Raising good employees

One thing that shouldn’t
change when a business
grows, says Don Caster, is the set of values on which
the organization was founded.

“I run my business and try to
do it on the value and the
importance of that person to
both what our mission is and
our purpose,” says Caster,
founder and owner of Raisin
Rack Natural Food Market. “It
still reflects on taking care of
the customer. … It becomes
my priority to communicate as
often as possible those important values.”

By focusing intently on hiring
the right people and training
them according to his own set
of values, Caster led the natural
foods store to 2006 revenue of
$6 million, growing the company nearly 28 percent each year
between 2004 and 2006, and it
now has 57 employees.

Smart Business spoke with
Caster about the value of
teaching your employees not
to take customer complaints
personally.

Q. How do you train new
employees?

When we hire somebody
new, we will explain some of
the real basics in terms of
making sure everybody is
greeted. Saying hello, thanking
them, asking if they couldn’t
find anything. I have to do it
by example.

Any time I am on the floor
with customers, I make sure I
do that and make sure they
are aware I’m doing it.

That’s who I am. People can
become better at it. I don’t
expect everybody to be outgoing and confident.

Trusting the individual
becomes critical. If we’ve
established a trust, we may
not want to lose them. We may
want to put them in another
position we think they would
work at more effectively.

We’ve done that with people.
Two or three years later, they
turn into some of our best
floor people and some of our
best register people. They
learn how to be something
that they weren’t.

Q. How do you lead to get
the most out of your
employees?

If it’s all about me and
my company and what I
get out of it, then I don’t
see how anyone can survive. You’ve got to
involve that other person, something they can
receive out of it. Maybe
it’s just telling them
once a month or once a
day they are doing a
great job or acknowledging something they
have done.

When they are at
work, I want them to
feel good about what
they are doing. We’re
not afraid to tell them
when they are not and show
them where they need to be.

It doesn’t have to be
unique. It has to be personal.
I try not to have just one person in charge of any particular staff or group of people. I
always try to have two people that are observing. We
can draw conclusions based
upon observation.

Most of what I’m trying to
describe is almost transparent to anybody else. They
can’t see it. They don’t see
what’s going on. They shouldn’t know what we
might feel about somebody
else or what we might know
about somebody else.

Q. What is a critical lesson
you teach to every employee?

When somebody in a store
comes up and confronts you
with something they are angry
about, remember it’s not your
problem. It’s the store’s problem. That’s ownership. When
you take it on and you feel
threatened that the person is yelling at you, you’re going to
become defensive.

That’s the wrong stance to
take. If the customer is wrong,
then somebody else or two or three of us will decide that and
deal with it.

But as an individual, never
accept it. If somebody comes
up and threatens you by saying, ‘I’m tired of the way you
treat me or the way you did
this,’ then call for assistance
and let somebody else take it
over so it comes back to the
same problem. You don’t own the problem.

Q. How do you identify the
right people to grow with your
company?

Be a student of people.
Figure out who you can
trust. When you hire somebody, find out what it is
about that person that you
like and what you trusted
and what motivated you to
hire them. Make note and
check it.

It might be their bubbly
personality. It might be their
degree. If it turns out you
were taken aback or excited
for the wrong reason, that
person won’t accomplish
what you want.

I try to take notes when I
bring somebody in for a position. I sit and tell the person,
‘Here’s what I’m looking for
from you. I’m really
impressed that you have this
degree. I like the way you
talk. I like the way you
dress.’

Within a week or two, if
any one of those things
aren’t met, they come in
dressed differently, they
can’t seem to understand a
balance sheet or whatever
you hired them for, you need
to begin to confront those
situations. Don’t give a person forever to change.

HOW TO REACH: Raisin Rack Natural Food Market, (330) 966-1515 or www.raisinrack.com