The Employee Life Cycle - Part 2

In Part 2 of the Employee Life Cycle series on The Restaurant Roadmap Podcast, we shift from attracting candidates to making the right hiring decisions and setting new team members up to actually stay.

This episode takes a hard look at why gut instinct alone often leads operators into the same hiring mistakes, and how a simple interview structure helps teams ask better questions, stay aligned across interviewers, and hire for values, attitude, and coachability, not just availability. We talk through the red flags operators often overlook in the moment (and later regret), and why being honest about the role, schedule, and expectations up front is one of the most effective ways to reduce early turnover.

We also break down what strong onboarding really looks like in a restaurant environment — and how it goes far beyond a quick orientation and paperwork. From first-shift readiness to first-week support and 30-day clarity, this episode covers the systems, access, and preparation new hires need to feel confident, not in the way. You’ll learn how small changes to your onboarding process can dramatically improve early performance, engagement, and retention — and turn day one into the start of a long-term relationship, not a short-term experiment.

What is The Restaurant Roadmap?

The Restaurant Roadmap is your guide to building and running a successful restaurant. Each episode explores the full journey of operations—from planning and development to menu design, execution, and growth. Hosts Danny Bendas, Amanda Stokes, and Chef Eric Lauer bring decades of expertise, joined by industry leaders and restaurant professionals who share their insights and stories. Together, they uncover strategies, tools, and lessons that help operators improve performance, strengthen teams, and elevate the guest experience. Whether you’re opening your first location or refining an established brand, The Restaurant Roadmap equips you to navigate every step with confidence.

Danny: Welcome to The Restaurant Roadmap podcast, powered by Synergy Restaurant Consultants, your go-to source for actionable insights and real-world strategies from the industry’s top experts, clients, and special guests. Whether you’re building a new concept or refining an existing one, we’re here to help you create a forward-thinking sustainable brand, elevate guest experience, streamline operations and maximize your bottom line. With decades of hands-on experience, our mission is simple: to deliver practical, proven solutions to the everyday challenges restaurant operators face. Let’s dive in and get to work.

Danny: Welcome back everyone to The Restaurant Roadmap podcast, powered by Synergy Restaurant Consultants. We’re excited to move on with our employee life cycle. I want to welcome back, as usual, Amanda. Say hey, Amanda.

Amanda: Hi everyone.

Danny: And Eric, who is also a big part of this. And both of them have done a lot of recruiting, a lot of hiring, a lot of retaining. So, we talked about, where do you find people, the sourcing piece of it. We’ve also talked about recruiting. Now, we’re going to get into the next couple of phases of this process in the cycle, and that’s hiring and onboarding. So, we’re going to start with hiring first, and just to mix things up a little bit, and just so he doesn’t feel left out, we’re going to start with Eric on this one, and then we’ll go to Amanda’s second. So Eric, talk to us about hiring. How do we do it?

Eric: All right, so a great hire starts with a great interview. So, you want to make sure that you pick a space and a time in your restaurant that you have the ability to be unburdened by the rest of everything going on, and you can focus on the person that’s sitting across from you. And you want to give them the ability to feel calm and be able to just act like themselves. So, genuine conversation that you get to know that person, they get to know you a little bit, so you find out if it’s a good fit both ways. The worst thing in the world is to hire somebody, and you get two weeks into training them, and you go, “This is not the person I interviewed.” And it’s just because they sat across from you, 90% of the time that people do in the interviewing are doing all of the talking. They’re not letting that person speak at all. So, you want to really take your time in that interview, let that person talk, give them the opportunity to tell you who they are. You learn who they are and then you move forward from there.

Danny: Well, I think also, if I can add real quick, and then Amanda, I’m going to talk to you too, is, I think treating them, like offering a beverage, making them feel comfortable, and you’re really showing them what your energy level is and what your expectation is how you treated them, right? So, you know, I’ve seen people do interviews where they’re like, “Oh, I’m running late,” and they sit there and it’s just rude, right? So, the way you treat them is the way hopefully they’re going to treat you in the future, right? Amanda, I know you’re going to add a bunch of stuff here, so go ahead.

Amanda: I think, you know, from an employer’s perspective, hiring is a critical piece of your business, and I think having the right training in place for the people that are doing the hiring. So, I remember in my past experiences, I would like to have managers, you know, and in some cases, GM, sit in with me to listen how I interviewed, then I would sit in with them to hear how they interviewed because at the end of the day, if you don’t ask the right questions, you’re not going to get the right information. So, it’s making sure that we have a great interview structure in place, and that, you know, in some cases, a hiring training guide, where it’s a list of questions that you want to ask, places for them to take notes so at the end of the interview they can, you know, kind of go through and make sure that they’ve asked all the important questions. So, I would say, for me, that was always a big, big, important part.

