Editor’s note: a version of this story ran last month. The story has been updated with a podcast embedded in the text. The podcast can also be found on Apple, Spotify, and Soundcloud.
By Charlie Pogacar
Christina Martin, owner and operator of Manizza’s Pizza in Las Vegas, recently had an experience many pizzeria operators can only dream of these days. She posted a job listing for her pizzeria. Out of the 12 people she booked for an interview, 11 of them showed up. Out of those 11, she liked 10 of the candidates. It left her in the relatively enviable position of having to reject some of those candidates.
“Like to the point where it pained me to write the email to say, ‘When we have enough business to warrant bringing you in, I would love to [have you as a team member],” Martin said on the latest episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast. “Instead of, ‘Hey, you aren’t a good fit. We’re not going forward with this.’”
Martin shared this anecdote not to brag about her situation. She recognizes that many operators find it challenging to get people to even show up for interviews, let alone become a great member of their team. The example, then, was shared to “give hope to other people out there” that the labor market’s tide is finally beginning to turn.
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At the same time, Martin probably isn’t giving herself, and the rest of the team at Manizza’s Pizza, enough credit. Since opening the pizzeria in 2021, Martin has worked hard to establish a vibrant culture, one that attracts highly productive team members.
If the labor market really is starting to turn, some operators have yet to see it and could thus use any help they could get. Here are a few tips Martin shared on her approach to hiring and retaining employees—ones that might help you get better candidates in the door at your pizzeria.
It Starts With the Job Listing
If you’re using a stock template to advertise an open position, you might be doing it wrong. Similarly, if you hang “help wanted” signs in the window and expect something good to come from it, you may not be doing enough.
Martin’s approach to hiring good people starts with her job postings. She tries to write the postings in a colorful, unique voice that—and this is pivotal—matches her own. She’s not advertising something she’s not, in other words, but she’s highlighting what makes Manizza’s Pizza a fun job for a young person to have.
A Signed Commitment
Many operators share the same complaint: They may get responses to job listings. They may even schedule an interview with the applicant. But ultimately, the applicant fails to show up to the interview. This is frustrating on many levels, not the least of which is the time wasted awaiting an applicant’s arrival.
Martin has a small trick that she believes boosts the odds of the applicant showing up for the interview. On the actual application itself, she has them sign a line that says they will show up to the interview if one is scheduled. “I make them actually write it and make that commitment,” Martin said. While this does nothing to guarantee the applicant will actually show up, she believes it escalates their level of commitment to the process.
The Elephant Question
Large companies use A.I.-driven hiring platforms that help determine if an applicant is a good fit for their organization. The platforms ask unique questions and analyze each applicant’s answers to see what type of critical thinker they are. Those platforms are usually expensive, though, and not every pizzeria has a budget for them.
It’s not as if AI invented this idea either. Martin uses her own version of it: She asks each candidate the same question: “If I gave you an elephant and you couldn’t sell it or get rid of it, what would you do with it?”
“The ones who give me a detailed answer and take their time with it, it’s like, okay, you obviously aren’t just mass applying to jobs,” Martin said. “Even if their answer is like, ‘I would start a circus.’ Or, ‘I would ride it to work, gas is expensive.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, you’re thoughtful and entrepreneurial. Before I get you here, I just want some insight [into who you are].’ And at least we’ve smiled during the application process because otherwise it’s boring. So I use that as another opportunity to make sure I’m attracting fun people that I want to be around.”
Tiered Promotion
Of course, creating a strong culture goes beyond recruiting. The whole idea is that Martin, like any pizzeria owner, hopes to retain team members once they’re on board. Her approach to this, too, is unique and involves a tiered system of promotion.
Each team member starts out in the same position: learner. Martin hopes each employee advances to the next stage—pizzaiolo, which comes with a “substantial pay bump”— within 30 days. Martin recognizes that it might take longer for some people, and everyone is enabled to work at their own pace.
There are tiers beyond pizzaiolo, but what’s important to know is each rung of the ladder has a roadmap. For example, to become a pizzaiolo at Manizza’s Pizza, one must be able to cook an up-to-par pizza in less than 90 seconds. This particular test—cooking the pizza in 90 seconds—has become a rite of passage at Manizza’s, replete with a Vegas-like, disco-ball light show with “Eye of the Tiger” as the soundtrack.
“It’s a really fun, ceremonial-like thing that we do,” Martin said. “It’s dorky, it’s fun…and it gets to where their hands are shaking, and I’m like, ‘Bless.’ But it also lets you know that they’re ready for that next step [if they’re able to achieve it.]”
Each tier of promotion also requires that a team member read two books, or listen to two audiobooks. Her pizzeria has a library that employees can check books out of, ranging from topics on pizza to biographies of well-known historical figures. She also counts Unsliced, by Mike Bausch—owner of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Andolini’s Pizzeria and someone that Martin considers a mentor—as two books. So most team members opt to read “Unsliced,” which Martin hopes raises their interest in pizza. But more than anything, she hopes reading helps develop her team members beyond what they will accomplish in their time at Manizza’s Pizza.
“I know that I’m a first job for a huge portion of my staff and I’m spinning them off to college or off to their next job,” Martin said. “And I take that responsibility really seriously, because I had bad bosses growing up. I had some good ones, too, but it felt like I had a lot more bad ones, and I don’t want to be that way.
“When I send them off into the real world, I want to have them thinking, ‘Man, I had it really good at Manizza’s,” Martin continued. “But I also want them to be like, ‘I’m the best at whatever I’m now doing because I had that training.’ Sometimes I get texts from my [former employees who are now] college students, like, ‘I’m working at the pizzeria on campus!’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be the manager in like two weeks.’”
