Chapter 17 — Exercises

Thirty-four problems. Items marked with a dagger (†) have worked solutions in the Answers to Selected Exercises appendix — attempt them before you look.

A. Recall and definitions (1–7)

1. Define turnover rate and state why it is a poor diagnostic on its own.

2. † List the nine components of the cost of turnover from §17.1, and name the P&L line each one hides inside.

3. What is a stage, and what is the front-of-house equivalent called?

4. State the two Form I-9 deadlines and the one thing an employer may not do when collecting documents.

5. † Define at-will employment and give one example of offer-letter language that could accidentally undercut it.

6. Name the six components of a job description worth writing, per §17.2.

7. What single question does §17.6 identify as the most informative in a reference check, and why is the pause before the answer significant?

B. Computing the cost of turnover (8–15)

8. † A dishwasher leaves. Advertising \$40; manager screening 1.5 hrs at \$32; orientation 2 hrs at \$18 plus 0.5 manager hours; unproductive training 16 hrs at \$18 with half unproductive; vacancy overtime 2 weeks × 6 hrs × \$9 premium. Compute the total.

9. A restaurant employs 34 people and records 29 separations in a year. What is its turnover rate?

10. † Using Figure 17.1's ledger, compute what Bellwether's annual turnover cost would be if line-cook turnover fell from 100% to 60% and server turnover fell from 75% to 50%, with everything else unchanged. Express the saving in dollars and as a percentage of the \$500,000 labor line.

11. A manager proposes a \$300 referral bonus paid half at hire, half at ninety days. If it produces six hires a year and half of them reach ninety days, what does the program cost? Compare it to one avoided line-cook turnover.

12. † A line cook's replacement costs \$2,180. A \$1.00/hour raise across four line cooks working an average of 32 hours a week costs how much a year? How much would turnover have to fall for the raise to pay for itself on turnover cost alone?

13. Compute the cost of vacancy separately from the cost of replacement for a three-week line-cook opening: 10 hours of overtime a week at an \$11 premium, plus 6 hours a week of a salaried manager's time at \$32 that would otherwise have gone to other work.

14. † Bellwether expects 27 separations at a cost near \$38,000. Express that as: dollars per cover across 36,140 annual covers; a percentage of revenue; and points of prime cost.

15. A restaurant with a 120% turnover rate has 25 positions. If the average replacement costs \$1,600, what is the annual cost — and what would a ten-point reduction in turnover be worth?

C. Descriptions, sourcing, and screening (16–24)

16. † Rewrite this posting so a competent candidate would answer it: "Line cook wanted. 2 years experience. Fast-paced environment. Team player. Competitive pay. Apply within." Include all six components from §17.2.

17. Rank the sourcing channels in §17.3 by cost per hire and separately by expected retention. Explain the inverse relationship in two sentences.

18. Your job board posting has produced forty applications and two viable candidates in three weeks. Diagnose three possible causes and name the one you would test first.

19. † Write five structured-interview questions for a bartender position at Bellwether. Each must ask about past behavior rather than a hypothetical, and each must map to a duty. State what a 5-out-of-5 answer would contain for two of them.

20. Explain why §17.4 instructs interviewers to score before discussing. What failure does that prevent?

21. A candidate scores 13 of 25 on the scorecard but the chef "has a feeling about her." What is the disciplined response — and what is the strongest argument for the chef's instinct?

22. † Design a structured stage for a server working interview: the tasks, the three things you would watch, and the correction you would deliver. Explain what each element is meant to reveal.

23. Explain why §17.4 recommends keeping unhired candidates "warm," and compute what a standing bench of three is worth if it shortens an average vacancy from three weeks to one.

24. A candidate asks, mid-interview, whether the restaurant is "family friendly about scheduling." What may you ask in response, and what must you not ask?

D. Law, judgment, and ethics (25–29)

25. † Explain, in your own words, why an unpaid four-hour stage in which the candidate does prep work creates wage-and-hour exposure. Then state the safe practice and price it.

26. A neighboring restaurant's sous chef approaches you about a job. List the legal questions worth asking, the relationship considerations, and the one thing you should not do.

27. Your background check reveals a seven-year-old conviction. Walk through the FCRA steps required before you may act on it, and state the question fair-chance law would have you ask.

28. † An operator screens out every applicant with a criminal record. Give the business case against that policy — separate from the legal case — in terms this book has established.

29. A manager wants to ask candidates their current wage to "calibrate the offer." Explain the problem, and give the question to ask instead.

E. Onboarding and the Business Plan (30–34)

30. Using Figure 17.3, explain why a departure at day 25 is a larger financial loss than a departure at month eight, even though the person worked less.

31. † Design a thirty-day onboarding plan for a new server at Bellwether: what happens on day one, in week one, at week two, and at day thirty. Name who owns each step.

32. A restaurant's exit interviews reveal most departures occur between weeks two and five. Which of §17.8's countermeasures addresses that window most directly, and what would you measure to know whether it worked?

33. † Business Plan extension. Bellwether's staffing plan carries 31 people at 22 FTE. Argue either that the dishwasher count (3) is too high for a 68-seat restaurant, or that it is correct. Use the seven-service week and the constraint that dish cannot be consolidated across services.

34. Business Plan extension. The Chapter 17 checkpoint commits to four anti-turnover measures. Price all four for a year at Bellwether's headcount, compare the total to the \$38,000 in Figure 17.1, and state what reduction in turnover would be required to break even.