And then having structure and consistency as being the main focus of your interview versus going on gut instinct. Gut instinct doesn’t always lead you to the best hire. Sometimes it’s like confirmation bias. Oh, they’re wearing a Miami hat. I love Miami—not picking on you, Eric—and then all of a sudden, that becomes the focus of the conversation. So, it’s kind of just staying away from that gut instinct. And I know it’s—you know, we all kind of go off our gut sometimes, but I’ll say that this is the one time that you don’t want to go off your gut.

Danny: And I know we’ve heard this before, but you can’t repeat it too many times. How do you sell? Get them to sell something, right? Amanda, tell us the sell story. I think that’s great.

Amanda: I think, you know, being able to think on your feet and be creative, you can get that information if you ask somebody to sell you something. So, if I’m drinking out of this coffee mug, sell me this coffee mug, and the right employee can tell you very quickly how to market that mug. It’s the most durable mug. It’s guaranteed for life. It’s the biggest coffee mug you can buy or whatever they’re going to tell you, I don’t care what they tell me, as long as they tell me something that’s compelling and convincing, I know that they have that skill set to think on their feet and pivot when they’re thrown a curve ball.

So, we’ve all had that server who says, you know, at their last day, final validation. Well, Eric, you make me nervous. I always do a good job, but when I wait on you, you make me nervous. Well, gosh, you know what, Sally, if I make you nervous, I’m worried about our guests. So, unfortunately, you could tell a lot if they don’t have a comfort level with you, they may not have that comfort level with guests.

Danny: And you know, I think interviews, let me just add here, and I think you guys will agree, and you can certainly embellish, interviews are designed for you to listen to them, not for you to do all of the talking. I mean, I’ve been involved in interviews with people, where the interviewee can’t get a word in edgewise, so you don’t learn anything about the person because the person that’s interviewing is doing all the talking, right? And then on top of that, just being really careful about the questions that you ask because you’re also dealing with, you know, liability potential, too. Like, we were always taught you never write notes on an application, you know, good, bad or otherwise because they can get you into trouble legally, potentially. So, anybody want to add anything to that before we move on?

Amanda: Definitely. So, I like to ask them, if I’m looking at a resume, you know, I like to ask them, tell me something about yourself that I can’t read on a resume because that leads to a lot of discussion about who they are. Well, you know, I’m new to this area, or, you know, they’ll tell you things that you’re not going to learn if you don’t ask that question. I like to ask people what their hobbies are. When you’re not busy playing restaurant, what do you like to do? How do you spend your time?

You know, if they tell you they sit in front of a screen and play video games all night like that, it may not be a person that I want because that tells me about them and I don’t necessarily think that person’s a people person. Or if they say, “Hey, I’m outdoors. I ride my bike every chance I could get.” You know, you learn a lot by asking that question. I always encouraged managers to find out something about that person who gives you an idea of who they are.

Danny: Yeah, and Eric, isn’t it true that, you know, based on your, that we’ve done work for, you know, healthier lifestyle brands, so you want to try to find someone that sort of understands that, maybe sort of, lives that because that’s the culture that you’re trying to breathe, right?

Eric: Your employees speak to your culture, right? So, if somebody comes in and you’re this health food brand, and the server walks up and he’s, you know, 290 pounds, and he’s five foot five, that doesn’t speak to your brand very well. Now, as a guest, I had this experience. I was out in Colorado, and I was at the Breckenridge Brewery, and they really look back on themselves as an outdoor, you know, loving concept. And when you looked at everybody walk through that place, they all looked like they just got done bicycling a hundred mile race, and they were all in great shape, and they were just outgoing, and it just spoke to their brand so well. And it just, it really helped the experience in the restaurant that day.

Danny: Yeah, or it’s like somebody that you’re in a healthy lifestyle, that kind of a brand, and somebody comes in their interview and you can smell cigarette smoke all over their clothing, right? Not exactly going to be a very good fit. But you got to be careful, right, because you got to worry about all the rules of discrimination and all that good stuff, right? So, let’s talk about onboarding. I know Amanda, you also have great stories about onboarding. I’d love to hear them. The great first day. Let’s talk about the great first day.

Amanda: I like to say that everyone remembers their first day at most jobs that they’ve worked in their life. Unless you’re somebody who’s chronically starting and leaving jobs, you’re going to have that in your memory. You know, I’ve had very few jobs in my life, and I could remember all of my first days. And so, there’s one in particular where I remember, it was in a restaurant and I was a manager, and so this was back when VCRs were the way that you watched videos, and they took this old TV. It was like about this big around, so think about, maybe, I don’t know, a 20-inch TV for those of you that are listening. It weighed about 692 pounds. They dropped it on the table, and then somebody came out with what looked like 100,000 tapes. They said, “You got to get through all of these today.” And I was like, “Oh”—

Danny: Just to interject, Amanda, real quick, for those that don’t—VCR were old tapes that you could watch. A lot of people probably don’t know what a VCR is, right? No offense. No offense, right?

