A 3-Step Process for Hiring Regional Managers

A regional manager is a special type of person in the QSR world, according to David Plait, a veteran multi-unit Hungry Howie's franchisee based in Michigan.

The regional manager doesn't work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. They've got to be in the restaurants whenever people are buying pizza, and that requires plenty of nights and weekends.

"If they grew up having their wonderful times together on the weekends or Sunday after church," Plait says, "well, when everyone's congregating for Sunday after church, we're selling a lot of pizza."

Plait refers to his regional managers as decision-makers because they need to be ready at a moment's notice if the air conditioning goes out at a restaurant or if a catering job becomes unexpectedly complicated.

It's a demanding role that can be difficult to fill, but Plait has developed a three-step approach that he's refined over the years. It starts with looking inward.

"We've tried hiring outside of the company. That doesn't work," he says. "We want somebody who's homegrown, who grew up in our culture, and who grew up in our business model so that they really understand how all of their decisions affect everyone in the pipeline."

Plait says entry-level team members are the backbone of his business. For the most part, they great the customers and make the product, so regional managers need a healthy respect for the job those team members do.

"So long and short: We don't have any regional managers who didn't come through the system," he says.

Next, regional manager candidates need a blend of talent and skill that allows them to quickly develop authentic relationships. Plait looks for open hearts and open minds, the kind of people who work and play well with others.

"That regional manager only has a short period of time to be able to understand the culture that exists within the four walls of the store that he or she is overseeing," Plait says. "Although we'd like to say culture is consistent across the board, the personalities are different in every location."

The first thing a regional manager manages is time. With eight stores to visit, he or she needs to maximize each visit by finding out which employees are willing to tell the truth and which ones are saying what they think the boss wants to hear.

"Although you can look at the metrics and get a good feeling for what service was like, what times were like, and what product quality was like," he says, "it doesn't tell the whole story if you don't have the human side."

Honesty also applies to the third part of Plait's approach to hiring decision-makers. A candidate can be homegrown and have all the dynamic qualities the job requires, but the hire won't work out over the long term if goals don't line up. This gets back to nights, weekends, and after-church gatherings.

"We have to present our business model and the lane that we expect them to stay in," Plait says. "We have to present that lane honestly because, sometimes, that lane doesn't fit. If you're not transparent on the journey, there's that collision course."

Step three was put into place to avoid the unnecessary chaos that always resulted when Plait tried to fit a square peg into a round hole. Now, Plait believes in contentment, which he calls "a big little word."

"It's very important to find the person who will find the contentment within our business model," he says.

Plait's three-step approach for hiring regional managers took trial and error to develop over the years. It works for his multi-unit business, and it might work for yours.

"If you don't have all of those three things in place," he says, "it makes no sense to expend the resources on an individual to try and move them up into a regional position."