Know Thyself
Recruiting is more about you than them, according to Rob Harig
If you thought the big idea in recruiting was metrics, employer branding, or recruitment process outsourcing--think again.
It's Roman philosophy.
Two thousand years ago, the scholar Juvenal wrote “know thyself”. Although he was educating his fellow countrymen about the virtues of self-awareness, his catchphrase is the anchor for Rob Harig's plans for the venerable Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a chain of 477 restaurants scattered along U.S. interstates and highways.
With almost 60,000 employees to consider and a heated market for talent, Rob Harig, vice president of Field Human Resources, sees the ancient tenet as one of his most cutting-edge recruitment tools.
Rather than try to counter the intense hype from new competitors, Harig simply tells candidates like it is: we're old fashioned and hard working, and like long-term relationships.
His candor seems to work. With a better ability to determine if the company is right for them, candidates self select and, in turn, reduce drag on HR. In fact, since Harig joined the company two years ago, cost-per-hire has dropped by roughly 30 percent without increasing time-to-fill.
We spoke with Harig from his office in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Q. What's your biggest challenge these days?
A. There aren't enough people to fill our jobs. And statistically, there's not going to be enough until 2009. So our challenge is simple: how do we compete for quality people?
Q. How do you compete?
A. We focus on the heritage of our brand. We're a 32-year-old company with deep roots in the community and a wide swath of generations working for us. This shapes how we see the world. So does our philosophy of "pleasing people"--whether it's customers or employees. It translates into everything we do, from who we hire, to how we train, to ongoing skill development.
Q. How does this relate to recruiting?
A. We're committed to remaining fully-staffed at the restaurant manager level and we obsess about having enough hourly workers. To achieve those, we focus on making employees feel like part of the family. We invest in training, we invest in their goals, we work hard to make sure they feel good and have a future with us. There's no point in hiring someone if you don't expect to keep them.
The other focus is quality. Hiring even better people than we hired yesterday. The challenge is trying to find the people who want to work for us, rather than people who simply want to work.
Q. And who wants to work for you?
A. The people who don't want to work for a hot and sizzle.
Q. Hot and sizzle?
A. It's an industry term that describes up and coming brands. They're hot and sexy and fast moving. That's not Cracker Barrel. We're the opposite. We're established and rooted in tradition. We have all three generations working under one roof. Even our location is unsexy--we're on the side of highways for gosh sakes.
Q. So, is this a lesson in know thyself? Don't promote what you're not?
A. Absolutely. We're intensely proud of our country-fresh brand and our connection with the communities around our stores. We want people who are proud of that, too.
For example, one candidate I recently interviewed said that every summer, her family takes off for the beach. Her father-in-law plans the trip. They leave at 7:30am from their home and they stop at this Cracker Barrel at 8:00am, no questions asked. At 11:45am, they stop at another Cracker Barrel. And regardless if the family's hungry or not, the father-in-law says, "We're stopping here. This is the Cracker Barrel we stop at". That's our power. Our connection with people. And, if we use it carefully, it's a powerful recruitment tool.
Q. Many brands are a façade, a device to sell cola or jobs. But, when you study Cracker Barrel, your “brand reality” bears out. You guys actually walk the walk. How have you managed to do this for 30 years without straying?
A. Our chairman and founder Danny Evins--who's still very active in the business--has never allowed the brand to drift from its origins. And it's easy to drift. Every week I see a casual dining restaurant change names and start over. But he's stuck with Cracker Barrel and resisted the wrong kind of change.
Q. It's said that a company is the shadow of the person who built it.
A. True. But the senior management is a big part of this, too. Our senior VP of operations has been here 25 years, our divisional vice-president has been here 31 years, our regionals have been here 16 to 20 years. We have managers who've been managing one store for 18 years.
That heritage, and experience, is vital. When they started the company, they wanted people to stay, and, by gosh, they've stayed. And this legacy attracts--well, it forces us to attract--people who know themselves and are looking for a long-term career path. That's what we offer.
Now, there are companies out there building more than us, and there are some building less than us, and there are some who do more volume. But we're consistent and know who we are--and that keeps us competitive.
Q. Does Wall Street make it harder to take this long-term view?
A. You balance the short-term pressures from Wall Street with long-term sustainable growth. If you listen solely to the outside pressures, you'll fail. You have to manage the brand for the long term. How you get there is never a straight path, though. Some companies navigate better than others, and a lot of it has to do with senior leadership.
Q. Let's talk about the line. How do they relate to your “know thyself” premise? I would think they're under a lot of pressure to staff.
A. For hourly staff, we've had to reconsider our perceptions of younger workers. Thanks to the media, people have a distorted image of Gen Y as uncommitted. And that's plain wrong. Many of them are attracted to our hard-working, conservative, “country-fresh” environment. Getting over this hump has helped us tremendously.
As far as managers go--knowing who we are and what we offer helps once we get in front of a candidate. But actually finding them is terribly hard. So, we built up our website 
, and that's helped. We advertise. We do events. We hunt for them and approach them wherever we can. It's a constant struggle with no one short-term or long-term solution.
Q. How about you personally? Does knowing who you are and what you offer improve your relationship with managers?
A. [Laughs] It does, in fact. I even have a four-step process.
Q. Shoot.
A. First, HR has to establish superior credibility. You have to show operations that you understand their business and pressures, and that you can help drive sales and profits.
Second, credibility leads to influence. If HR sends managers the right type of people, then managers start to think HR is worth their time.
Third, influence leads to trust. The more they listen to you, and the more you keep giving them what they need, the more they will trust.
Finally, trust leads to partnership. And with partnership comes a seat at the table. Decisions don't get made without your input.
Q. But it's one after the other. You can't skip ahead in the line.
A. You can't skip ahead. Otherwise, you get butted out of line.
Rob Harig is vice president of Field Human Resources at Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores. He joined them from his own consulting business that he launched after several years with Metro Media Restaurant Group, owners of Steak&Ale, Bennigans, Ponderosa and Bonanza. Harig graduated from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, with a BA in Political Science.
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