Hiring Restaurant Staff: Building your Dream Team

The challenges a restaurant owner deals with are unique. They need to perfect the product (food and drinks), and the service needs to be on point as well. With more restaurants opening in every neighborhood, the competition is intense. The secret behind a successful restaurant is a strong team that can deliver the product and service on point every time.

Hiring the right team is crucial, and it takes more than hanging a “we are hiring” board outside your door. A well-thought-out hiring strategy is essential for the long-term success of your restaurant. Whether you are starting out or have been in business for years, it is never too late to think through a hiring strategy and build your dream team. Before you put a strategy in place, ask yourself this:

• Is your current hiring strategy helping you find the right fit for your restaurant?
• Are you doing enough to retain employees who perform well?

Answering these questions helps you identify the gaps in your current process and the areas that need work. In this guide, we cover tips to hire and build the team you have always wanted. Let’s get started.

Identify the number of people you actually need

Whether your establishment is big or small, it takes a village to run a restaurant. Both over-hiring and under-hiring can harm your business and your bottom line. Before you start hiring, clearly establish the number of people you need, the skill set required, and the personality type. You will typically hire front-of-house (FOH) staff, who are guest-facing, and back-of-house (BOH) staff.

FOH team

• Restaurant manager
• Bar manager
• Bartender
• Host
• Server
• Busser
• Runner
• Cashier

BOH team

• Head chef
• Sous chef
• Line cooks
• Prep cooks
• Dishwasher
• Cleaning and maintenance staff

The number of people required for each position depends on your restaurant’s size and scale of operations. Determining the right team size is the first step toward building your dream team.

Create clear, compelling job descriptions

Attracting the right talent requires more than a simple “we are hiring” post on LinkedIn or a job board. The job description should cover the skills required, the experience, the level in the hierarchy, working hours, pay scale, and perks tied to the role. Explaining a little about your work culture is an added bonus.

Good talent attracts more good talent

When you are starting out, it helps to have self-motivated individuals and people from your own circle who align with your values and vision. This close inner circle helps you put the right hiring strategy in place and acts as a magnet for like-minded people. Start by putting together a core team of experienced individuals to help you expand.

Put technology to work

Technology has simplified many parts of running a business, including hiring and retaining employees. Consider investing in an applicant tracking system (ATS) and an interview tracking system (ITS). These tools help you track and automate recruitment end to end. Sort resumes and applications, rank candidates by qualifications and interview scores, track applicant progress, and save significant time. Keep records of interviews, compare questions to see what works better, and improve your interviewing over time.

Create your unique brand identity and culture

A strong work culture and environment go a long way in retaining your star employees and attracting quality talent. Apart from satisfactory pay, raises, and bonuses, the way management treats employees plays a role in making people stay for years. Talk about positive employee experiences and your work culture in job descriptions and on social media. Build a brand identity and use it to attract quality talent.

Recognize and reward your team

Appreciating your employees and rewarding them from time to time is a great way to retain people and attract new talent. Get creative with incentives. It could be a fully paid meal for the family, a company-sponsored course to help employees add new skills, a gym membership, and more. Happy employees make good brand ambassadors, and they will talk about these benefits to family and friends. You may find your next dream team member in those circles.

Ask the right questions during an interview

Finding the right fit requires asking the right questions. Ask questions that help you assess an applicant’s character, work ethic, and the kind of company culture they are looking for. Ask scenario-based questions to confirm the candidate suits your culture, has the right skills, and knows how to handle the situations that are common in restaurant service.

Offer flexibility

Working in the restaurant industry means hard work, long hours, and high pressure. Few people can handle that pressure and perform well. Offering flexibility on shift timing, plus hybrid and remote options for administrative staff, can go a long way in attracting your dream candidates and building your dream team.

Run a background check

Say you interviewed a candidate and found them to be a perfect fit. Running a background check and getting first-hand feedback from people who worked with the individual in the past still helps. It tells you how well a person can fit into your culture.

Build SOPs and a simple, streamlined onboarding

Having standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every business function, including hiring, helps you identify the right person for the job. Once you have a clear reference for the skills and traits you are looking for, nothing falls through the cracks, and your hiring team knows exactly what is expected of them.

The endgame

Restaurant failure and closure rates are high, and competition within the industry is intense. The nature of this industry makes finding the right people even more important for restaurant owners. Running a restaurant is not a one-person show. A capable, dedicated team helps owners realize their dream of running a successful restaurant and reach their long-term goals. As an owner, you need to be clear on who you want, what you expect from employees, and what you can offer them in return for their skills, labor, and experience. It all starts with the right team, and with managers and owners who know what their business needs to build their restaurant’s dream team.