Kinsa Group Blog

These days, effectively interviewing food & beverage professionals can seem more like a game of chess than a question-and-answer session.

On the one hand, you need to ask questions that help you break through a candidate’s interview facade – and see how well he thinks on his feet.

On the other hand, it’s a job seeker’s market.  Throughout the interview process, you must show a food & beverage professional the WIIFM (what’s in it for me?).  Ideally, your candidate should leave the interview convinced that the opportunity with your organization is his best career move, and that you’re truly interested in his long-term professional development.

How do you complete these dual strategic objectives?

As experts in executive food & beverage recruiting, we at Kinsa are here to help.  Today, we’re sharing some our favorite interview questions that engage and promote discussion.  Customize these questions and use them in your next interview to evaluate a candidate’s potential fit within your organization:

1. Tell me about your career path to this point.  How did you wind up in your most recent position?  This question may seem informational on the surface; however, it will also reveal important details about a candidate’s strengths/weaknesses, career aspirations and voluntary/involuntary career moves.
2. What needs to change at your current company for you to consider staying put? -or-  Why have you chosen to pursue this opportunity with us?  These questions create an “opportunity gap” in the candidate’s mind, by juxtaposing the shortcomings of his current position with the advantages your current opening offers.
3. How would this opportunity help your future career progression or help you build your resume?  This question forces a candidate to think about your opportunity in terms of the long-term career benefits it offers.  It also garners lots of goodwill from a candidate, because it shows that you’re putting his needs ahead of your own.  At the same time, the question helps you gain deeper insight into how a candidate thinks about and manages his career.
4. If you accepted this position, how would you explain that to a potential employer five years from now?  Another selfless inquiry, this question requires the candidate to think on his feet and fit together the pieces of his career’s “big picture” – right in front of you.

Once you understand the answers to these questions, it will be time for you to do a little thinking on your feet.  Find ways to address aloud how you see the candidate’s selection criteria and career values applying to your company.  For example, if your opportunity seems more like a lateral move for the individual than a promotion, voice the concern and ask for the candidate’s assessment.  This type of discussion is straightforward, engaging and selfless – and it will leave your candidate thinking: “Wow, this company is really interested in helping me meet my professional goals.”

Kinsa Group – A Better Way to Hire Food & Beverage Professionals

As a national food & beverage recruiter, The Kinsa Group has the resources and interviewing expertise to deliver executive and c-level food & beverage professionals with the skills, experience and personality to thrive in your organization.  We use professionally trained interviewers, a wide array of assessments, thorough background checks and satisfaction guarantees to ensure the long-term success of your next hire.

As the recession moves further into food & beverage companies’ rear view mirrors, many employers are unfreezing salaries.  If you’re one of those hard-working professionals who has been fortunate enough to earn a raise, use Kinsa’s tips to increase your financial literacy and use that extra income wisely:

• Determine how much more money the raise actually means.  Taxes will take a chunk of your additional earnings, so wait until you get your first adjusted paycheck to see how much your net income (take-home pay) has actually increased.
• Use a 50/50 rule of thumb.  Conventional financial wisdom dictates that you should save or invest half of any raise you earn, and use the other half to pay down debt.  If that’s not immediately possible for you, set a date for when you will start saving – and stick to that commitment.
• Pay down high-interest credit cards.  Direct additional income towards knocking out your debt – which may be costing you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in interest payments every year.  When you get rid of debt, you’re able to invest even more of your earnings.
• Boost your emergency fund.  Use the extra income you save to build-up the emergency cash reserves you’ve set aside to handle unplanned expenses.
• Contribute more to pre-tax salary deferral programs.  Once you have sufficient cash reserves, start thinking long-term.  If your employer offers a 401(k) or other retirement plan, it makes a great long-term home for your new windfall.  Since the money is deducted pre-tax, it won’t lower your paycheck as much as you’d expect.  As an added bonus, the pre-tax savings these investment vehicles offer allow your money to grow more quickly.
• Enlist the help of a professional financial expert.  A trained financial advisor can take a comprehensive look at your current financial status and help you develop a strategy for achieving your short- and long-term goals.  For example, an expert can help you effectively weigh the advantages of paying-down debt early, against the benefits of using that money to invest in retirement.
• Adjust your investment strategy as your needs change.  Periodically re-examine your plan, to track your progress and and accommodate changes in your financial picture.  When your circumstances or goals shift, the planning and management habits you’ve developed will equip you to embrace new opportunities and proactively address concerns.
• Save for something fun.  You’ve worked hard for your raise – you deserve a reward!  Set aside a little money each month to painlessly finance a big vacation, or to treat yourself to something special you wouldn’t otherwise buy.  Just make sure that the money you spend doesn’t derail your overall investment strategy.

