The 2nd Key For Restaurant Success: Staff

Your success depends on the 3 S’s Of Restaurant Success.

1. Systems (training, financial, operations, staffing, marketing, etc.)
2. Staff (well-trained people you can count on.)
3. Sales (a steady stream of customers coming in the door.)

Last week, we discussed the first piece to restaurant success, systems, and you can read that post here. Building reliable and efficient systems in place enhances every part of what you do and provides you freedom. Systems allow you to delegate to others, automate processes to avoid repetitive work, and increase your efficiency so you can focus on more high-value tasks. Systems are key to a healthy work-life balance.

Today, we’ll discuss the second of these three, finding and keeping a superstar staff. Oh boy, that’s a hot topic in the restaurant industry! Really any industry. Because there’s nothing more important to the success of your business than having and retaining an amazing staff. After all, they are the face of your business, and their personalities and skills make a lasting impression on guests as soon as they enter your establishment.

“You can’t be everywhere and do everything yourself. You need awesome staff if you want to have a life!”
– Michael Thibault.

Your staff will determine how much money your restaurant makes. You can serve the best food in a delightful atmosphere, but if a customer doesn’t get good service from your employees, they won’t return. Your big responsibility is to find and keep the best employees.

Always Be Hiring…ALWAYS!

Just like you should always be marketing to find and retain customers, you should be marketing to find and retain staff. The hospitality industry is notorious for having a high employee turnover. You always need to be looking for that next superstar employee who will fill the gaps, add sales, take a burden off your shoulders, someone you can promote from within, who you can trust if you want to take time off, and ideally, eventually sell the business to when you’re ready.

“Finding Superstar Staff is a direct function of your marketing”- Michael Thibault

It is daunting to continually recruit, hire, train, and maintain restaurant staff. By creating a hiring process, you can repeat it over and over. Using technology to streamline the time and effort you need, you can have a team of superstars who embody everything you envision for your restaurant. A process can generate good, qualified people on demand. Once you create it, you can delegate it to a manager or team, and it will produce good, qualified candidates. Anything truly successful in business can be traced back to a good system or process.

Where to Look For Your Target Employees

1.) Taking the opportunity to target the ideal employees for your business should be a priority. There are so many online and offline places to look for potential talent.

2.) One of the most common methods is Google and Facebook ads because they can be explicitly targeted to the demographics of your ideal candidates. There are also organic Facebook posts and other marketing campaigns on social media that can be very beneficial because your ideal candidates likely frequent these platforms.

3.) You should also use customer referrals; loyal customers may know someone in the community who would make an excellent addition to your team. Many employers find success in rewarding current restaurant employees for referrals; they likely have friends just like them. Utilize your email or customer list for direct mail campaigns. Compelling communication will reach potential employees directly with information about open positions in your restaurant.

“Nothing is off the table when it comes to finding staff because they are everywhere. Always be looking.” – Michael Thibault.

How To Attract Ideal Candidates

Once you know where to post your ads, it’s time to create ads that attract them. If you’re looking to hire top performers for your restaurant, the key is to know and communicate what makes you better than all the other available jobs. What are the benefits for them to work for you? Remember, they are searching, and you do not want them to pass you over because of other, more compelling job opportunities.

Create a connection between what the job offers and what the candidates care about, such as bonuses, perks, incentives, or what kind of experience they will get by becoming part of your team. Showcasing employee testimonials accompanied with tangible evidence of what you offer can go a long way in helping you land the perfect fit.

You can also up your game when it comes to attracting ideal candidates by building an online reputation as a great place to work. Every candidate is going to Google you. Guaranteed, and they will read your online reviews to understand what people think of your business. If you aren’t monitoring and responding to your online reviews, now is the time to start.

If you need help with your Online Reputation for your restaurant, click the button below and sign up for a FREE Online Review of your restaurant and how you rank against your competitors. We’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to get to #1 on Google and your review sites to capture all the new customers in your local area.

