Staff testing and training levels
We have begun to develop a level system to determine pay rate and encourage ongoing learning among our staff. My idea is to reward staff for training and to help foster greater employee loyalty. What do you guys think.I've just started to break down levels.
I'm attaching a pdf because it's easier to read.
I'm attaching a pdf because it's easier to read.
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Employee Levels.pdf, 45 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James Liu on
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No, it's easier to read in plain text when it's copied and pasted. Nobody wants to open a PDF file when the information in it is just as clearly expressed in plain text. Sorry, one of my pet peeves. There's a long explanation, if you want to hear it, feel free to private message me and I'll give it.
Coffee III seems a bit off. Being able to call a coffee based on a blind taste test (how brewed, cupping?) is a neat trick, but hardly a good test of someone who knows coffee well. I suppose it's 3 of 5 of your current offerings? Are they all the same roast level but different origins? I mean, if you put a Harrar, a Kenya, a Guat, a Brazil and a Sumatra all on the same table all at different roast levels, it's not that hard, but if you do Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil all at the same roast level, your barista is going to have some trouble.
Barista II should be more focused on getting the espresso to taste good. Grouphead breakdown should be together with Coffee Tech. You only need one or two people in your store who can break down a group for deep cleaning, and that may as well be the same person who knows how to troubleshoot/reprogram your brewers. Especially since breaking down groups, changing gaskets is the kind of work that can be put on a schedule. However, you should have everyone pull shots that are a cut above, and incentivise it with an increase in pay.
I suppose "a cut above at pulling shots" is a fuzzy standard and kind of hard to test for. Maybe bring in a mystery espresso that's been correctly rested (if you want it to be hard, bring a single origin), randomly dial the grind out of whack, and have the barista dial it in and serve you shots of it. Maybe do it with 3 separate coffees on 3 different occasions.
Do you do tea? Tea customers deserve attention to detail as well. Shouldn't there be a Tea I
Describe the difference between green, black, oolong, and white tea. Explain the major difference between Japanese and Chinese green tea, and between Chinese & Indian black tea.
Might be a start.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on
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James you're right we will need to address tea's.
Coffee III needs work but we would do coffees from different regions and roast levels and they would be from our standard offerings. I don't expect someone to be able to be able to identify a group of similar coffees.
I'm trying to create incremental skill sets that with each test taken the Barista would get an increase in base pay. So not all tests need to be weighted the same. One may be a $.25 an hour raise another may be worth more or less. I really haven't got to how much each is worth. The barista sections is hard for me to subjectively quantify.
Shot pulling is always an ongoing training exercise in our store it's rare that a barista would go a shift without pulling a shot for an owner or roaster. Of course this will change as we grow and the trick will be for us to maintain the quality level on a larger scale.
Here is the info in the PDF I'd like to foster as much discussion as possible.
Base
Run Registers, Tell Conscious Cup Story, Prep Drink Cups, Explain Basic drinks, Locate all invetory items, able to stock and reset bar, Able to perform all basic cleaning tasks
Barista
Complete prep of all menu drinks, shows proficiency in shot making and milk steaming, Make necessary adjustments to grind, Basic evening cleaning and shutdown of espresso machine
Barista II
Latte art at 80% consistency, Able to define and express nuances between shots, Change Group Gaskets, break down groupheads for through cleaning
Coffee I
Able to explain generalized regional Differences between Coffees, Able to define tasting terms, Body, accidity, roast level
Coffee II
Can verbally express diffences in coffees, able to make recommendations based on customers prefered roast, and flavor requests. Able to describe geographic differences in growing regions
Coffee III
Blind tasting, can identify 3 out 5 coffees in a blind taste test.
Coffee Tech
Able to trouble shoot and define error codes in brewing equipment, able to reprogram volume. Understanding of brewing paramiters.
Basic Roast
Able to explain basic roasting process, define parts of the roast, explain basic operation of roaster
Roaster assistant
Able to clean and prep the roaster for roasting, able to check temp settings and change if necessary to start the warmup process.
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Also, they are doing something like this at Intelly, although I don't know the exact categories that they have. I hear it's intense.
Also, it might be cool to hand out badges that can be sewn on to messenger bags. Or buttons. It's cool to get stuff for achievements.
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Haha funny you say that, Garrett one of my baristas asked if for every level he achieved that he would be able to wear one less piece of flair (we don't require flair). I'm not surprised that Intelly is doing something like this I love the way they are constantly pushing forward I'd love to see an outline of their program. I'll keep posting here as we continue to develop our program.
James Liu said:Also, they are doing something like this at Intelly, although I don't know the exact categories that they have. I hear it's intense.
Also, it might be cool to hand out badges that can be sewn on to messenger bags. Or buttons. It's cool to get stuff for achievements.
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Permalink Reply by Lorenzo Perkins on
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Personally, I would switch the Barista and Coffee positions. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems as if you intend your list to be a ranking of sorts, complete coffee III before you can complete coffee tech type of thing.
