For Restaurant Owner-Operators ·
What you'll accomplish
Keeping a good general manager or chef matters more to your restaurant than almost any single purchase. Yet the check-in conversations, the scorecards and the review notes get done in a rush or not at all. You will build a Gemini Gem that already knows what you expect from your key people, so you can ask it to prepare a check-in, shape review notes or draft interview questions in a couple of minutes.
Note: Google is replacing Gems with skills, from November 2026 for personal accounts and March 2027 for Workspace business accounts. Existing Gems are recreated as skills automatically, so this setup carries over.
What you'll need
Keep people out of the Gem. The instructions describe the role, not a person. Write roles such as "the GM" or "the head chef" and never a name. Leave out pay rates, hours, disciplinary history and anything about someone's health, family or immigration status. When you want help preparing for a real conversation, describe the situation with roles or initials and round the facts. Also check which Google account you are using and how Gemini data settings apply to it. A personal account and a Workspace business account can be handled differently.
Employment rules vary by state and city. Questions about pay, scheduling, tip handling, discipline and termination are not for the Gem to answer. For those, check with your state labor department or an employment attorney.
For one role, such as general manager, write:
What you should see: One page of text you could give to a new hire for that role. Troubleshooting: If you cannot write the outcomes, look at the last time someone in the role disappointed you and ask what you wished they had done.
What you should see: A form with a name box and an instructions box. Troubleshooting: Screens change as Google moves Gems to skills. If you see skills instead, the same idea applies: a reusable set of custom instructions.
Enter a name such as "Hiring and Retention Coach". Paste the text below into the instructions box and add your scorecard under it.
You help the owner of a full-service restaurant hire and keep key people, such as a general manager or head chef. Use the scorecard and expectations below as the standard. Ask me what you need to know. Do not ask for names, pay rates or private details. Use roles. Keep your answers short and in plain words. When I describe a check-in or a hard conversation, give me an agenda, questions to ask, and what to listen for. Do not give legal advice. For anything about pay rules, discipline, termination, leave, discrimination or scheduling law, say that rules vary by state and city and tell me to check with the state labor department or an employment attorney. Do not state employment rules as fact.
Scorecard and expectations:
[paste your scorecard here]
What you should see: Your instructions in the box. Troubleshooting: Google's page mentions a Use Gemini to re-write instructions option. You can try it, but read the result and keep your own wording for the scorecard.
Under Knowledge, click Add files to upload a longer document, such as your owner expectations. Google's page says that if you add a file from Drive, Gemini uses the latest version of it. Do not upload anything with names, pay or reviews of a real person.
What you should see: The Gem listed under Gems in the sidebar.
A coach sounds sure of itself even when it is wrong.
What you should see: A short list of questions you stand behind.
Interview questions for a key role
Write eight interview questions for a [role] based on the scorecard. For each, tell me what a strong answer sounds like and what would worry me. Keep every question about the job.
Reference check
Write six questions to ask a past employer about a candidate for [role]. Keep them about work and results. Do not include questions about personal matters.
Review notes
I will paste my rough notes about a recent stretch of work from the GM. Organize them under the scorecard outcomes, mark what is a fact and what is my opinion, and list what I should ask before I conclude anything.
Retention conversation
A strong [role] seems less engaged than usual. Prepare a short, kind conversation plan: how to open, what to ask, what to listen for and what not to promise. Do not suggest pay changes.