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The success of your restaurant relies on hiring the right people for the job.

However, hiring the right staff can be a challenge. Identifying ideal candidates in your hiring process is crucial to streamlining the hiring process and avoiding costly errors that lead to re-hiring. Hiring the right candidates leads to retaining employees in the long run, making your restaurant more stable and successful.

One way to ensure success in hiring the right person for your team is by creating a superstar restaurant employee avatar.

Step 1: Identify Your Superstar Employees

First, take a good look at your current employees and the qualities that make them successful, loyal, and productive. Identify what makes your superstar employees so great. Do they have excellent communication skills? Are they detail-oriented? Are they great team players?

  • Observe your superstars at work. What makes them stand out? What are they doing differently or better than others? How do they contribute to your success?
  • Get feedback from your Managers and other team members. Why do the superstars succeed? And what quantifies that success? What makes them enjoyable to work with? What are their qualities that can be duplicated in new team members?
  • Ask them directly. How do they see their position in your business? Why do they like working for you? What do they like about your company culture? What motivates them? What do you provide that they need to succeed?

Now that you have identified your superstar employees, you can start to list the key characteristics that make them successful. Be specific about the essential qualities for the job you are hiring for.

Step 2: Create Your Non-Negotiable Criteria

Creating a list of specific criteria that you require, such as hard and soft skills, qualifications, and personality traits that are best suited to the job description you are hiring for, is an essential step in creating an avatar.

For example, if you are hiring a bartender, you might require that they have previous experience and certification in bartending, xcellent customer service skills, and the ability to multitask and work well under pressure.

Step 3: Develop Your Avatar

Next, develop your employee avatar. Avatars are the same as employee profiles, a list of skills, qualifications, and personality traits your ideal employee has. Identifying what makes them great will help you recognize others with similar profiles in your hiring process and gives you a tangible way to measure.

Here are some factors to use as you shortlist candidates and start interviewing:

  • Job Title and Job descriptions
  • Key objectives for the position
  • Measurable outcomes
  • Training available
  • Employee Compensation
  • Hours, time off, scheduling

The ideal candidate will have the following…

  • Skills and experience
  • Unique soft skills
  • Personality traits
  • Cultural aspects
  • Lifestyle
  • Hobbies and Interests
  • Method Of Transportation/Commute
  • Customer Service Skills
  • Teamwork and Collaboration Skills

FREE Resource

Part of knowing who your best potential employees are is to understand what motivates them. This will help you attract the right people for your business. Click the button below to download our FREE Worksheet: Making My Business A Place My Employees RAVE About! This will help you determine exactly what your employees value and want from you as an employer.

Step 4: Implement Your Avatar in Your Hiring Process

Incorporating your employee avatar into your hiring process is crucial. Use it to assess candidates during the interview process, working through the list of qualities necessary for the particular position. By measuring against the avatar, you will ensure the perfect fit for your team.

Considering all these factors, you can create a detailed profile of your ideal candidate. This will help you attract the right employees and increase your chances of retaining them in the long run.

Retaining Employees Requires Good Hiring.

Creating an ideal avatar helps identify the perfect employee for your restaurant and saves the hiring manager valuable time. Identifying the essential criteria for the job and incorporating the specific details of the job and the personal characteristics of the ideal candidate improve the chances of hiring a perfect candidate.

Creating an avatar is essential for owners who want to spend less time and energy on the hiring process while increasing employee retention and job satisfaction. It also allows for creating an efficient and high-quality team, which is critical to the success of your restaurant.

FREE Training

If you need help finding and hiring AWESOME staff for your restaurant, I previously conducted a live training on exactly how to find, attract and hire staff for your restaurant. Click the button below to watch the recording. It will only be live for the next 7 days.

Michael Thibault

Known as “The Done For You Marketing Guy for Restaurants.” International Speaker on Restaurant Marketing. Published contributing author of 4 Marketing Books. Industry expert on Google Searches and Review Sites. Recovering Independent Restaurant Owner and Caterer of over 21 years. And, all-around good guy.