Think you’re worth more as a food & beverage professional than you’re currently making?  Explore new career opportunities through Kinsa Group.  As leading national food & beverage executive recruiters, we can represent you confidentially and search for a better opportunity that pays you what you’re really worth.  Contact a Kinsa recruiter today or search executive food & beverage jobs here.

What’s the best way to ensure a “Happy New Year” for your career?

Resolve to create your own personal brand.  In today’s digital kingdom, a compelling personal brand can help you:

• differentiate yourself from other potential candidates;
• increase your visibility and credibility in the food & beverage job market;
• occupy a unique and competitive position in a potential employer’s mind;
• ultimately land the job you want.

What is a Personal Branding Statement?

Much like corporate and product branding, a personal branding statement sums up your unique selling proposition (USP) – the unique benefit or value you offer a potential employer.  Your branding statement sets you apart from your competitors and provides a compelling reason to hire you.  As a general rule, this concise statement should communicate:

• your specialty (who you are);
• your service (what you do and how you do it better or differently);
• your audience (whom you do it for);
• your leading attribute (the single most important skill you possess).

How to Discover Your Personal Brand

Personal branding is the process by which you market yourself to others.  But before you can “sell” yourself to someone else, you must thoroughly understand exactly what you have to offer.  Start the branding process with some introspection and audience analysis.  Ask yourself:

• How would others describe you professionally?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• How would you describe your ideal executive food & beverage position?
• What can you offer an employer that others can’t?
• When it comes to your career, what motivates you and makes you passionate?
• What positions, potential employers and recruiters are you targeting (i.e., who is your audience)?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can begin to craft your personal branding statement.

How Should You Word It?

Figuring out exactly what to say is probably the most challenging, and yet most important, thing you’ll do in your personal branding efforts.  Fortunately, you can refine your statement as you refine your branding approach.  When designing an initial statement, make sure it’s:

• accurate (based on your real identity – who you are and what you do – and not just an external “image” you want to project);
• short (maximum 30 words);
• unique (explains how you’re different from your competitors);
• benefits-oriented (explains the WIIFM for an employer);

Once you’ve created your branding statement, you need to put it to work for you.  Watch our blog for future posts that explain how to leverage your personal brand with social media, video and more.

Kinsa – Committed to the Success of Your Food & Beverage Career

With over 25 years in food & beverage recruiting, Kinsa has the drive, experience and contacts to match you with your ideal food & beverage executive or management position.  Get started with Kinsa today or search food & beverage executive and professional jobs here.

How is a run for the White House like your quest for career development?

To succeed in either endeavor, you need the right people in your corner.

When it comes to furthering your food & beverage career, having the right mentors, sponsors and advocates on your side can mean the difference between stagnation and success:

Mentors.  In today’s fast-paced operating environment, a mentor can expedite your career development by giving you opportunities to learn, and apply that learning, more quickly.  By adding a mentor to your personal “political balance sheet,” you can accelerate your growth and successfully navigate the sometimes tricky waters of organizational politics.

Sponsors.  These key influencers and decision makers have the connections and authority to elevate you in your career.  They know the right people, and create (or hear about) the right opportunities, to quickly get you to the next level.

