Cheesehead uses noggin to find employees

Sarasota entrepreneur Louise Kennedy Converse recently tackled nearly every business owner's primary anxiety — how to find top employees — with a unique approach: raw and uncomplicated honesty.

The owner of the Artisan Cheese Co., a downtown Sarasota specialty food shop, Kennedy Converse wrote an online help wanted ad in March that was the antithesis of the standard call for employees. This 852-word ad, (see right) zeroes in on the precise candidate Kennedy Converse seeks.

The ad worked: Kennedy Converse hired two people. She's also used it as a starting point for people she meets who are interested in working at the store.

But Kennedy Converse also received a sizable chunk of online correspondence from people who harshly criticized the ad. Several people complained about the salary. (The ad says training starts at $10+ an hour.)

Kennedy Converse says she hired, and helped hire, around 100 people in her previous career, when she was deputy director of administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. One goal with this ad was to eliminate the “plastic” vibe of most job ads, and even job interviews.

“As a business owner I have to wear a lot of hats,” says Kennedy Converse. “I don't have time to read all the resumes that would have come to my inbox if I just said I'm looking for a cheesemonger.”

Adds Kennedy Converse: “I wanted to cut to the chase. And I wanted a way to hire a great person.”