How to Hire High-Quality Restaurant Employees

When managing a food service company, handling turnover and temporary restaurant staffing is challenging. The method you use to find, interview, hire, and train your temporary restaurant personnel will influence the quality of your applicants and their ultimate success in the role. Having a reliable restaurant team is the key to providing top-notch services and earning a profit.

A restaurant recruiting agency can help you save time as you concentrate on running and growing your business. Handing over this task to pros who know what they are doing will help you find the best talent in the shortest time possible. Restaurant recruiting companies work with a lot of applicants and businesses so they know the best candidates for the job. They’ll interview the candidates for you, and with their knowledge of the market, they’ll advise on the best fit for your restaurant.

Drawing on our experience of having worked in the industry for decades, we’ve created a guide to ensure that the temporary restaurant staff you employ are not only suitable for your business, but will also have a good experience working with you.

Statistics on Restaurant Employees

The amount of money spent on recruiting and training new employees to replace those who quit their positions can amount to a significant cost. For example, it costs $2,000 to find a new front-of-house employee and replacing a manager costs a whopping $14,036. Unfortunately, the restaurant sector is known to have one of the highest rates of turnover in any business, with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics recording a jump from 4.8% to 6.9% from 2020 to 2021. As a result, restaurant owners and operators have to remain proactive to ensure that they maintain adequate staffing of their front-of-house, kitchen, and managerial personnel.

Tips to Attract Excellent Potential Restaurant Employees

Before learning how to evaluate a potential employee during the interview, let’s first focus on how to draw the attention of great candidates. When it comes to hiring personnel for temporary restaurant jobs, don’t start your search too far ahead of time. People who are hired for temporary positions understand that it is not a permanent placement, so they typically don’t start searching for such roles months before the position is available. You should begin your search no earlier than a couple of months prior to when you need the role filled.

Note: On the other hand, if you are looking to hire someone full-time, it is best to start the search as early as possible. Full-time candidates tend to be more dedicated to the process, and it may take some time to find the right person who will commit to staying with the company for a long period of time.

Create an Amazing Job Ad

While recruiting temporary staff, it is important to draft a killer job advertisement to draw in a large number of applicants. Once you have a decent number of potential candidates, you can go through each one and pick those who will move on to the interview stage. Your job description should be both truthful and precise.

Make sure that whoever reads your job post understands the duties of the role and the time frame of the contract. It should be concise enough so that candidates know what is expected of them, but not too lengthy. A long job ad could put off many potential temporary restaurant hires. Here are the essential elements to include in your ad:

Have a short description of your restaurant and be sure to highlight what makes you stand out.
Do your best to create a concise description of the role in no more than four sentences.
List the day-to-day responsibilities or roles in bullet points.
Have a clear list of qualifications and required skills.
Provide a link or email address for the applicants to respond and send their resumes.

Be straightforward and truthful with your job description. This helps potential employees make an informed decision, which in turn expands your pool of serious candidates. In addition, indicate whether there is a possibility of a full-time role after the completion of their temporary contract. Promising applicants may see this temporary role as a stepping stone to a more permanent position.

Publish your Job Ad

After that, put up your job ad on relevant job boards. We recommend starting with these: Poached, Monster, Seasonal Jobs, and Simply Hired. If your business has Facebook and Instagram accounts, it’s a great idea to publish a post or story to let your followers know that you are currently hiring. They’re your most devoted fans and may be interested or know somebody who is. Make sure your posts can be quickly shared and allow your followers to do the advertising for you.

Request Referrals From Your Staff Members

It’s useful to ask your current staff about individuals who could possibly be a fit for the role. Compensate your staff by providing them with a reward if the person they recommended is hired and proves to be a beneficial addition to the organization.

How to Determine the Suitability of Potential Restaurant Employees

Creating and sending out a well-written job posting is only the beginning. The next move—assessing your applicants—is the most critical. To discover an individual who is both competent and a good fit for the organization, you must come up with a plan of action and trust your intuition. After that, look through resumes and applications for related job experience and any extracurricular activities that give you a notion of who they are. When you have a list of potential applicants, it is then time to move to the interview process.