Having your employees learn about coffee in general before training them on bar allows a deeper understanding of how espresso works before they even attempt to pull a shot. You've already given them the tools to diagnose a good vs bad shot, over/under extraction, etc.
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I've not set an order as of yet, I'm envisioning a system where there are a few different paths. I've had employees that were not coordinated enough to make great baristas behind the bar but would excel elsewhere. I'm thinking of a non linear path that we decide on an individual basis what certs to do. We are getting to the point that it's no longer realistic that everyone be a good barista. So we are looking at how to create great coffee people that are not necessarily baristas. right now I'm trying to get straight groupings of skills in pieces that make sense. I'm trying to think of a series of sales and customer service certs.
Lorenzo Perkins said:Personally, I would switch the Barista and Coffee positions. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems as if you intend your list to be a ranking of sorts, complete coffee III before you can complete coffee tech type of thing.
Having your employees learn about coffee in general before training them on bar allows a deeper understanding of how espresso works before they even attempt to pull a shot. You've already given them the tools to diagnose a good vs bad shot, over/under extraction, etc.
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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on
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i think in general it's a bad idea to reinforce hierarchy, especially when it comes to wages. we have enough elitism in this country as it is.
instead, why not create a more thorough training program so that by the time your baristi start, they're at a good level of competency? you only need a couple techs, just require that the rest be badass baristi. done.
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Permalink Reply by Marek on
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Interesting thread. Different staff will excel at different tasks/levels... Each of our shops runs as a stand alone operation, each having an overlord (just kidding) technically... despite four shops and twenty staff we don't technically have ... a manager. We rotate all the staff so that everybody has some work on everything... including all back end functions.
We have been very surprised at the results. In one case... outright floored !!! A young lady has shown amazing skills at management level... with staff, delegation, payroll, pension, medical... banking, deposits, end of day reports... inventory... you name it...
Totally blown away... and yes... she got a raise that is in line with her talents...
One thing I noticed missing from the evaluation/grading...
There was no space for employee interaction and customer relations... two very important things.
We have 20 managers... who all happen to be baristas... and that is just so cool.
They work together and when they're not working... they hang out together and are truly friends.
I hope none of them are reading this or I am in big trouble.
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Jared,
So paying my employees for continued learning and training reinforces elitism? I think that rewarding people for their work and allowing them unfettered opportunity to grow and advance is our obligation as employers. One of the biggest rewards of owning our shop has been the opportunity work with some pretty amazing people as they walk along their life's journey. If I can help instill a work ethic of constant learning and growth then I'm on my way towards making the mark I want to with my life.
I would love to only have fully trained and qualified barista when they are put behind the bar. But even when you start there if you don't continue to train and challenge your people there are only two outcomes possible over time. Either skills slip and quality suffers or your employees get bored and eventually quit.
Jared Rutledge said:i think in general it's a bad idea to reinforce hierarchy, especially when it comes to wages. we have enough elitism in this country as it is.
instead, why not create a more thorough training program so that by the time your baristi start, they're at a good level of competency? you only need a couple techs, just require that the rest be badass baristi. done.
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What I meant to say in my last post was that I believe it to be more beneficial for a barista to have a strong understanding of brewing process and coffee nuances BEFORE attempting to create espresso. With the knowledge of what coffees taste like and how you can alter the cup by changing certain brew parameters on slower brew methods, then when faced with a challenge as dynamic as espresso, your baristas will be more able to think on there feet.
Said another way, manually brewed coffee and espresso both utilize similar extraction principles: contact time, distribution, dose, coarse/fineness of grind. But espresso is so much more delicate and finicky and as such is harder to grasp and repeat consistantly. If you lay the foundation of brew parameters first, then move to espresso, I believe you will have a more fluid and adaptable barista.
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i don't think paying employees for longevity enforces elitism, i think creating ranks or whatever you had on your list does. maybe it's my philosophy degree, or the fact that i'm only 25, but i don't dig climbing ladders. i don't go in for "flair" even if it's verbal. just pay a living wage, with raises based on longevity, and get people who care about coffee and don't want to stop learning.
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You may be right, keep in mind that my base level currently is about 15 hours of training and does encompass knowledge of different brew methods, coffee history, coffee market basic barista skills our base level is pretty comprehensive. I do see the benefit of doing a "advanced alternative brewing techniques" the idea of coffee as chemistry and understanding of extraction as a base before working on more advanced espresso technique would be helpful.
Lorenzo Perkins said:What I meant to say in my last post was that I believe it to be more beneficial for a barista to have a strong understanding of brewing process and coffee nuances BEFORE attempting to create espresso. With the knowledge of what coffees taste like and how you can alter the cup by changing certain brew parameters on slower brew methods, then when faced with a challenge as dynamic as espresso, your baristas will be more able to think on there feet.
Said another way, manually brewed coffee and espresso both utilize similar extraction principles: contact time, distribution, dose, coarse/fineness of grind. But espresso is so much more delicate and finicky and as such is harder to grasp and repeat consistantly. If you lay the foundation of brew parameters first, then move to espresso, I believe you will have a more fluid and adaptable barista.
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