Owning and running a restaurant is a lot of hard work and you can’t be successful without the right team behind you. Hiring the right staff that has the skills and passion needed for this industry is crucial. Check out our guide: Restaurant Staffing: 9 Tips for Hiring the Right Staff:

1. Know Exactly Who You Are Looking for

While you might feel like you are a good judge of people and will have a natural instinct for choosing quality staff, it is always better to have a clear idea of exactly who you are looking for. Whenever you are hiring for a position, first write out a clear description of what the job entails and what skills and qualities are needed to be successful in that position. This will not only help you in your decision making, it will also help prospective job candidates decide if they should even apply for the job.

Also keep in mind that if you have certain core values that are important to your company culture, you should also look for staff that share them with you.

2. Use a Multiple Interview Process

Hiring experts agree that a single interview is not always enough to determine the eligibility of a candidate. You should have them come in for at least two interviews with different interviewers each time. And make sure you include all the important questions about availability, skills and how they handle challenging situations.

3. Know Where to Find Quality Staff

Sometimes the most challenging aspect of the employee recruitment process is knowing which sources are best to pull candidates from. There are a lot of recruitment agencies out there and job listing sites on the internet, but don’t forget about also using your current employees to help you as well. Referrals from current staff that you respect is often underrated, but can really be useful.Offer current employees a monetary award for helping bring in new talent.

Social media is also a good place to look for new talent. The military is also another good resource. So many veterans are looking for jobs and you know they will be hardworking and committed to your goals.

4. Pay Attention to Your Company Culture

While pay and the right work schedule are big factors when people choose a job, a company’s culture can also be a big attraction or detraction. Stay connected with your current employees about what works and what doesn’t at your restaurant and what they would like to see more of. This will help you improve your company culture to attract better candidates.

5. Don’t Rush the Recruitment Process

When you are short-staffed it can be really tempting to go through the whole hiring process quickly just to get feet in the door. This could end up backfiring on you though. You could end up with subpar employees and a constantly revolving door of staff. It takes time to find the right employee for each position, someone who will be committed to their job long term.

6. Don’t Low Ball Salary Offers

When you find a prospective candidate that you are excited about, it is important not to low ball your salary offer. If you want quality restaurant staff then you need to be willing to invest in them. Even if they take a low ball offer because they are unemployed at the time, they are going to keep looking for a better offer and when they get it, they will be out the door.

If you are truly limited in how much you can offer as a starting salary, at least offer the opportunity for competitive raises each year so your employees feel like they have the room to grow in the position.

7. Be Flexible with Scheduling

Restaurant work is a long, grueling hours so if you want to keep your staff from burning out, you need to be flexible with scheduling. As a long as employees are getting their job done and clocking in the right amount of hours, and the restaurant is staffed appropriately, you can afford to give your staff time off when they need it or to create individual schedules that fit better for certain staff members. It is important to show your staff that you realizes that they have demands and responsibilities outside the workplace that they need to take care of too.

8. Promote from Within as Much As You Can

When you already have a strong team, why not promote from within as much as possible? You will already be confident that he or she can do the new job right, and your employees will appreciate the chance to learn new skills and to grow in their career.

9. Hire a Restaurant Consulting Firm like MBB Management

As a restaurant consulting company in Philadelphia, MBB Management specializes in bringing you the best tools and expert knowledge to help you achieve maximum success and growth, including restaurant staffing.

Their restaurant consulting services are great whether you are just getting ready to open your first shop or you have been running your business for some time already. Your experienced consultants will help with training and retraining staff on basic restaurant techniques and help make sure your operations are running as smoothly as possible. They can even help with menu creation and design and marketing strategies. They can also help with food distribution and inventory so that you are never running out of prime ingredients, but also keeping waste to a minimum as well. The success of any restaurant is finding that right balance between quality food and service and cost. You want to keep your customers coming back for more.

MBB Management can also help you recruit prime positions like your chef and general manager. If you don’t want to be involved in the daily operations of your restaurant than filling these two positions with skilled workers is crucial. Your chef and general manager will be the ones who carry out your vision and help you achieve your goals.

MBB Management can take care of the whole recruitment, hiring process for you so you can feel confident that you have the right people running your restaurant.

MBB Management can also help you if you are looking to get into concession services. They can offer expert advice on everything from on-site evaluations to facility design and can conduct a profitability analysis for you to see if it is a worthwhile investment to make in the first place. Keep in mind that certain dishes do better as concession fare than others so you need to really consider your options.

Integrated food products is another one of their specialties as a restaurant consultant. They have proven experience in streamlining food manufacturing and product assembly in a way that reduces the risk for cross-contamination and product recalls. Not only can customer confidence be affected by food contamination, but you might have legal ramifications as well.

Consultants can help you hire new staff, streamline processes in the kitchen and in the dining room while maintaining quality and increasing sales.

MBB Management works closely with each client to get to know them and their needs to offer the most individualized solutions possible.

MBB Management has a passion for the food industry just like you do and they have the experience to help you fulfill all your dreams for your restaurant. If you are considering a restaurant consulting company in Philadelphia then check out MBB Management. Let them put their experience to work for you and help you with your restaurat staffing. Call them today.