Building a restaurant team is hard.
For one, you’re already managing a team with a ton of moving parts.
For another, recruiting takes TIME. There are a lot of steps.
- Building The Job Posting
- Filtering and Screening The Applicants
- Scheduling Interviews (with a million back-and-forth phone calls)
- Running The Interviews
- Reference Checking
Sourcing applications, reviewing, phone calls, scheduling interviews, hoping they don’t no-show, reference checking… that’s not even getting to the training part once they are in.
And the reality is, next week you might have to do it all again. Even in the best restaurants, employee churn is at an all-time high. Staff are not settling, they are quick to move to new locations and opportunities unless they have a great reason to stay.
Unfortunately, it does not look like we can fight this particular trend. I have a lot of friends who have been in the industry for a while, and they love to grumble and mumble about the state of hiring in the hospitality industry.
“People just don’t want to work anymore. There’s no commitment – as soon as I hire for one position, I have to fill another. I tell you, people just don’t have the same perserverance that they used to” – Restaurant Owners everywhere, probably…
The thing is, they’re not wrong.
But the other thing is, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. As a Restaurant Manager for a team of around 20 right now, I’m almost constantly in a state of hiring. I have low turnover (at least, compared to the almost 60% churn that existed when I started at this new location), but my serving team is consistently looking to grow and moving on to new locations, new opportunities, new restaurants. And frankly, I don’t want to stop them.
Growth and opportunity (as well as inclusivity) is one of the most important factors for current job-seekers, and they aren’t afraid to shop the market to find these things. And this phenomena is only going to gain momentum. So how do you not get left behind?
Your restaurant needs to become a machine that is built for consistent intake, training, and offboarding, rather than hoping and praying that every single team member is going to stay forever.
Because (spoiler-alert), they won’t.
Step 1: Create Job Posting Templates
Start with all the entry-level positions you typically hire for. If you are likely to hire more than twice per year for this position (or these groups of positions), you’re going to want a template ready to go, with easy-to-fill-in details. Think of this as the framework you will fill in when you need to post a new position. Let’s take a server position as an example.
First and foremost, you’ll want to include all the responsibilities and requirements for any successful candidate in this position. These likely won’t change between candidates, so take your time and be thorough to set clear expectations.
Company information (who we are, what we do) can certainly be added here, but I suggest adding it lower in the posting – research typically suggests that this information is less important to potential applicants so we want to focus on the most important details to ensure we attract the right candidates.
Build your template with all the key details, ensuring to leave spaces or placeholders for customization (such as pay rates, expected hours, specific location, etc.)
Once you have your template, creating a job posting should only take you a few minutes to fill in the specific details, rather than an hour writing a posting from scratch.
Step 2: Filtering, Reviewing, Screening And Shortlisting
Once your posting is ready, you should get ready for an influx of applications. For many owners and managers, this step can quickly become overwhelming, so it’s important to set yourself up to be able to handle the volume.
Before I post any listing, I think carefully about my dream candidate and their situation. Here are some of the questions I usually ask myself;
- How much (and what quality) experience is important to this role
- What are my minimum expected hours
- Will this position be more customer-facing, or more support role
- How long do I expect someone to stay in this position
Make your list of non-negotiables, and be confident in what you are looking for. Taking time here saves me a LOT of time in screening.
During the posting process, I take full advantage of any filtering tools (Indeed has some great ones, but most other job posting boards offer something similar) to ensure that applicants meet the minimum before even applying.
Once you have candidates trickling in, you only have one decision to make – do I want to learn more about this person?
In reviewing applications, I only take around 15-30 seconds per applicant. This is enough time to gauge if they fit my minimum requirements (which I spent time defining before opening the first application), and if their experience is appropriate. And I will say, I can be ruthless here. If it’s clear that someone can’t put energy into an application, how can I expect them to put energy into their work? Remember, a resume isn’t supposed to get someone a job, it’s supposed to get someone an interview.
Shortlist your applicants and send away the rest as quickly as is reasonable.