Advocates.  As the name suggests, these people are your personal brand champions.  They know who you are, know what you do and talk to others on your behalf.

A strong relationship with a professional advocate increases your exposure (and career development) exponentially – by spreading good words about you even when you’re not around.  And as everyone knows, having a respected colleague extolling your virtues is much more powerful than you tooting your own horn.

It’s one thing to know that you need people like these in your corner; it’s quite another, however, to develop and execute an action plan to make it happen.  Here are a few tips from Kinsa to get you started:

Turn a dispassionate eye to your personal “political balance sheet.”  At this very moment, who is likely to “vote for you” and help you attain your career aspirations?  Take stock of who you know – and the types of people you need to know – to fast-track your career development.

Neutralize threats.  None of us is perfect.  Along the way, we make mistakes in our careers and occasionally burn bridges.  Instead of blaming yourself, develop a plan of attack.

Make a list of individuals who may jeopardize your career success or speak negatively about you when you’re not there to defend yourself.  Contact them – instead of avoiding them – and find out how you can mend fences by helping them.  These individuals may not become your “table pounders,” but at least you can keep them from sabotaging your promotions.

Start making the right connections.  At the end of the day, advancing your food & beverage career is often as much about who you know as what you know.  So develop a systematic plan for meeting those people who can make a difference in your career.  Set networking goals, become involved, offer help, and use both face-to-face and social media networking techniques to widen your circle of influence.

Pay it forward.  For every career advancement you achieve, another person will step into your old shoes.  Create some good career karma for yourself by acting as a mentor, sponsor or advocate for your company’s more junior employees.

Kinsa is In Your Corner

When it comes to advancing your career, Kinsa is on your side.  Our recruiters take a genuine interest in helping you attain your professional goals in the food & beverage industry.   Get started with Kinsa today or search food & beverage executive and professional jobs here.

Are you looking to move from a plant level job to a corporate food & beverage position?

Are you a food scientist who wants to move up the ladder and become a VP of R & D?

Whatever your career aspirations, networking can help you achieve your goals.  If you want to get promoted, or change careers within the food & beverage industry, use these tips from Kinsa to develop more effective business relationships and land the job you want:

Set networking goals.  Create a plan for networking to focus your activities and keep yourself on track.  Find out which meetings, committees or volunteering activities are most likely to put you in touch with the right people, and then commit to attending and participating.  The more you are “out there,” the greater your opportunity to meet that one person who will connect you with the ideal job.

Know who you need to know.  Learn about the company’s organizational structure and identify those key influential, respected executives who have the ability to put you in the position you desire.  Once you determine exactly who you need to know, find a way to get face time with those people:  ask for introductions; offer to buy coffee; volunteer to serve on committees they spearhead; request them as mentors.  Engage in positive, productive activities that will put you one step closer to the opportunity you want.

Ask open-ended questions.  Networking is all about learning how you and your connection can help one another.  As you meet new people, uncover potential opportunities by asking “who,” “what,” “where,” “when” and “why” questions – as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”  Open-ended questions literally open up your discussions and show listeners that you are truly interested in them.

Offer help.  Business relationships are a lot like bank accounts – you have to make relationship “deposits” before you can make “withdrawals.”  Use the simple technique of offering assistance to those you meet – and follow through – to get the relationship started on a positive note.  When you help a professional contact first (i.e., before asking for something in return), that help is much more likely to be reciprocated.

Never underestimate the potential value of a connection.  Although most of the individuals you meet while networking will not lead you directly to your desired job, don’t discount their value.  These first generation connections may be able to introduce you to the people you really need to know.  Take the time to investigate every networking lead – you never know how, where or through whom that one critical introduction will be made.

Avoid office politics.  Networking  depends on great communication.  That communication, however, should not include petty office gossip.  As you develop new work relationships, make a conscious effort to speak positively about others; if you don’t have something favorable to say, it’s best to say nothing at all.