Adjust Your Interview Process to the Particular Job

The character traits and qualities necessary for each role in the restaurant industry differ. Whether you’re recruiting a bartender, manager, host, cook, or server, you need to structure your interview so you can get an accurate sense of how the applicant will work in the role.

For instance, servers usually have to be friendly, good at multitasking, and capable of handling pressure with a pleasant attitude. Ray Camillo, CEO and Founder of Blue Orbit Restaurant Consulting, advises giving a potential server applicant a timed test to simulate a hectic Friday night. “This will help you to see how they cope in a stressful situation,” says Camillo. If they seem overwhelmed or annoyed, they probably won’t be suitable for the job. However, if they keep their cool and stay positive, they could be an ideal candidate.

After finding the perfect potential employee, do your due diligence and run a background check. Ask for letters of recommendation from past employers to get an idea of how they performed in prior roles. If everything looks good, you may have just identified the right person for the job!

Steps to Take Prior to Extending an Offer

Determine the Legal Requirements

Every country has its own distinct protocol, regulations, and ordinances concerning short-term and part-time employees. If you are uncertain of these regulations, research the matter thoroughly to avoid messing up and accruing huge fines. To be on the safe side, look for restaurant recruiting companies to help you out, as this is their forte. As restaurant recruiters, we recommend these sources:

Figure Out the Compensation

When determining a wage that is affordable and competitive, it is a good idea to research what other local restaurants that sell a comparable product are offering their employees in similar roles. It is common for temporary staff to receive an hourly rate plus tips, which can fluctuate depending on the kind of business you have. If your dishes are pricier, the tips are likely to be higher. To draw in the most capable applicants, make sure you are offering a competitive salary.

Train the Short-Term Restaurant Staff

Once your proposal has been accepted by the candidate, it is necessary to provide them with training so that they can be successful in their assigned job. The type of training will depend on the position for which the individual was hired, but there are certain aspects that are included in the majority of training programs:

1. Education

When it comes to the practices and procedures that your business follows, establishing a set of instructions and guidelines is a great idea. New employees can take home these guidelines and review them, ensuring they understand how they should approach their tasks. It also makes them aware of all the other nitty gritty of your restaurant. The educational pamphlet should emphasize the following:

Facts about the restaurant: Clearly outline the kind of food you serve, most requested menu items, busiest schedules, most profitable menu items, head chef, where food is sourced, and owners details. With this information, your staff can create a story around your restaurant while serving clients.
Operational instructions: Be precise about how the front- and back-of-house in your restaurant communicate and work together. Explain the roles and responsibilities of the entire team. With these details, new personnel will know who to talk to when the need arises.

2. Shadowing and Observing Duties

It is especially helpful to have one of your most experienced staff members demonstrate procedures to kitchen staff, servers, and bartenders. Assign new employees to follow a permanent staff member in that position so they can watch how things are done. Some people learn better by watching, so this method is the best way to get them accustomed to their duties quickly during their initial shifts.

3. Gaining Tech Proficiency

Your restaurant’s point-of-sale and kitchen display systems are essential for your business. When you’re training a new employee, have a more experienced staff member teach them how to use the necessary tools.

Hosts should be shown how to check in customers that have a reservation and find their table on the floor plan, and how to adjust the layout for any last-minute visitors or bookings. Servers should be taught how to enter orders and send them to the appropriate station, check on a table’s status, and process payments.

Kitchen staff should learn to use the kitchen display systems correctly, particularly the color codes for a plate’s readiness status. For example, when they begin making a dish or it’s ready to serve, they should change the dish’s status so servers know when it’s ready. Managers should be shown how to customize the menu, manage inventory, tips, personnel, and close at the end of the day.

Regardless of the size and type of restaurant, having top talent who can provide outstanding customer service is key. With LevelUp Recruiting, we can get you high-quality staff and help you keep track of your staff’s performance and more. Speak with one of our restaurant recruiting experts to find out how we can enable your staff to work more effectively.

This article was published by LevelUp Recruiting LLC.

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