One of the biggest challenges when starting a restaurant is hiring the right staff and qualified labor that can help you make the business successful and profitable. Running a restaurant business is neither a one man job nor an easy one and you will need qualified, trained and competent people to work with you.
As the food service industry continues to grow and thrive, the demand for workers is also increasing. Finding qualified workers and rising labor costs are two key concerns when you are looking forward to hiring the right staff for your restaurant business.
The most important thing is to develop a comprehensive HR program to decide exactly what you want the employees to do. The job description doesn't have to be as formal, but it needs to clearly outline the duties and responsibilities along with any special skills or other credentials that can work for you. This article will provide you some tips to help you find and hire the right staff for your restaurant business.
Hiring the Right Person
Take time to thoroughly screen applicants and check out their resumes to see that they can do the job. Make sure that they understand what you expect of them if they choose to take the job. Do background checks and ask for reference letters of previous job experiences. If you can't do this yourself, hire an HR consultant to do it for you on an as-needed basis.
Create Detailed Job Descriptions
Give your employees the accurate and detailed descriptions of what are going to be their duties. Don't make your employees guess about their responsibilities as it can only lead to messy situations.
Hiring a Restaurant Manager
The most important employee in a restaurant is the manager. Your best candidate should have already managed a restaurant or restaurants in your area and should be familiar with local buying sources, suppliers and methods.
It is important to hire a manager who has great managerial and leadership skills and the ability to supervise other personnel while maintaining the style and character of your restaurant.
Hiring Chefs and Cooks
A restaurant cannot be run without expert chefs and cooks who know their job really well. Chefs and cooks are the most important requirements of a restaurant from day one and you will need at least 3 cooks to work around the clock.
While the fulltime cooks will arrive early in the morning to serve breakfast, brunch or lunch, the evening cook will come after lunch to prepare dinners. You might need to hire part time cooks depending open the number of customers.
Cooking schools are the best place to hunt for cooks and chefs for your restaurant business but you can look around and place ads in the newspapers before hiring. You can actually make regular customers if you have great chefs working for you.
Hiring Servers
It is important to hire competent and pleasant servers as they will have the most interaction with customers and they need to make a favorable impression. Servers should also have the ability to work under pressure and meet the demands of customers seating at various tables at one time, all in a very pleasant manner.
It is important that the servers you hire have at least some idea of what to do before you get them on board. Servers actually represent the motto of a restaurant and the more pleasant and hard working they are, the better your restaurant can do.
It is necessary to hire people who are ready to work hard, cooperate and flex their working hours. While the restaurant is still new and in the establishing phase, one member of staff might need to double as another just to make things work.
You can also provide on-job training to your employees once you have decided on the people you plan to hire. However, considering that yours is a new establishment trying to make its presence know, try to hire experienced staff that already have worked in the restaurants and know how to cook, serve and deal with customers. Hiring the right staff for your restaurant business can have great impact on its success and profits so make sure you get the best!
