5 Tips To Attract Your Dream Team | Restaurant Hiring

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Alexandra Olive
July 26, 2022
restaurant hiring

As a manager in charge of restaurant hiring, your goal is to build a dedicated team of all stars who will vibe with your tribe and slay sales right? 
But finding great people isn't always easy. And with stiff competition and a tricky economy it can be a real struggle, so what do you do? 



Fortunately, we did the research and the results may surprise you.



These are the top 5 tips to help with restaurant hiring

  1. Establish your company culture
  2. Write a great server job description
  3. Invest in great HR tools
  4. Establish and employee value proposition
  5. Get great at interviews

Here are 5 key things you can do to differentiate yourself from your competitors to find and keep your dream team!

1 - Establish your company culture and brand.

Birds of a feather flock together - tho do you want to attract?  
Establishing your brand culture will help attract the right people because it puts out a beacon to them. So if you want potential employees to get a sense for what it means to be part of your team this is the key.

Consider the culture and brand you’re building and whether your current strategies and team members are reflecting that culture. Not only is a strong culture beneficial to your current employees and appealing to potential hires, it also attracts customers and helps guide you in decision-making.

So how can you build a great team culture that potential hires will want to connect with?

  • Get on social media
  • Set up a refferal program to attract more great people
  • Focus on your restaurant concept and brand
  • Have core values
  • Have a theme or vibe
  • Know who you are

With 50% of millennials reporting that they’d accept a lower wage to work at a company that shares their values, so it’s important that your job postings reflect your culture and brand.

Paint a picture of what it means to be part of your team. Authenticity is key. Be creative, but don’t stray too far from what candidates expect to see. Highlighting your values in your job posting can set you apart from your competitors, but it’s still important to clearly outline daily responsibilities and preferred skills and experience.

2 - Write a great server job description.

To hire great servers, you need to be clear on expectations with a good job description.  Server job descriptions might include: technology to know, experience required, duties, salary or wage, bonuses, logistics, company culture, values, and of course, the action you want them to take after reading the post.


Other great ways to share your job description would be to use an applicant tracking solution, and customize your job posting by implementing your custom company branding!

3 - Invest in great restaurant hiring tools.

Develop a well-oiled sourcing and hiring machine to reduce the pressure of the restaurant hiring process by using an applicant tracking system to screen candidates, evaluate skills and experience, and check references. Great restaurant HR software will also integrate with your interview, onboarding, HRIS, and retention tools.


Here's a little more about great tools for restaurant hiring: 

The system starts with applicant tracking: 

This is the tool that is used to integrate with hiring platforms like indeed, or linkedin. You can set up your job description and even customize who sees it.  Need people to have licenses before applying? The job posting will filter out applicants based on those settings.

Next, when someone applies for the position, it will automatically push that information to your hiring team so they can schedule the interview.


Interviewing software is next.
With great interviewing software you can keep track of applicants interview questions and your thoughts on their responses all from the same platform.

You can also set up interview templates, save resume's or set up custom grading systems and operations systems for your follow up cadence and more.


Once they get the job, it's time for self-onboarding software.

Self-onboarding means they onboard themselves (duh) and they do this thanks to tools like the self-onboarding wizard.
Self onboarding wizards help employees fill in and upload all required data so it all lives in one place online. They will also upload their payment information to ensure they are paid on time, every time.

Information will live in the HRIS

After an employee is onboarded their documents, data, payment info, licenses, benefits into, tax info and availability will all live in one central location, the HRIS! An HRIS, sometimes called an HCM, HRMS, or HRIS is the brain of the HR software solution, storing all the data in one central place

Finally, KPI's and retention tools

Once you have your new hire all onboarded and happy, it's time to use KPI's and retention tools to make sure you keep them! 


So if you are looking to use HR software to make your restaurant hiring journey more easy, we recommend using an integrated solution that offers all of the above, like Push.

restaurant hiring smiling girl

4 - Establish an employee value proposition.

An employee value proposition (EVP) reflects all the things employees get in return for their hard work, time, and effort. It’s a great way to stand out to existing and potential employees against your competition. Your EVP should include everything from financial compensation and health benefits to work-life balance and career development opportunities.

Whatever you include, make sure you communicate it clearly to applicants and that you’re able to deliver on it. Companies that are successful in keeping the promises made in their EVPs can decrease their turnover rates by almost 70%.

5 - Get great at interviews.

A resume can tell you a lot, but interviews remain the best way to determine whether a candidate will be a good cultural fit.

Before you start your interview process, be sure you have great server interview questions ready.

Ask strategic questions, using past experiences to guide you. Remember that an interview is a two-way street. You’re evaluating the candidate, but they’re also deciding whether or not they want to work for you. Use the interview not only as a way to vet candidates, but also to show them what type of manager you are and discuss expectations.

Be sure to also establish great interview SOPs, and use interview technology to keep track of your questions, answers, as well as feedback you have on each employee.

using a system like this will help avoid the wrong hires from slipping through the cracks due to improper systems


How can I find great restaurant hires? 

Attracting awesome people is one thing, but what about going out and looking for them? Restaurant hiring is hard, but we do our best to make it easy. If you want to learn the best tips for finding, attracting and hiring the right people, check out our free guide below!


If you are looking for some more insights on how to recruit, hire, interview, onboard and retain great talent during your restaurant hiring process, check out our handy guide below!

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