Step 3: Scheduling Interviews
This is one of my favourite parts. How many hours have you wasted with back and forth phone calls, emails trying to pin down a time to chat, only to play tag for days on end?
The answer: probably too many.
Here is where you need another template (or two).
My interview routine involves both a 10-minute phone interview followed by a 30-45 minute in-person interview. Every business is different, so judge accordingly if you need one of these, both of these or even something more. This process can be easily extended.
Once I’ve shortlisted my applicants, I send a single template message to them to follow up and move them to the next stage. An example is below of a message I’ve sent on Indeed to several hundred applicants over the last few years. This template is actually saved on my Indeed account, so it takes exactly three clicks from an application to send this message.
Hi Christian, Thank you for your interest in working as a server at XXX. This position is available with a fixed weekly schedule as follows: Tuesday-Saturday, 4.30p-9.30p (25 hours per week) This would be a permanent line where you would consistently be scheduled to work those shifts.
The starting wage is $$.$$/hr plus tips, and includes discounted meals on shift as well as access to our staff wellness program. The position is also eligible for Extended Benefits after 3 months of employment. We would like to remind you that our restaurant is located in central Vancouver, BC – please ensure this location and commute is suitable for you as a workplace. If you are interested in this opportunity, we would love to discuss with you further. Simply use the link below to set a time for a short, 10 minute phone interview so we can discuss further. {{Link To Calendar Booking Page}}
Thank you!
This message achieves a couple of things simultaneously:
- It reinforces my specific criteria (pay rate, location, expected hours) to quickly weed out anyone who did not properly read the job posting
- It ensures that any successful applicant can follow basic instructions and understand essential communication
- It takes away all time I would otherwise spend trying to chase down people to connect with them
The applicant clicks the link, books a time from the options on my booking page (which is easy and free to set up using tools such as Microsoft Bookings or Calendly), then sends me a notification email as well as confirmations and reminders to the applicant, all without me lifting a finger.
After my phone screen, if I want them to move ahead, I simply send a second follow-up inviting them to book the next step (which is, again, a calendar booking set to sync with my own availability)
Step 4: The Interviews
Every interview is a little different, often going in different directions.
The framework I start with walking in, however, is not. It’s the same every time.
For every interview I run for a server, bartender, cook, host, whatever. There are questions I want to ask pertinent to the business. Questions about experiences, problem-solving abilities, conflict management, etc. These might change depending on the position and nature of your venue, but I’m willing to bet there are a few key points that you will want to know no matter what.
Taking the time to build this framework of questions just once has saved me countless hours of “interview prep”.
And the thing is, it doesn’t need to be long.
As long as you are setting yourself up with open-ended questions (questions that necessitate more than “yes” or “no” to answer properly), it is very likely that the natural flow of conversation will allow you to find the answers that matter most.
And if you’re finding it challenging to maintain a flowing conversation with an applicant, are they the right fit for what you are looking for? My guess is likely not…
Step 5: Reference Checking & Awarding A Position
Once you’ve made your decision (or are in the final stages) it’s time to check references.
This can, once again, be a time-consuming process. Templates and forms have saved me a LOT of time at this step.
Tools such as Microsoft Forms, Google Forms can work very well to collect responses from references. The applicant provides the email address for a reference, and you send them a link to a page to fill in. I could also have chosen to host the form on our restaurant’s website – most website builders have relatively intuitive form builders that can email responses automatically.
If you want to go even simpler, then I’ve also taken the time to build a straightforward table in Microsoft Word that I simply send to references.
No matter what, my goal here is to minimise the amount of time on the phone chasing references, without adding barriers either to the interviewer or the reference who is gifting me with their time.
Once I have those references back in hand, I can make my final hiring decision and call up the applicant to offer them the position.
And Just Like That, An Automated Recruiting System
From sourcing right through to offering, I have given myself the tools to streamline the process. For those few of you who don’t hire very often, congrats! Maybe this isn’t worth your time. But for the rest of us in the restaurant world, where staffing is one of the greatest and most consistent challenges, this system has given me back countless hours of my life, and will likely do so for many years to come.
I hope it can help you too!
