have the pleasure of working with day in and out  Thank you all for your help and support.

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The past 17 years on the restaurant owner roller coaster have taught me several valuable lessons, not just about business, but also about life.  I wrote A Slice of the Pie to share those lessons and show that if a pizza restaurant in little old Crystal Lake, Illinois can create an amazing culture, any organization can.  I was ecstatic to find this piece by Harvey Schachter on The Globe and Mail highlighting some of the key take aways I had hoped to provide to my readers.

That’s an intention-impact match – Just like we train our team to track!

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Each year the Future Founders program kicks off with an exciting Big Idea Day.  We dive right in and start working with kids from the seven different schools involved in the program.  I have found that collaborating with these kids is actually just as much an opportunity for myself and the other mentors to learn about our ability to connect with the younger generation. In addition, we get to meet other like minded managers and entrepreneurs which also leads to expanding our business relationships. There are wins from every angle. I even get to bring the business planning games back to my team at Nick’s for more development in our Nick’s University.

I continue to learn from these high school students, not just about how we develop entrepreneurs in our society, but also about myself and how I could be more effective as a leader. I highly recommend you join me this year – it’s not too late. Give just one class a try and see what you learn about your own leadership style.

For more information about the Future Founders Foundation click here.

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When Mark first visited our restaurant about two years ago, we talked at length about the similarities and alignment between what we do at Nick’s Pizza & Pub and the “Lean Systems” concept.  I discovered later, through a conversation with one of our consultants, Rudy Miick, who was instrumental in defining our Purpose and developing our business model, that his teacher was actually involved in “Lean Systems” conception!

You can listen to my interview with Mark here.

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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