5 tips for bar owners to become better interviewers

Ben Wiley is an owner of some of the best bars in Brooklyn, NY, like Bar Great Harry and Glorietta Baldy.

Their beer, wine, cocktail, and spirits lists are always top-tier. And the spaces themselves are homey and comforting. But the thing that really makes Ben's bars special is his staffing: it's obvious his friendly, helpful staff is happy to be there.

In this week's interview, he offered up some tactics for how to interview and make sure you find the right people to put behind your bar. Because nothing’s worse than hiring the wrong person.

Here's some of Ben's advice:

Draft a list of questions you know you want to ask everyone you interview, and use it in every single one of your interviews. You’re not gonna want to spend the time to draft it because you think you can wing it, but do it. It’s worth it. It pays off.
Update your list of questions periodically. If you’re still using the same list from 5 years ago, you need to spend a little time updating it.
Invest significant resources in interviewing. Not a crazy amount of time, but it isn’t weird to interview people two or three times. This often isn’t the case with bartender and server interviews, but, again, it pays off.
Always include idiosyncratic questions when interviewing. This is another one that seems obvious, but if you don’t think through these ahead of time you’ll forget to ask.
What does idiosyncratic mean here? Ask questions specific to your business and your needs—if you need folks to work 12 hour shifts, make sure you ask that. It sucks to think you’ve found a great fit only to find out they’re unable to do something unique to your bar that you forgot to ask about.

Check out the interview clip to hear more from Ben about interviewing, hiring, and more:

Sign up for the Brave New Bar weekly newsletter