Go Greek Yogurt employs teenagers in Del Mar, particularly students at the school, since the last four months of it being open. For potential student-workers, San Diego Branch co-owner Samantha Kucinski said having a positive attitude, clear communication and flexibility are important factors. Kucinski discussed the hiring process at the Del Mar Highlands Town Center location, her experiences regarding employing high schoolers and the ways Go Greek supports student-workers.
Could you please introduce yourself and talk about how you got involved in Go Greek?
“My name is Sam. My brother Alex and I started Go Greek [in Del Mar]. Alex went to college at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and he was a really big fan of the product. We were chatting and decided we needed to bring this to San Diego because we love the product so much, and we knew it would do really well here. That’s how we ended up in Del Mar.”
What was the hiring process like?
“We just put some ads out online, and we had, I think, [around] 100 people apply. It is a really good first job. We interviewed a lot of people, and [we were] just looking for people who had good attitudes. We always say you can not train a good attitude. We can teach you to be a worker, but if you don’t naturally have an upbeat attitude and are outgoing, it’s probably not the right kind of job for you.”
Currently, how many teenagers do you have working for you on rotation?
“We have 10 or 11. During the day, we have college-age kids, like students who go to [the University of California, San Diego], a couple of our employees who do online college right now or [San Diego State University students]. We have a little bit of everybody, and because they are available during the day, college students usually like their schedule to be more flexible. We usually have the high school kids come in around either 1:30 p.m or 3:30 p.m..”
How long do high school students typically work?
“During the week, the law is that high school students can only work four-hour shifts. They usually work three and a 1/2 hours. If they close, it will be [around], three hours and 45 minutes. By the time [they] get out of here, it’s almost four hours. And then on the weekends, we usually have longer shifts for high school kids, like six hours. We have one shift on the weekends for high school employees, [that is] almost eight hours. So [there are] short hours during the week and opportunities for more hours [on the weekends].”
How has your experience been in terms of scheduling and communicating with high school students?
“[It has] been pretty good. We definitely have a really big team. We hired a lot of people, so we’re super flexible. We’ll send a schedule out, and then we’ll get messages: [where] someone’s like, ‘I have college counseling on Thursday, I actually can’t come, or I have a family meeting.’ We are really flexible, and the communication has been pretty good. We can switch people out easily.”
Have you run into other challenges with high school employees besides the timing of their shifts?
“Not really, just the fact that it’s [their] first job [and they are] learning how to conduct [themselves] in a professional environment. Everyone we hired is great, so we give everyone leniency. It’s OK if you don’t know something. Then, once you know, I expect you to behave, act and work [as if] you know what you’re doing. I think [it’s] just the initial learning curve.”
How do you maintain a balance of professionalism and an enjoyable work environment?
“We are all friends, but we also have to establish a good [balance] between: ‘Hey, this is serious. We need to work. [Employees] have to do all the stuff on the to-do list. But, [they] can also have a good time.”
How do you think customers perceive young workers?
“I would say it depends. [Either Alex or I] are always here at all times. We’re always on standby. But we have such a good team that I feel the customers are still able to take them seriously. Some of the challenges have just been getting people a little out of their shells. We have a more expensive product, and you experience a lot of pushback from customers, getting them to be confident and comfortable [in purchasing]. But now that they’re all there, I wouldn’t say that the customers are too different towards them. I think they are happy to know there’s a manager. [We have] trained them to say [certain things], so they are prepared.”
Could you see yourself shifting your employment from fewer high school students to workers with more college experience?
“That’s a possibility. [However], we want to have TPHS [students as] staff because it[initially] helped spread the word. Everyone knew that their friends worked here, and it [integrated] us more in the community. Of course, it would be nice to have [high schoolers] available more, but we had to hire more so we could have someone work in the morning. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens during summer vacation.
What do you hope high school employees gain from working at Go Greek?
“I want to be able to give them opportunities to grow, personally. We selected employees who we think are going to do really well. Two years of them being here in a place like this, that’s a long time. If they can ride the roller coaster a little bit with us, we want to promote [from] within and give people raises and title bumps. I know that for college, these are important skills that you need to have. I think it’s cool to kind of watch them come out of their shell.”