Amanda: Probably, sadly, that’s probably true. But there was like a giant stack of tapes, and I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I have to do this today.” So, I was set up in this back room, and lunch starts, and everybody’s busy moving around, and I was barely checked on. Lunch came and went. Nobody asked me for food, but yet I’m sitting there, smelling all of this delicious food wafting through the dining room. I feel like I’m going to die. I don’t feel comfortable just getting up and getting my own drinks, but at some point I had to, and there was just no hospitality shown to me throughout the whole time that I was sitting there, and I’m thinking, “Is it me, or is this just the culture in this restaurant?”

So, got through day one. After my fifth day there, I knew that I didn’t want to work there long-term because it was just an absence of culture. And so, that ties back to the first day where I knew that because that’s how they treated me on day one, and day five wasn’t any better, and day ten and so on and so on. So, I think in the beginning, I hate the word orientation. I like to think about it as first day experience because you’re creating the experience for that new person that you want for them to create for other team members and other guests.

Danny: Yeah, and you’re sitting there in front of the VCR, kind of like nodding off, slowly falling asleep when you go back like this, right? And sadly, that’s people think, you know, then, okay, you’re trained. Now, you can go on the floor, right, or go do your job. It’s just kind of, it’s not the way you treat people. It’s just really as simple as that. So Eric, what say you, my friend?

Eric: It’s very funny. Amanda and I worked for the same company in different areas of the country, and I had the same first day experience as she did. So, yes, it was the culture of the company to do it in that manner. I always remembered that experience, and always tried to make it different for people who were coming to work for me when I was in the position to create that experience, like you talked about earlier, with the drink at the interview, you know? And that continues throughout that hospitality process, throughout onboarding and everything.

So, we always tried to have, you know, something to eat. If it’s donuts because they had to gotten there early in the morning, you’re bringing in donuts, maybe some coffee. You’re offering them something throughout the shift while they’re sitting there. Because it’s boring enough. That aspect of the job you can’t get away from it. You’re filling out paperwork, you’re doing things like that. No matter what it is, it’s boring enough, you know, to sit there by yourself. Have some interaction with the people, make sure that they know, hey, I know you’re here. I’m checking on you.

And you just continue to do that during that time period of the day. And listen, if you have to do that kind of stuff, break it up. Maybe it’s an hour every day. Don’t sit somebody down for ten hours straight. There’s no way that person’s coming back the next day, and if they do, they’re not sticking around for the long term. Like Amanda told you, she knew she wasn’t going to stick around any amount of time.

So, you want to make sure that’s top of your mind. Create an experience where you want somebody to come back. And not where they just want to come back; they can’t wait to come back to work the next day.

Danny: Well, and make them feel part of the team, you know, like, get engaged in a pre-shift meeting, introduce them to the team, make sure they know where everything is. You know, it can be a little bit frightful, especially if it’s like your first job. You want someone to give you comfort and make you feel like you’re part of things and to ease, sort of, that tension and the stress on your first day of work, right? And I know we did work for a client, and I always loved what they did. And this goes back—this is, like, up there with VCRs. This was like the old camera where you snapped it, and the picture spit out the bottom right. See them around once in a while, by the way.

But anyway, so they took a picture, and they had a sheet, and they wrote down—the person wrote down their favorite hobbies, their pets, and then they posted that on the employee board so that all the people coming in and the current employees could read about this person and just to make them feel welcome and make them, you know, so you had something to talk about. And to your point, Amanda, if it was a hobby, your pet, you know, your husband, your kids, whatever it is, just to build that camaraderie which is part of building your brand. I thought that was a really cool idea and a way to get people to feel comfortable in the environment and build your culture.

Amanda: I think we left something that was important—I’m sorry, Eric, before I forget this thought, you know, senior moments—but I think nowadays, onboarding, the lion’s share of it, is really digital. So, how easy is your digital platform for onboarding? How easy is that for the new employee? Is it intuitive? Is it something that, you know, there’s, you know, glitches where it’s really hard for them to enter their information?

So, I think nowadays, just making sure that’s an easy process so by the time they get to you in person, you know, they’ve knocked out the lion’s share of all of that, you know, administrative stuff, so that you can really focus on the engaging part.

Danny: Yeah, good point. Very good point. Make it easy. You were going to say, Eric?

