By Sagi Rochman
AS A RESTAURANT OPERATOR, HOW OFTEN DO YOU STOP AND LOOK AT THE EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE from the side of the job seeker? If you haven’t had time to glance around recently, let me paint you a picture:
● Based on estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 250,000 jobs are created every month in the United States, which means job seekers can be more selective in their job search.
● According to data collected by employment search engine Indeed, job seeker interest currently only meets about 50% of fast food employers’ demand for workers.
● Job-hopping millennials are also creating additional pressure for employers as 60%
express their willingness to leave their current job for a new opportunity. No matter how hard it may seem right now, there is a silver lining. Part of the reason the job market is currently on the upswing is because of the proliferation of technology. If job seekers can use it to their advantage, then why can’t employers?
PUTTING TECHNOLOGY TO WORK
As restaurants aim to hire and retain employees now and in the future, HR management should turn to technology for assistance.
PHASE I: RECRUITMENT
If you want to get the most bang for your buck, you’ve got to take your restaurant recruitment efforts online. You can reach a larger and more versatile talent pool by sharing job openings via online job boards, your company’s website, remarketing advertisements and social media.
PHASE 2: APPLICATIONS
Paper is easy to lose, oftentimes difficult to decipher and can lead to inefficient and untimely communications within a company. This especially goes for job applications. By using online software, you can create application templates (for consistent information collection), streamline the application intake process (to cut down on the time your managers spend keeping track of these), and more easily store applicant records (past, present and future).
PHASE 3: SCREENING
As we post jobs online to a larger audience, it means that we now need to review a lot more applications, too. You can save yourself time sifting through applications from job seekers that are unqualified, or even just the wrong fit, by employing an applicant screening tool. The best thing about this sort of software is that you can create tailor-made, job-specific questions (for every role within your restaurant, from the BOH
to FOH) to help narrow down the results of your recruitment efforts even further.
PHASE 4: ONBOARDING
When it comes to onboarding a new employee, there’s a lot of work involved and a lot of people and paper scattered around your HR department and corporate involved in the process. By using restaurant management software, you can ensure that all
necessary steps are completed, all pertinent information is centralized and stored in your database and that all members of your team can easily access onboarding documents from any location.
PHASE 5: TRAINING
Training may not be the step that helps you hire employees, but it can definitely be the one that costs you employees if not done right. That’s why it’s crucial to have a formal, well-developed, ongoing, and most importantly, digital training program built out for all employees.
FUTURE-PROOFING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Let’s face it: now is a pretty difficult time to be involved in HR for the restaurant industry. Labor and food costs are on the rise and restaurants lose about $146,000 in employee turnover every year. Needless to say, the restaurant industry is in need of major help.
If you’re looking to future-proof your restaurant’s recruitment and hiring process, a
small investment in a comprehensive software solution can be a cost effective way to bring
consistency, efficiency and success to your HR process. Just remember: technology will only help you win half the battle. You’ve got to offer fair wages, benefits, growth opportunities and more if you want to retain employees for the long haul.