At the end of the day, landing your dream job is often as much about who you know as what you know.  With over 25 years in food & beverage recruiting, Kinsa has a vast network of relationships with the industry’s top employers.  We have the drive, experience and contacts to match you with your ideal food & beverage executive or management position.    Get started with Kinsa today or search food & beverage executive and professional jobs here.

What’s the best way to create a safer food & beverage workplace?

Start by creating a strong “safety culture.”  According to OSHA, creating a culture of safety has the single greatest impact on accident reduction of any process.  Why?  A strong safety culture is more than just a motto.  It’s a system of shared beliefs, practices and attitudes which makes everyone responsible for safety, even when nobody else is watching.  Food & beverage companies that sustain this type of operating environment experience lower accident rates, lower turnover, lower absenteeism and higher productivity.

In a recent Workers’ Comp Insider article, Lynch Ryan reviews safety culture best practices.  Whether you’re a VP, a food scientist, an HR professional or a quality assurance manager, here are a few questions to consider that will help strengthen your organization’s safety culture:

Does health & safety commitment start at the top?  A top-down approach to safety is essential, because what the CEO wants done is what gets done.  If health & safety isn’t part of your company’s mission or vision, it probably isn’t on key managers’ radar.

Is there accountability?  Health & safety goals should be a part of every job description and every performance review at every level of your organization.  Bottom line, everyone must play by the same rules and be held accountable for their areas of responsibility.

Do you have a safety steering committee?  A steering committee has the authority and resources to provide overall guidance and direction for fostering a culture of safety.  Key managers, employees and safety staff should meet regularly to facilitate, support and direct safety processes.

Is safety training and communication an ongoing process?  Creating a culture of safety is not a “once and done” affair.  To maintain it, employees must be continually retrained, processes must be re-evaluated and expertise must be regularly shared via meetings, newsletters, formal training, etc.  The best safety programs also “train up,” since many middle and senior managers don’t know the real day-to-day hazards inherent in their own business.

Do managers and supervisors truly “walk the walk”?  Safety is for more than just line workers.  Managers and supervisors can’t just preach safety; they must lead by example every day.  Do managers and supervisors adhere to the rules themselves?  Are health & safety goals part of managers’ business plans and goals?  Do supervisors indoctrinate visitors and vendors to safety rules when they tour your facilities?

Do you measure performance, communicate results and celebrate successes?  Publicizing safety results is critical to sustaining efforts and maintaining commitment.  Regular updates, progress reports, feedback to the steering committee and other input channels give everyone a voice when it comes to safety.  A safety communication system doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be effective – current meetings, existing newsletters, a bulletin board and a comment box are really all you need.

At the end of the day, workplace safety is everyone’s responsibility.  Whether you work in executive management, food safety or operations, creating a strong safety culture starts with you.  So, what do you do to foster a safety culture within your food & beverage organization?  We at Kinsa would like to know – please leave your comments below.

Kinsa Group – Executive Food & Beverage Recruiters

Contact Kinsa today to find out how our 8-Step Recruiting Process for food & beverage executives and professionals can deliver the high performers you need to create a culture of safety and drive performance in your organization.

Would you hire a production manager who “cuts corners” to meet tight deadlines?

Would you hire a food safety manager who occasionally “bends the rules” when it comes to refrigeration guidelines?

Certainly not.  Solid ethics are vitally important to your organization’s success.

Unfortunately, however, intangibles like ethical standards are typically the most difficult characteristics to assess in an interview.  If you ask a candidate outright whether or not he is ethical, he will invariably say, “Yes.”  So how can you ensure that his on-the-job decisions will align with your company’s standards?

While there is no definitive “litmus test” to gauge a food & beverage professional’s ethics, a behavioral interview approach will yield the best results.  Used properly, behavioral interview questions about ethics-related situations the candidate has encountered will provide meaningful answers about his principles.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

• What potential ethical challenges might you face in this position?  This is a good opening question.  While it is general, it also shows you how well the candidate understands the ethical standards of your company and the available job.
  