Eric: I was just going to say that I typically, when I had somebody on a first day experience and they were in there prior to lunch, and you know when lunch happens and you’re super busy, they can feel like they’re getting in the way of everybody. So, what I used to like to do, when we started to get super busy, I would say, “Hey, we’re going to feed you a meal now and we’re going to put you down at a table. I’m going to have you experience today as a guest, and you can just, you know, sit here, relax a little bit, and then we’ll pick this back up when we have enough time for each other again.” So, I kind of took that trepidation and the nervousness away from them and gave them a safe space to be in for a little bit.

Danny: The other thing I think people should guard against is, if you as the manager, you know, you have a lot to do, right? We’ve all been in management positions, and oftentimes a new employee is turned over to a trainee, but I think it’s really important that the manager stays in touch with that person because they’re the leader. Ultimately, they’re the boss. And again, they’re setting the tone, they’re setting the culture, they’re setting the energy level, and I think the manager is staying engaged versus just sending somebody off and then leaving it up to a trainer, I think, there’s also a mistake that is commonly made that is very easy to correct, right?

And then to your point, Amanda, just real quick, I wanted to add, many years ago I read a book—not that I read a lot of books, right [laugh]—but the gist of the book was, the more technology you deal with the more touch people want. So, high tech, high touch. So, if you’re going through a lot of this online interviewing, online everything, I think they want some personal touch and some personal interaction to get to feel a part of things versus just you’re like a number, you’re not a person, right? So, I think that’s really, really important to build in the brand and bringing in people that are going to want to stay with you. And we talked earlier about recruiting. They’re going to recommend you for [unintelligible 00:17:14] work also because you’ve created this great environment. And the more stressful people are, the less people want to work for you, in my opinion. So, you relieve stress, people have a better time. You make it more fun, right?

Amanda: Can I tie a bow on this? So, for me, anybody out there who’s about to have somebody start, orientation for me is paperwork, and when you think about onboarding, it’s connection, and it’s experience. It’s your introduction to who the brand is and what their values are. And so, you can do an orientation, but that’s going to be very functional, versus onboarding, where you start to think about the experience that you’re creating.

Danny: Exactly. And that’s where it all starts, right? It’s just like the back door, like we talked about earlier. So, any parting thoughts, anybody? This is a good rap share, I think. Eric, anything else you want to add?

Eric: I’ll tell you a quick little antidote. When I was interviewing for an above-restaurant leadership position with a company, during the interview—it was a Zoom interview, so it was via Zoom—and halfway through the interview, the person who was interviewing me said, “Hold on. I’m going to have to shut down the Zoom and we’ll get right back on.” So, immediately I knew that my priority was zero to him, so I knew right then I wasn’t getting that position. So, remember those, remember that interview experience that you’re creating as well for your people.

Danny: And by the way, I wanted to apologize for Amanda bringing up Miami this shortly after the last championship football game. You know, I know you’re still crushed by all of that, so I just wanted to apologize for Amanda.

Amanda: He’s licking his wounds.

Danny: Amanda, any final words?

Amanda: Putting a bow on it is just to make sure that you have great systems in place so that you’re prepared for that onboarding experience, that you’ve given your managers the tools to hire the right people, that there’s clarity in what you’re looking for in that role across all managers so that everyone is kind of looking for the same qualities. You know, you’re looking for those, you know, I always say, look for somebody who has the right values that fit in your brand and the right attitude because you can train the skill. And then when you do have that person on day one, to Eric’s point, make sure that there’s a system in place so that first day, we make them feel like they’re part of the team and when things get busy, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. Because I’ve said this a hundred times, people make the decision on whether they’re going to stay with you within the first day.

Danny: And setting the expectation for both parties, right? You want them to be very clear on what you expect from them, and then they have a right to have a clear understanding of what they can expect from you. So, I think that’s—and again, that just gets down to honesty, integrity, culture, brand, and everything else. So, all right, once again, thank everybody for listening. I want to thank Amanda and Eric for more great information.

Send us your questions, [e-mail]. Great questions, we’re going to put together a podcast, and we’re going to give you a 30-minute free consultation. Any ideas, thoughts, let us know. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you all once again for listening and have a great day. Take care.

Eric: Bye, Y’all.

Amanda: Bye. Take care.

Danny: Thanks for tuning in. We hope today’s episode gave you valuable insights you can put into action. If you have questions, want more info on today’s topic, or need support with your restaurant-specific challenges, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out anytime at [e-mail], and visit synergyrestaurantconsultants.com to explore our services, sign up for our newsletter, and catch up on past episodes. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook so you never miss what’s next. Do you have feedback or a topic you’d like us to cover? Contact us. We’re here to help make the world a better place to eat.