How to Hire Seasonal Staff During Upcoming Restaurant Busy Season

It should be no surprise to anyone working in hospitality that the spring and summer months are the busiest seasons in the year. As a restaurant owner or manager, the busy season is both an opportunity to increase your profits and a challenge to keep up with the demand. To ensure a successful busy season, it's crucial to have the right staff in place. In this article, we'll discuss the steps you should take to hire staff effectively during your restaurant's busy season, from planning and recruiting to onboarding and retaining your new hires.

Planning and Assessing Staffing Needs

Before diving into the hiring process, it's essential to have a clear understanding of your staffing needs. Begin by assessing your current staff's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Are you lacking kitchen staff so that during busy hours orders take a lot longer to be fulfilled? Do you have enough amazing bar staff that can handle their section without outside help? Do you only have amazing line cooks but not a good pastry chef? Identify any gaps in skills or experience that need to be filled and consider the following:

• How many additional employees do you need to maintain excellent service during the busy season?
• What positions do you need to fill (e.g., servers, cooks, bartenders, hosts)?
• How many hours will the new hires work per week, and what will their schedules look like?
• What is your budget for hiring and training new staff?

Taking the time to create a spreadsheet of all your current staff and their individual and overall strength and weaknesses will give you an idea of how much staff you need to add on to your roster, what roles are you missing, and which sections need the most amount of seasonal staff. Having a clear plan will make the hiring process more efficient and help you attract the right candidates.

Write Clear and Detailed Job Descriptions

The job description is the first impression potential employees have of your restaurant, so it's essential to make it as accurate and enticing as possible. Whether you’re posting on a job board or having a physical A well-written job description should include:

• A brief overview of your restaurant, its values, and what makes it unique
• The specific duties and responsibilities of the role
• The required qualifications, skills, and experience
• The salary range, benefits, and any perks offered
• The application process and timeline
  

But having a good job description doesn’t mean much until you advertise it in the right places. Using a mix of recruiting channels will increase your chances of finding the right candidates. Some popular channels to consider include online job boards, social media, networking, and local culinary schools. 

Online job board websites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Craigslist can help you reach a wide audience. Many of these job boards are free to use which is great if you have multiple positions you are looking for. Other job boards may recommend candidates that fit your job requirements the best, saving you time and opening up more opportunities to potential employees. 

If you are active on social media, post job openings on your restaurant's social media pages and encourage your current staff to share them. You can also join local Facebook groups or use platforms like LinkedIn to connect with potential candidates. In addition, attending local networking events, job fairs, and industry conferences is a great way to meet potential candidates face-to-face. Encourage your existing staff to refer people they know, like family, friends or even classmates, to apply so that you can gather a pool of potential candidates vouched by your existing staff. 

Lastly, partner with culinary schools in your area to connect with students and recent graduates who may be looking for work in the restaurant industry. You can even contact local colleges that have culinary programs to see if there are opportunities for collaboration. 

Provide Hands-On Training and Onboarding

Once you've selected your new hires, it's crucial to provide comprehensive training and onboarding to set them up for success. Your training program should include:

• Orientation: Introduce new hires to your restaurant's culture, values, and mission. Give them a tour of the premises and introduce them to their coworkers and supervisors.
• Job-specific training: Provide in-depth training on the specific tasks and responsibilities of their role. This may involve shadowing experienced employees, hands-on demonstrations, or allowing new employees to practice tasks under the supervision of a manager or supervisor.
• Customer service training: Emphasize the importance of excellent customer service and teach new hires how to handle common customer complaints, special requests, and other challenging situations.
• Health and safety training: Ensure all employees are aware of the health and safety regulations relevant to their role, including food handling, sanitation, and workplace safety.

To help new hires adapt to their roles quickly, it's essential to set clear expectations and provide regular feedback. Establish performance metrics and goals for each employee, and make sure they understand how their performance will be evaluated. Hold regular check-ins to discuss their progress, address any concerns, and provide constructive feedback on their performance.

Offer Incentives and Opportunities for Growth

To retain your seasonal staff and encourage them to return for future busy seasons, consider offering incentives and opportunities for growth. Some ideas include offering competitive wages and benefits, starting employee recognition programs, opportunities for promotions, flexibility towards your staff, and creating a positive work environment. 

Offering attractive compensation packages can help you attract and retain top talent. Remember, you are competing against other restaurants and job opportunities that are also looking for great staff. If you cheapen out on salaries for your dedicated employees, you may be alienating them or even motivating them to quit your establishment. 

Recognize and reward employees who go above and beyond, such as giving out "Employee of the Month" awards or offering bonuses for exceptional performance. This can incentivize your employees to perform better, with the hopes of being rewarded for their efforts. You should also provide opportunities for growth within your organization, such as promoting from within or offering additional training and development programs. Staff are not going to be happy being stuck in the same place for a long period of time. If you have members of your team that show strong leadership skills or are promising in another area, foster that growth and aim to give your staff the ability to grow as individuals and their careers. 

Show empathy towards your staff by accommodating their scheduling needs and preferences whenever possible. There are many things in life that we cannot control such as illness, family emergencies and more. In addition, school scheduling, vacations, second jobs, etc are other things to take into consideration when scheduling your staff. Remember your staff are only human and it's important to be understanding and caring towards your staff to ensure they are happy and satisfied working with you.

On that note, creating a positive work environment can make a significant difference in employee satisfaction and retention. Encourage open communication, teamwork, and mutual respect among all staff members. Organize team-building activities and events, such as staff outings or holiday parties, to help employees bond and feel more connected to the restaurant.

Use Technology to your Advantage

However, just hiring staff isn’t the only thing you can do to help mitigate the influx of customers for the busy season. Using technology to help you and your staff is not only effective, it’s cost efficient as well. 

With the aid of technology, such as advanced POS systems and mobile ordering platforms, orders can be processed swiftly and accurately, reducing wait times and enhancing customer satisfaction. Staff members can leverage handheld devices or tablets to take orders directly at the table, enabling them to provide personalized service and attend to customers' needs promptly. In addition to the aforementioned mobile ordering devices, employing table QR code menus and ordering is an easy and low cost way to get by busy hours with limited staff. But what about restaurants that don’t have tableside service? How can you use technology to help you run a more efficient restaurant with technology? The short answer is if you run a quick service or fast casual restaurant, you can employ self-ordering kiosks that can reduce wait times, thin out long lines and expedite orders. By leveraging technology, restaurants can enhance operational efficiency, improve customer service, and ultimately achieve success even during the busiest times.

Hiring staff during the restaurant busy season can be a challenging but rewarding process. By planning ahead, writing clear job descriptions, utilizing multiple recruiting channels, conducting thorough interviews, and providing comprehensive training, you can build a strong and capable team. Moreover, taking care to implement new technology in your restaurant to help streamline and organize your business is a great way to cut costs and still manage a fuller restaurant in the warmer months. In the end, remember to set clear expectations, offer incentives, and foster a positive work environment to retain your seasonal staff and ensure a successful busy season for your restaurant.