• Describe a work situation that challenged your ethics.  Be wary of a candidate who says he’s never faced an ethical dilemma at work.  You want to hire a professional who avoids misconduct when tempted – not someone who says he’s never been placed in a tough ethical spot.
• When faced with an ethical dilemma at work, with whom did you discuss the problem?  In the candidate’s response, look for evidence that he took action.  Ethically responsible professionals never “sweep something under the rug.”  They discuss concerns with co-workers and managers or seek out other company resources to help resolve issues.
• Under what circumstances would you be willing to lie to protect your boss?  The correct answer is:  “None.”  An individual who would not lie for someone would not lie to someone.

While it’s unlikely that a candidate will come right out and admit past ethical mistakes, asking the right behavioral ethics questions will give you a good sense of his true character.

Kinsa Group – A Better Way to Hire Food & Beverage Professionals

As a national food & beverage recruiter, The Kinsa Group has the resources and expertise to deliver executive and c-level food & beverage professionals with the skills, experience and ethical standards to thrive in your organization.  We use professionally trained interviewers, a wide array of assessments, thorough background checks and satisfaction guarantees to ensure the long-term success of your next hire.

Hyper-local sourcing.  Healthy children’s meals.  Sustainable seafood.

These are just a few of the hottest trends on restaurant menus in 2011, according to the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot” survey of more than1,500 professional chefs.

Here are the Top 10 Menu Trends:

1. Locally sourced meats and seafood
2. Locally grown produce
3. Sustainability as a culinary theme
4. Nutritious kids’ dishes
5. Hyper-local items (e.g., restaurant gardens, DIY butchering)
6. Children’s nutrition
7. Sustainable seafood
8. Gluten-free / allergy-conscious items
9. Back-to-basics cuisine
10. Farm-branded ingredients

What’s driving these trends?  According to Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the National Restaurant Association, these trends “are reflecting larger societal trends, underscoring that American diners are becoming more and more interested in what’s on their plate.  Sustainability and nutrition are becoming key themes in our nation’s nearly one million restaurants.”

2011 Operational Trends

When chefs were asked about this year’s top operational trends:

• 30% of the chefs mentioned mobile food trucks and pop-up restaurants
• 18% cited restaurants with gardens
• 17% said social media marketing

Watch the National Restaurant Association’s video of What’s Hot in 2011:

For over 25 years, The Kinsa Group has delivered the high performing food & beverage industry professionals your company needs to compete in today’s competitive and rapidly changing marketplace.  Simply put, food and beverage recruiting and assessment is all we do.  Contact us today to find out how our unique food & beverage industry specialization can help you capitalize on these emerging trends.

Planning to hire in 2011?

As optimism creeps back into our market, many food & beverage companies plan to increase their direct headcount.  If yours is among them, avoid these roadblocks to hiring success:

• Not pre-screening candidates.  Many hiring organizations skip this step, assuming that the interview process will weed out unacceptable candidates.  But in their attempt to streamline the process, these companies are wasting valuable time interviewing people whom they’d never hire.  Pre-screening allows you to eliminate candidates:  without basic knowledge and experience levels; outside your salary limits; with long-range goals that are not aligned with your company or available position.
• Relying solely on interviews to evaluate candidates.  Research has shown that the typical interview only increases the likelihood of selecting the best candidate by less than 2%.  Why?  Most managers don’t structure their interviews or develop scoring weights to pre-determine the best answers.  Additionally, candidates say what interviewers want to hear in order to get hired.
• Relying on general “good guy” criteria.  Most companies want to hire good people, but merely being a good person (i.e., enthusiastic, hard working, self-motivated, etc.) is not a predictor of job success.  A potential employee may have the best attitude in the world, but if they don’t have the job skills and experience you need, they can’t hit the ground running.
• Not investigating candidates’ backgrounds.  Sure, checking references, verifying work history and conducting background investigations are time- and labor-intensive.  But with résumé fraud on the rise, you must protect yourself from desperate job seekers who feel compelled to lie in order to get hired.

