Human Assets: Latin Influence
Recruiting Hispanics drives retention and supports ongoing growth at Cantina Laredo and El Chico.
By Donna Hood Crecca, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 5/1/2006
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It stands to reason that an enthusiastic server with firsthand knowledge of the cuisine and a Spanish accent only adds to the authenticity of a Mexican restaurant. Such is the case at many Cantina Laredo and El Chico locations. But parent company Consolidated Restaurant Operations and its franchisees are also finding that tapping the growing Hispanic labor pool helps them better recruit and retain talent.
“We love to put a Hispanic female with a strong accent in front of our guest because it makes Cantina Laredo that much more authentic,” says Len Lemmer, president of Fort Myers, Fla.-based L&S Restaurant Concepts, a franchisee that operates two Cantina Laredo locations and one El Chico, CRO’s upscale and casual Mexican concepts, respectively. “The labor market is very tight right now, and we find that one Hispanic hire leads to more hires, and these hires inevitably turn out to be very loyal, energetic employees.”
About 60 percent of employees at the two L&S Cantina Laredo units are of Hispanic descent, as are six of the company’s 14 managers. Thirteen Hispanic nations are represented among the employees at the Plantation, Fla., location, where the majority of workers are of Mexican descent.
Retention is higher among Hispanic employees at L&S than among Anglo workers, according to Director of Operations Freddy Magana, although actual data are not available. “Because we are welcoming and many of our employees speak Spanish—including managers—this is a comfortable place for Hispanics to work,” Magana says. “Also, El Chico and Cantina Laredo are Mexican concepts, so there is comfort with the food and preparation.”
Community Connections
Magana uses a grassroots approach to recruit in the Hispanic communities where L&S operates. When opening a location, he reaches out to Hispanic business organizations, churches and community groups, informing their leaders that L&S is seeking employees. Ads on Hispanic radio stations and in Hispanic newspapers get the word out. And L&S participates in community fairs and job events.
“We find that in the restaurants or at these events, when a Hispanic manager is interviewing a Hispanic candidate, it gives us a lot of credibility as an employer who treats its people well and values everyone,” Lemmer says.
Once hired, employees find training materials that visually convey operational tasks and recipes translated into Spanish to help back-of-the-house employees overcome language barriers.
L&S also offers financial support for English as a second language classes and is covering the tuition costs for a Spanish course that one of its Anglo kitchen managers is taking.
Its outreach and employment record has earned L&S kudos in the Hispanic community. The Fort Myers Hispanic Chamber of Commerce recognized Cantina Laredo as the 2004 Business of the Year.
Lemmer and Magana are counting on their Hispanic hiring practices to help them staff additional Cantina Laredo locations planned for the Florida market. Because the company is still in negotiations with CRO and real-estate developers, L&S won’t disclose the number of Cantina Laredo and El Chico units it plans to open.
“We’re in a tight labor market, so it’s important we use the relationships we have to attract employees. We compete with agriculture jobs for the Hispanic employees, but when we show them the restaurants and they meet the workers, they see the opportunities here,” Magana says.
History Lessons
When Magana joined L&S three years ago, he brought with him a wealth of experience in recruiting and retaining Hispanic employees culled during his 23 years with El Chico, where he began his career as a dishwasher. The casual Mexican concept is now owned by Consolidated Restaurant Operations, the Dallas-based company with eight concepts and 141 restaurants in 12 states from Florida to Arizona. Currently, CRO operates 55 El Chico and 12 Cantina Laredo locations; 24 and three units, respectively, are franchised.
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Hiring Hispanics is part of the El Chico history. The Cuellar family, originally from Mexico, founded the concept in Dallas in 1940. Investment partners John Harkey, John Cracken and Gene Street, who formed CRO, acquired El Chico and Cantina Laredo in 1998.
Of CRO’s 4,200 employees at its El Chico and Cantina Laredo corporate units, 42 percent are of Hispanic descent; 27 percent of unit managers are Hispanic.
“We certainly don’t instruct our staff to hire a specific nationality, but the Hispanic community is core to this concept,” says CEO Harkey. “Thanks to the family’s legacy, we have a good reputation as an employer. Our Hispanic managers and many of our Anglo managers are fluent in Spanish, and we actively promote Hispanic team members into management, so our management bench is diverse.”
CRO’s Hispanic employees are its best recruiters, according to Vice President of Marketing Bill Watson. “They are like ambassadors for the company. They share their positive experiences with friends and family, and those people then become candidates,” he says. “When we opened new restaurants recently in Dallas and Granbury, we got Hispanic referral candidates from as far as 40 miles away.”
A cash referral bonus helps ensure all employees are talking up CRO to friends and family. Employees who refer a candidate for a management position receive $500 when the individual finishes training and an additional $500 after six months of employment. The company paid out $23,000 in referral bonuses in 2005.
Like L&S, CRO participates in job fairs and trains with visual and Spanish materials. And like L&S, CRO reports that retention is higher among its Hispanic workers. Turnover is declining throughout the company, according to Harkey. Hourly turnover for 2005 was 108 percent; management turn came in at 22 percent. Approximately 40 percent of internally sourced managers are Hispanic.
Diversity Drives Retention
Hiring diverse employees correlates to lower turnover, according to People Report, the Dallas-based human-resource benchmarking firm. Turnover trends 12 percent lower on average among top-performing People Report subscribers in casual- and fine-dining chains that report high levels of diversity. What’s more, the presence of male Hispanic managers positively affects retention in quick-service and family-dining chains.
“Our data indicates that as the percentage of Hispanic male hires increases, the hourly-employee turnover decreases considerably,” says Victor Fernandez, research analyst for People Report. “Companies in those segments with more than 10 percent of hires being Hispanic males showed hourly-employee turnover 29 points lower than the average.” Data on the impact of female Hispanic managers are unavailable.
The tradition of grassroots recruiting will also help El Chico and Cantina Laredo as they grow. Director of Franchising Adam Mandel is actively reaching out to potential franchisees in the Hispanic business community. Five franchised El Chicos are planned for 2006, including units in new markets like Georgia and Kansas, along with five corporate Cantina Laredos and several franchised locations.
“[CRO’s] Mexican concepts are well-positioned in terms of what’s going on demographically in Texas and nationwide with the growth of the Hispanic population and popularity of Hispanic culture and cuisine in general,” Harkey says. “Our approach to hiring should enable us to staff adequately as we grow.”
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