The Ultimate Guide for Restaurant Recruiting

Recruiting for a restaurant is different from recruiting for a major tech company and comes with its own challenges. However, as the restaurant industry grows and many restaurants struggle to find talent, recruiters might want to shift their attention to these companies. 

It can be challenging to switch gears, but recruiting employees for a restaurant is a crucial aspect of staying in business. 

Keep reading to learn about the restaurant recruiting process and how to overcome challenges to find, attract, and retain the best employees. Whether you’re a seasoned restaurant professional or just starting, this guide will provide valuable insights and strategies to help you succeed in the competitive food and beverage industry.

What Is Restaurant Recruiting?

Restaurant recruiting is reaching out to find and hire employees for a restaurant business. The recruiter will identify all job duties and requirements and start sourcing and attracting candidates. In addition, some recruiters will conduct interviews, assess, run background checks, and facilitate the job offer process. 

With restaurant recruiting, recruiters need to ensure that employees have the experience, skills, and personality to fit the restaurant’s culture. 

However, restaurant recruiting is slightly different since the talent must be local. This can make recruiting more challenging, but you can find the right employees with the right recruiter on your team. 

A restaurant recruiter could also make suggestions for your company on attracting top talent in the future. They can also set up a recruitment and hiring process that you can utilize. 

When Should You Recruit Restaurant Employees?

If you’re a restaurant owner, you’ll need to figure out when to recruit restaurant employees first. 

This is a great time to hire good employees if you’re opening a restaurant. Good employees are essential for a successful launch, and you want to expand the hiring process before the first day your business opens. But, first, you will need a few weeks to train your staff and ensure they’re ready for your launch. 

Consider hiring employees if you’re expanding your business. This could mean opening a new location, extending your service hours, adding more tables for customers, or needing to fill some vacant positions. 

Depending on the area you’re in, consider hiring seasonal employees. For example, if you’re a restaurant in a college town, you’ll want to hire more employees to handle the rush of college students back on campus. If you’re in a ski town, you’ll need to be prepared during the winter months to handle more customers. 

You may also need to hire more employees if your customer service needs to improve. If your staff is constantly stressed and burnt out, you’ll have a high turnover rate and unhappy customers, negatively impacting your restaurant. Instead, take the time to recruit some employees who can help alleviate the burden on your other employees. 

You should prioritize recruiting and hiring even if you’re not in any of these situations.

What Are the Challenges of Restaurant Recruiting?

Recruiting for a restaurant is different from recruiting for office jobs because restaurants have a higher turnover rate. This makes it challenging to find great employees and retain them. 

The talent competition is also competitive, especially if you’re in a high-end restaurant. This can make it challenging to find candidates with experience and match the ideal candidate persona. 

Different restaurants also have their own culture, and you want to hire a candidate who will fit into that culture. But, again, this is something that recruiters must consider to ensure that the candidate stays as long as possible at the restaurant. 

Another recruiting challenge for restaurants is the fact that they have tight schedules. Restaurant owners are typically very busy and need more time to recruit, interview, and train new employees. That’s why it can help to hire OnDemand recruiters for your restaurant so that you can focus on the essential aspects of growing and running your restaurant. 

To overcome these challenges, restaurant companies need to implement a comprehensive recruitment strategy that includes utilizing multiple sources, offering competitive compensation and benefits, conducting thorough screening and interviewing processes, and providing ongoing employee training and support.

How to Overcome These Challenges

These challenges might make it seem like it’ll be impossible to find employees for your restaurant, but with the right recruiter, your restaurant can overcome these challenges. 

Define the Role and Responsibilities

When hiring candidates, you should start by posting a job advertisement. Ensure that the job requirements clearly outline each position’s requirements, duties, and expectations. This will help you attract suitable candidates and make onboarding easier.

To attract more candidates, put the benefits and perks of working at your restaurant on the job posting. Consider putting these at the top of your job posting to draw more interest to your openings. 

Utilize Multiple Sources

Once you have the job posting, you’ll want to share it on multiple sources. You can start by posting on job boards specifically for restaurants and sharing them on social media. Employee referrals and word-of-mouth can also be very effective for finding talent. 

When you share more than just one area, you’ll reach a larger pool of candidates and increase the chances of finding the right fit.

Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Restaurants should also research to determine the standard rate for employees in their area. This can help them find talent by offering competitive salaries, benefits, and perks to attract top candidates. 

You should offer significant benefits outside of compensation as well. For example, consider paying sick time or offering health or tuition reimbursements. In addition, consider offering flexible schedules, paid time off, and opportunities for advancement within the company.

Start Hiring for Restaurant Talent Today

By following these tips, restaurant companies can find, attract, and retain the best employees, which is essential for success in the competitive food and beverage industry.

However, if you’re still struggling to find talent, you may need outside help. That’s where Recruiter.com’s OnDemand recruiters come in. 

We’ve helped all kinds of businesses save on recruitment costs and also find candidates for positions that were challenging to fill. For example, we helped FIRST agency fill 114 roles with a 70% fill rate. We also helped them save 55% on recruitment fees in the process.

“We can confidently say that the OnDemand Recruiting program has been a game-changer for our company, and we are excited to continue this upward momentum,” said Maureen Ryan Fable, CEO of FIRST.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you recruit restaurant workers, contact us today.