With the availability of online job portals, recruiting employees has become a lot easier; however, restaurants are still in need of the right applicants. If you are experiencing a labor shortage and would like to access a better pool of candidates, you should prioritize recruiting. Restaurant recruiting companies can provide guidance on the best strategies to help you hire the right restaurant employees.
What is Recruitment?
This is the process of locating and hiring suitable candidates for open positions in an organization. It is an aggressive procedure that involves discovering and attracting the perfect people. In huge restaurant networks, the hiring is typically done by qualified individuals in the human resources department. Independent restaurants and small stores may not be too knowledgeable about recruitment practices, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t use the same tactics.
Read on to find out how recruiting can help you get the best workers for your business.
How to Create a Career Page
Having a career page on your restaurant’s website provides a focal point for potential job seekers. It gives you an opportunity to provide more information regarding your business than what can fit in a single job posting. This will give interested applicants an insight into what it’s like to be employed at your restaurant. Nowadays, most candidates will look up your business online before submitting an application, and if they can’t find the information they are looking for, they may lose interest. This is why it’s essential to create a career page so it can serve as the main hub for recruiting.
Making a career page on your restaurant’s website should be a top priority. Ensure it is attractive and simple to browse through. Put the page in the main menu so that it is easy to access it from the home page. If you are stuck on the design, take a look at the career pages on other websites for inspiration. Each career page is distinct, but some of the basic sections to add are:
- Your core values and mission statement. This helps visitors know why you began your restaurant and your future goals.
- What you do. Explain in detail what makes you stand out from the rest. The cuisine you serve and even how customers feel when they dine in your establishment.
- Who you need for the job. Have a list of the soft skills you need and the character traits you value in an employee.
- Open positions. Link the open positions to online application listings so that candidates can find your page easily.
- Work culture and benefits. Be clear on the benefits and perks of working with you and let your future employees know the working culture of your restaurant.
- Photos and videos. If you want to keep people engaged on your page, have high-quality photos and videos. Give them a tour of the restaurant, have testimonials of other employees, or even a tutorial on a cocktail.
If writing is not your forte, consider hiring a freelance writer to develop the content for your career page. This is a small expenditure, and a skilled writer can compose intriguing text is eye-catching while still staying faithful to your company’s image.
Write an Effective Job Description
Crafting more precise job postings for restaurant positions is not only useful for bringing in new personnel, but also for making sure you’re hiring the best people. It’s essential to be frank with prospective employees so they can really understand what a future job with your business would entail. A well-defined job description is helpful for both you and the candidates to identify the ideal fit.
How to Create a Job Description
This is a multi-step process that involves defining the job role and responsibilities, the qualifications and skills required, and the expected salary for the position. It is important to be prepared for when you need to hire a new employee by creating an extensive list of job descriptions. This list should be kept at hand before the need to hire arises so that when it does, you’ll be able to quickly post the job summaries on your career page and any other recruitment outlets you use. The job description should be detailed and include the following information:
- Career Page Link: Employers should have a dedicated section on their website to showcase their current job openings. In the job postings, a link to the company’s career page should be included so potential candidates can find additional information about the organization.
- Job Summary: This should be a clear and engaging paragraph (or two) that accurately portrays your company and culture. Make sure to display the more human aspects of your organization and avoid simply listing mundane details.
- Responsibilities: A list of the everyday duties associated with the role should be included and it is helpful to explain how the job is structured and fits into the hierarchy.
- Qualifications: Necessary qualifications should be specified, such as education, experience, and technical skills, as well as the character traits that would make the candidate successful.
- Compensation: It is recommended to provide information about compensation, such as hourly rates or salaries. You should also include the benefits that come with the job, like health insurance, PTO, and 401k.
Websites Used for Recruitment Purposes
Nowadays, individuals looking for work mainly search online. Huge job search sites get millions of visitors each month. There are also narrow sites that provide services geared towards the food service and hospitality sectors, but these sites generate less traffic. Utilizing both types of job sites is an efficient way to guarantee your postings are seen by the correct individuals.
Large Job Boards & Sites
Nowadays, there is an abundance of job search engines available for you to choose from. Make sure not to skip out on any of these sites:
- LinkedIn: This is a professional networking platform that connects both employers and employees. One can search for the ideal candidates for a position on LinkedIn.
- Indeed: It’s one of the biggest job markets with millions of users allowing employers to post jobs and employees to apply for jobs.
- Google for Jobs: Google gives instructions on how to set your career page in a way that it will show up in online searches.
Food Service Job Sites
You may not be aware of these restaurant job boards yet, but a lot of these websites collaborate with Indeed or Craigslist to distribute your job postings.
- Poached: This job board makes it easy for job seekers to find what they’re looking for as it has categories like the bar, kitchen, counter, management, etc.
- HCareers: A hospitality industry job board that matches candidates with employers based on their skills, salary, and culture.
- Culinary Agents: They help restaurants with branding strategies and offer flexible payment plans to employees.
Organizing Job Fairs
Holding a recruitment event is a fantastic way to meet potential job seekers in person. This can streamline the hiring process by allowing you to evaluate resumes and interview servers and chefs on the spot. We have the following advice for making a job fair successful:
- Great organization: It is important to be punctual, and have the space arranged properly. Establish spots for people to fill out forms, have their interviews, and ask questions. Additionally, it is important to develop a plan for how to direct people to the different stations.
- Location: When choosing where to hold your job fair, an onsite location is great for introducing applicants to the workspace, but it may not be feasible for every eatery to do that while still running their business. If you need to stay open and wait on customers, an offsite spot is best. When selecting a venue, make sure to take into account the parking availability and its proximity to public transportation.
- Date and time: Mondays and Fridays are usually not the best days to schedule a hiring event, so try holding your event in the middle of the week and then another one on the weekend to get the most people.
- Promotion: Promote your event using social media, put up flyers in the area, or send emails so that people know what they should bring with them (resume, ID, etc).
Establish a Relationship with Culinary Schools
It is a great idea to reach out to the culinary schools near you and make a connection with their career services division. Instructors at these schools are delighted to collaborate with local employers to aid students and alumni in securing jobs. One of the most beneficial aspects of working with career services is that they are familiar with their students, and can thus help you come up with a lasting match.
The Culinary Institute of America has an online job listings platform called Culinary Connect. They provide assistance in setting up job shadowing and internships. Furthermore, numerous educational institutions organize their own career fairs or meet-and-greets, which offer a great opportunity to promote your restaurant.
Employee Referral Programs
This is an employee recommendation plan that offers bonuses to present workers who refer a successful applicant for a job. The choice of what type of reward to provide (typically money) is up to you. Moreover, you must decide what constitutes a “successful candidate.” Will you provide a financial reward for every referral that is employed, or only for those who remain with the organization for a specific amount of time?
Recruiting staff through referrals is an effective approach. ERIN, a software firm specializing in referrals, reports that people employed this way tend to remain with their employers for an extended time. Additionally, the recruitment procedure is much faster and helps to reduce the expenses associated with hiring. A bonus of employee referrals is that the company pays its own personnel for successful referrals, which helps to cultivate loyalty.
Wrapping Up!
Finding personnel for your business can be a time-consuming process. If you use all of our suggested strategies, you may not have room for much else in your schedule. It would be more advantageous to approach recruiting as if it was a full-time job. Assign a couple of your staff to be recruiting specialists and give them the time to do the job properly. If you don’t have the capacity to manage recruitment internally, consider getting a third-party recruiter. Restaurant recruiting companies exist in many places across the nation, and they can help you fill front-of-house, back-of-house, and managerial roles.
This article was published by LevelUp Recruiting LLC.
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