How to Hire Restaurant Employees


Hire Restaurant Employees

Understanding how to hire restaurant quality employees can make your restaurant successful. via Dennis Wong

Hiring can be one of the most frustrating aspects of any business. Figuring out how to hire restaurant employees can be an even bigger task.

In some restaurant industries employee turnover is constant and it leads to inefficiencies and other issues with the business.

In this article we will review the problem restaurants have and show you how you can use a restaurant website to hire restaurant employees.

The Problem: How to Hire Restaurant Employees

A great employee can be trained quickly to do any job. Tweet This

The most common problem with hiring is finding the right people.

It’s the most important aspect of any business and that’s why it’s also the most difficult. You have to have the right people on your team otherwise your business will struggle.

This principle is true in any business and it’s true in the restaurant business too.

There is turnover in any industry and circumstances can vary by individual business, but turnover can be a big issue in the restaurant industry. Every level in a restaurant can come under stress with turnover. It’s really hard to lose a veteran employee and be forced to replace them with someone new. You hope to find someone with experience, but often you have to bring in someone new and train them and that takes time, which most don’t have.

Here are some tips for helping make the hiring process a little easier.

Traditional Hiring Methods That Still Work

Hire Restaurant Employees Busy Kitchen

The busy restaurant environment can lead to high turnover. via snowpea

Traditional methods for hiring include hiring people you know. Family and friends are often looked at to fill potential jobs. You need people you can trust and there is usually no group of people you know better than your own family or group of friends.

Word of mouth is also common. You ask your family, friends, co-workers and colleagues to pass the word around that you’re hiring. Word spreads and you get candidates for the available positions.

If those two methods don’t work there is always the classifieds sections in the local newspapers. It’s a method that still works well. Lots of people constantly look in the classifieds for job openings. You could leave an ad in constantly just to keep a steady stream coming in.

The best companies always make room for great people even if they don’t have an immediate opening.

A great employee can be trained quickly to do any job in a restaurant.

Hire Restaurant Employees with a Website

Hire Restaurant Employees Top Shelf

Here is a great example of a Work for Us page.

The first step you can take with your restaurant website is to put a “Work for…” page on the site. This is the easiest way to get new candidates sending you their information.

Let’s use a fictitious example.

The restaurant is Jim’s Crab Shack in Boston, MA.

The first step is to create a page on the website named Work for Jim’s.

On the page is information about Jim’s and the different jobs at the restaurant. Jim’s would write that they are a seafood restaurant in Bostin, MA. They would include information about the specific neighborhood where they are located and the uniqueness of their restaurant.

Because there could be openings for all positions at some point in the future it’s good to list all of the areas. Explain the tasks and also include keywords candidates might look for when they search on Google.

A good way to include keywords is to use headings on the Work for Us page.

Use headings such as:

Waitress and Waiter Wanted at Boston, MA Seafood Restaurant

Manager at Boston Restaurant Wanted

Bartender Needed at Boston Area Restaurant

These are things people will search for on search engines. Include descriptions of the positions under each heading.

At the bottom of the page include a contact form that allow people to send you a few details. You don’t have to ask for a full application (although you can use your website for this). Getting a few details can often tell you what you need to know about the person and it saves them time and it saves you time from having to go through an entire application.

Once the page is setup add a link in the footer of your website to the page. Most of the visitors to your restaurant website are potential customers so you don’t want to distract them when they’re browsing. By putting the link in the footer you’ll make it obvious enough for those that are looking for jobs to find, but it won’t be distracting.

Additionally, add a full feature contact form to this page. You can have people include specific information (see below for more details). You can also have people attach their resume′ to make it easy for you to organize on your computer and sift through when you’re selecting candidates.

This is a page you can direct people to when you post jobs on other websites and in any print ads. It keeps things in one location making it easy for you to organize.

And with Restaurant Engine this feature is built-in to your website. It’s easy to add this form and customize it to meet your specific needs.

Finding the Right Balance: Quality vs. Quantity

Hire Restaurant Employees Job Interview

Ask a few qualifying questions to deter low quality applicants. via bpsuaf

With website applications and contact forms there is always the issue of quality vs. quantity. You want to get applicants, but you don’t want to waste your time with worthless applicants. It’s more frustrating than getting just a few inquiries.

To make sure you’re getting quality applicants you can do a few simple things on the Work for Us page.

Add a few qualifications and requirements that might scare people away from applying.

You could do this by asking a couple questions on the page like:

When should you take the main course to the customer?

How long does it take to cook a steak to medium rare?

Adding just a few questions to the page will give you insight into how detailed each applicant is. Believe it or not – the questions will scare off the lazy people. They won’t want to answer them and they won’t apply. If someone doesn’t answer the questions you know they are probably not going to pay attention to details.

Add simple qualifications to the Work for Us page to make sure you’re getting quality applicants.

It will save you time and headaches during the hiring process.

Additional Online Resources

Here are some additional places to hire restaurant employees.

National Restaurant Association

This national association has a popular restaurant career job board.

iHireHospitalityServices

Another website specifically for hospitality and restaurant jobs that offers targeted postings.

Career Builder

This and sites like it are frequented by those seeking new jobs. It’s pretty easy to create a listing and they rank well in search engines.

Craigslist

Don’t forget about Craigslist. The site is simple, but it’s effective for hiring.

Google AdWords

If you’re willing to spend money you can pay to send traffic to your Work for Us page. AdWords lets you target specific keywords and send traffic immediately instead of waiting for your page to rank naturally.

Social Media

Anytime you have a new job available make sure to share the information on your social media accounts. Let your followers share the information with anyone they might know that could be interested.

Final Thoughts

Hiring is not an easy part of business. We all wish we could find the best employees and have them stay on board for decades, but it doesn’t work like that. We do the best we can to find the right balance when it comes to hiring restaurant employees.

These are some of the ways you can improve your process with the help of a restaurant website.

Do you a hiring question or a general question about online marketing?

Contact us, leave a comment or tweet to us!

One response to “How to Hire Restaurant Employees”

  1. sarina says:

    Hiring good employees is very important for restaurants. If staff are really good, obviously it would be nice restaurant.
    تست جوشخرید ملک در ترکیهراهبند اتوماتیکلامپ کم مصرفکرکره برقی

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