Q: Where should I begin with hiring for my second store?

It’s important to go in with a good idea of what you need and hire specifically for that need. There is some flexibility though once the employees are on the job because you only had that 15-minute interview to try to figure out who they are. Once they’re in the store, they might be able to transition to another job. That happens quite frequently. But you really should be looking to fill specific needs because every dollar counts. You don’t want to make a lot of mistakes.

The operator will probably already have an ideal staff list that he’s pulled together from his experience in his first store. Then the franchisor helps the owner with gauging the early sales and traffic for the opening. At Pollo Campero, we emphasize the staffing for those openings to ensure we can deliver the brand experience from the beginning.

When we help them with staffing, we usually target about 40 percent over ideal staff levels for the opening. At some of our openings, we’ve seen operators even double their staff just because of the volume of traffic during an opening. It’s very energizing to open a second location, but you also have to deliver that hospitality and smile and it takes a lot of people to make that happen.

Most important is getting the right people—hiring the right team members from your assistant manager to your hourly workers, everyone is important for the business. You can’t do it without the right people. The most important thing is to stay focused on the front of the house, making sure you have the right people with the right energy. You hire a smile, you can’t train a smile.

In the back of the house, especially at our brand, it’s about having people with kitchen experience and who pay special attention to detail because they need to make sure everything is being made consistently and fresh all the time throughout the day. It’s really important to understand the history behind the employee to make sure they’re going to be able to deliver on that.

Employees also need to have fundamental food safety and kitchen knowledge. We do very thorough training at our brand because we’re a little different from most brands. We want to do all that training before the store opens just to make sure employees are prepared. Training covers everything from food safety to preparation from the back door all the way to the plate. In the end, it’s about delivering the brand because we do it through the food.

In terms of leadership, you’re going to want a very strong general manager and assistant manager so that the general manager can get the assistant manager ready to take over the reins of that first store. Then the general manager is ready to move to the second store and establish that same culture that was in the first store in the new location.

Because the general manager is taking on more responsibility when a new store opens, we offer an opening bonus. There is a lot of responsibility, especially with the Pollo Campero brand because our food is so fresh and we’re producing it all day. Having an opening bonus for that general manager is very important in keeping that restaurant stable so it can grow.

Overall, when you’re hiring, you’re really looking for the right behaviors—making sure you have people who clearly understand the goals and expectations for not just the brand but for the operator. The employees can be a bit more independent in the second location, but it’s really the role of the operator to oversee both locations when the second location opens. You don’t want to lose sight of that first location when working with the second unit.

The owner should at least touch that first store every day, whether it’s by telephone or in person, just to keep a pulse on it to make sure they’re feeling supported and not forgotten in the process. You’re going to, of course, be more active at the new store because it’s like a newborn and is going to demand a lot of attention.