Tips for Heading-Off Hiring Mistakes

• Evaluate candidates on skills critical for job success.  Create a position analysis to select the skills most vital to your available job, and develop interview questions (and weighted responses) to identify and evaluate those skills.  The more structured your interview process, the less likely you will be to hire someone just because he’s similar to you or because he’s a “good guy.”
• Do more than talk.  To increase hiring success, develop several methods, in addition to the interview, for evaluating candidates.  Obviously, those methods will vary greatly based on the type of position available.  But as long as the tests and tasks you assign are directly related to the job at hand, your extra effort will provide a wealth of relevant information to help critically evaluate and compare candidates.
• Enlist the help of a hiring expert.  As a national food & beverage recruiter, The Kinsa Group has the resources and expertise to quickly and cost-effectively deliver executive and c-level food & beverage professionals with skills, experience and behavioral traits to succeed in your organization.  We use professionally trained interviewers, a wide array of assessments, thorough background checks and satisfaction guarantees to ensure the success of your next hire.

The boomers are retiring.

This is not news, of course, but their mass exodus from the workforce does create a potential problem for many organizations – namely, identifying new leaders to fill the boomers’ shoes.  In addition to closing the talent gap this generation will leave, other reasons to proactively develop new leaders include:

• Keeping pace with constantly changing business strategies
• Quickly filling new roles created by organizational growth, as we emerge from the recession
• Adapting to job realignments caused by mergers and acquisitions
• Heading-off potential skill shortages
• Increasing employee engagement and productivity

Does your company’s succession plan address all these issues?  The truth is, many organizations are too busy managing the daily pressures created by a lengthy recession to look that far down the road.  But to win the talent war, you need to start assessing, planning and developing leaders now.  Here are a few strategies to make your succession planning more effective:

• Create a plan before talent needs become talent crises.  Remove some of the stress caused by finding the right person for a job by planning for future needs now.  Careful planning will minimize workforce disruption, increase knowledge transfer and increase employee engagement / loyalty by providing clear career paths.
• Let your best employees know about your plans for them.  Tell your key talent that your company has high expectations for them.  Prepare them and increase their buy-in by letting them know that you will be investing in their futures and will be facilitating moves to enhance their professional development.
• Define criteria and profiles against which to measure employees’ potential.  Logically, you want to develop employees with the greatest potential – but potential for what?  Work together with key executives to map out the future requirements for success in key positions (i.e., what will tomorrow’s leaders have to be able to do to succeed in these roles?).  Use these criteria as a measuring stick for evaluating each individual’s potential.
• Assess current employees’ skills and competencies.  Once success criteria have been defined, you must invest the time and money to objectively and validly assess what your internal talent can do.  While each company must decide which tools best fit its individual needs, popular ones include:  assessments from the candidate’s circle of influence; career achievement summaries to capture work experiences; psychometric tools; behavioral interviews to probe against established criteria for success.
• Create plans to close the gap.  Once you understand where current employees are and where they need to be, you can customize talent development plans to close the gap.  As potential leaders progress in their growth, keep them updated on hiring decisions.  Monitor their interest and involve them in the development process as much as possible, to keep them invested for the long-term.  Most importantly, make sure their career aspirations are aligned with your succession plans, to keep you both working toward the same goal.

Acquire Talented, Professional Leaders with Kinsa’s Retained Search Service

Close the talent gap and ensure your company’s continued success by acquiring tomorrow’s food & beverage leaders today.  As our most comprehensive offering, our Retainer package provides:

• An intensive nationwide search for the very best leaders available
• More consulting at each step of our unique 8-step process
• More complete documentation of both the process and strengths / weaknesses of candidates
• An executive caliber uniform marketing presentation of the client’s company
• A 6 month satisfaction guarantee

For over 25 years, Kinsa has been recruiting and assessing professional and senior-to-executive level management candidates for the food and beverage industry.  Let us help your company plan for success.