How To Get Them To Take Action

Once you’ve attracted them with your ads and marketing – you need to get them to an application. This is best done online. The secret is to make it simple and attractive for them to apply, and in this day and age, it needs to be an online application.

To get there, you need to provide a simple URL or even a QR code that they can scan that takes them to your online job posting page. Most of your candidates will be accessing it via their mobile phones, so it needs to be an easy, seamless method that’s mobile-friendly.

“If it’s not mobile-friendly, it’s dead to your customers.”- Michael Thibault.

On your job posting web page, now is your time to shine. Give them all the details of the job and its responsibilities, hourly rate, and required skill set. Tell your story, who you are, and why you built this restaurant, you want to create a personal connection.

Highlight the benefits of working with you, such as access to industry training, flexible schedules, and your great company culture. Include important information like competitive wages, signing bonuses, benefits, and hours.

This is also a great place to have staff testimonials from happy employees. You will be sure to draw the right kind of people if you focus on answering all their potential questions and overcoming any perceived obstacles.

The application should be entirely electronic – they answer a few questions to give you everything you need to know about them before their interview.

Here is an example of a successful online application that we created for one of our clients:

If you need help with your online application and how to target the BEST potential employees in your area, click the button below to schedule a FREE Strategy Session with a DFY Hiring Expert.

How To Get Them To Show Up For The Interview

Pro tip: After the application process, lead your candidates to an online calendar system to book their interviews. You can set it up to adhere to your schedule or manager’s, and the applicant can choose the time they want for their interview.

Simple instructions can be right on the page. Having this all online and automated eliminates the back-and-forth of trying to schedule them, allowing you to batch interviews in a specific time window.

It’s important to give them all the information they might wonder about. How long the interview is, tell them to show up ahead of time, where to wait when they arrive, who they will interview with, and anything they need to bring. Customize it to whatever you want.

The biggest benefit to having them schedule an interview online is that automated email and text reminders can now be sent. Because as you know, the biggest hurdle is often getting them to show up for the interview.

We have found scheduling systems and text reminders the most effective way to ensure candidates attend their interviews. Not only do scheduling systems allow us to make sure there are no scheduling conflicts between multiple candidates, but they also provide an automated way of sending out text reminders before the day of the interview.

Train to Retain

An effective hiring plan starts with locating and enticing the best staff candidates. From there, creating employee job satisfaction with a welcoming onboarding process and ongoing training is essential.

As your business grows, find ways to ensure that your employees feel valued and supported – this could include offering fair wages, flexible scheduling, and implementing strategies that reward employee engagement. It also helps if you can celebrate successes and foster an atmosphere of growth and development.

It’s expensive to rehire people often, so training new hires well is one of the most important employee retention strategies. This type of investment helps produce loyalty and encourages longevity.

Hire Fast, Fire Faster

If employees are not meeting the expectations set, then handle it swiftly instead of letting it slide by taking swift corrective action. If things don’t work out after that, then firing fast is another important part of retaining the right people for your business needs. A poorly trained hire can drain your team and spread negativity quickly.

By creating an environment of success and appreciation, you can create the kind of team that will stick with you for years to come.

All in all, successful hiring practices are crucial for any organization. From locating the right type of employees to training them to be superstars, following a few simple principles can make all the difference. Remember that your goal is to create and foster an enjoyable workplace atmosphere if you want employees who stay with you for the long haul.

Consider investing in an automated staffing system to ensure all aspects of the staffing process are efficiently managed and bring in a constant supply of top talent. Most importantly, an automated system will work in the background, freeing up your time and energy for more important sales-generating tasks.

If you are looking for your next superstar employee and have no idea where they’re hiding or how to attract them, how to get them to fill out an application and show up for the interview…all while standing out against the big corporate monsters that are throwing thousands of dollars, new cars, and college educations at new recruits for signing bonuses…

Then click the link below and set up a FREE Hiring Strategy Session with a DFY Hiring Expert in your industry. They’ll tell you exactly where they’re hiding and how to find them.