Words of Wisdom: Hiring and Retaining Employees

Mara Fortin
Brands/Units: 7 Nothing Bundt Cakes

What are you doing to take care of your employees and how are you
handling rising employee costs?
We do a lot. We offered healthcare well before Obamacare was on the horizon, in order to keep our talent. We try our best to fit people's skill level with the correct position, and we're willing to move them around with extra training so they can achieve more. We offer an expansive bonus program, a retail bonus program, a referral fee program. If a straight-A student brings in another straight-A student, they get $200. If anyone on the team scores 100 percent on mystery shops or any type of review, they get $100.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)?
What we do is a combination of biting the bullet and incentivizing our team with a new bonus program. If they keep labor costs under a certain range, they get a bonus. We're trying to be more efficient - we don't throw things away that have a dollar amount attached to them. We have to manage so much more precisely now that if someone is not performing at $13-$15 with paid insurance, we have to let them go.