What needs to be in place for a culture to take root?
One of the things I believe is what we refer to as our
passion, which is about bringing those intangibles often associated with soup
to life and doing so in an environment where everything matters. That is our
greater good, and I think having that greater good has been very helpful for
us.
On the people side, the culture needs to be well-established,
defined and authentic. And I stress the notion of being authentic. Having
well-defined core values is critical for the recruiting and hiring process, as
well. That is all about the ‘who’ in your organization. And for us, one of the
things that really helps us at the store level is our operating philosophy,
which is a series of principles we call ‘Zoupisms.’ Once we have staff that
lives consistent with our core values, those principles empower them to execute
on a day-to-day basis.
Zoupisms for us are more about education, about our training
program, which trains the staff. We want to provide them with a higher level of
understanding of why and how and why we do things. It allows them to make
better decisions, observe our customers and achieve the long-term goals of the
business.
How do you find people who are a good match for your culture?
One of the things we do is we list our core values in all of
our job ads, and before we bring in anyone for an interview, we ask them to
give examples of times when they’ve demonstrated those core values. And then, when
we bring them in and interview them, it’s not just about experience and skills
that we’re really trying to get our arms around, it’s whether they will fit
within our culture. It’s more art than science, but you do want to stay focused
on it.
Ideally, you want someone who is a cultural fit even before
you are concerned with technical job requirements. We have let people go who
have been great on the skill side but just not a great fit for the culture. The
culture of a business is just too important to allow it to be in any way
diluted by someone who is a bad fit.
You can get a good sense of whether someone is a fit by going
back to your core values. For example, in our core values, we say that ideas
are appreciated but execution is worshipped. That’s about taking action.
Another of our values centers on attitude. When something goes wrong, do people
have a ‘woe is me’ attitude, or do they focus on finding solutions? Another
value is ‘no jerks,’ which is self-explanatory. You know it when you see it. And
we want people to be open and honest, which is all about having healthy
relationships. Those are the specific things that we look at when we are
speaking to candidates, including franchise candidates.
How to reach: Zoup! Fresh Soup Co., (800) 940-9687 or www.zoup.com.