Hospitality Recruitment: 9 Tips For Finding Your Dream Team

Hospitality staff are one of the most important assets in any hospitality business. Not only are they the face of your venue, but their skills - either behind the bar, in the kitchen or serving customers - generates revenue for your business.

Unfortunately, the Australian hospitality industry is facing a staffing crisis, with over 46,000 hospitality jobs vacant in May 2021. Couple this with the fact that the hospitality staff turnover rate is 14.3% (higher than any other industry in Australia), and it’s unsurprising that recruiting, training, and retaining hospitality staff is one of the biggest challenges faced by hospitality owners.

Dream team: find, hire and retain the best staff for your venue with these 9 tips

With more job openings than candidates and a high staff turnover rate, hospitality businesses must nail the recruitment process right from the get-go. Hiring new staff can be tricky at the best of times, but in a competitive job market, it’s imperative that hospitality businesses stand out from the crowd to attract and retain the best candidates.

While it might seem like an impossible situation, it’s important to remember that everyone’s in the same boat. This means if you can find a way to hire great people and hold on to them, you’ll have a significant edge over your competitors.

To help, here are our 9 tips for successful hospitality recruitment.

1. Outline the role

To kick off your recruitment process, you’ll need to outline the relevant information for the role. This should include:

• A short description of the role you’re hiring for
• A list of tasks the new position will be responsible for
• A list of desirable skills and experience that are relevant to the role
• Details about the role, e.g. seasonal, casual, full-time, part-time, salary, benefits
• A short description of your business

Compiling this information will enable you to craft the perfect job ad, attract the best candidates and prepare your interview format. Plus, taking the time to outline your exact needs will help keep you focused throughout the recruitment process.

2. Craft the perfect job ad

With so many job vacancies on the market, it’s crucial to make your ad stand out from the crowd. While you’re looking for the best candidate, prospective workers are also on the hunt for the best employer. With fierce competition in a saturated job market, your ad needs to showcase your business as a great place to work as well as advertise the role you’re looking for.

Add a touch of your personality into your job ad and call out any staff benefits, such as staff discounts or team building days, that new hires can look forward to. It’s also important to add as much detail as possible into your advert and be as honest as possible about your expectations for the role.

3. Advertise in the right places

Once you’ve perfected your job ad, the next step is to advertise it. There are numerous ways to promote your role, from online job boards to recruitment agencies and social media. However, the key to success is to get your ad in front of as many eyes as possible.

Post an ad in your window, share it on social media, upload it to a job portal such as Indeed or Seek or hire a recruitment agency. There are also specialist websites for hospitality recruitment too; try HospoWorld, CoffeeJobs, SideKicker and Scout.

Don’t forget to ask your staff to refer anyone they think is a good fit for the role as well.

4. Define your ideal candidate

Once your job ad is live, the applications will start rolling in. However, before you start sifting through resumes, it’s essential to define who your ideal candidate is and what you expect of them, so you can quickly narrow down your applications.

When outlining your ideal candidate, don’t just focus on their skills and experience. You should also define what kind of person they are, what motivates them and what qualities they’ll bring to your team. Think about your must-haves. For example, would you be willing to hire an entry-level manager and train them, or do you want someone with proven experience?

Once you have defined your ideal candidate, it will be much easier to shortlist applications for interview.

5. Perfect your interview technique

When interviewing prospective employees, you need to pick an interview style that reflects your business. If you’re a laid-back cafe, then your interview style should mirror this. However, if you’re a high-end cocktail bar, your setting and style could be more formal.

Before sitting down with your chosen candidates, plan how you’re going to conduct the interview and the type of questions you’re going to ask. Cover a range of personal and professional questions to get an idea of how well the person will fit into your team and if they’ll excel at the job. Here are some questions to consider:

• Tell me about yourself
• Why do you want to work here?
• What did you like/ dislike most about your previous job?
• Why do you want to work here?
• How would you deal with a customer complaint?
• Tell me about a time when you…

You should also ask candidates to give some examples of their previous experience and how their skills will relate to the role. For example, front of house staff should have a confident, easy-going personality, patience and good communication skills. Whereas your back of house staff need to have strong leadership skills and work well under pressure.

No matter the role, everyone in hospitality needs to have a good sense of humour, a can-do attitude and enjoy working in a team.

6. Be realistic

When you’re creating a job ad, chatting to potential candidates and interviewing, be as honest as possible about your expectations for the role, what it’s like to work at your venue and what your team is like. Potential employees need to understand exactly what to expect from the role to avoid high turnover further down the line.

You could also invite people for a (paid) trial, so you can both work out if the role is a good fit. It’s also important to highlight potential career progression that may lead to other more senior roles as career paths or opportunities to upskill are huge incentives for prospective employees.

7. Move fast and make an offer

In a competitive job market, it’s crucial to snap up candidates as quickly as possible. Prioritise looking through applications, and then get people in for interviews within a few days.

Once you’ve conducted enough interviews, it’s crucial to make a decision as soon as possible. Chances are, your candidates have also interviewed with other businesses, so you shouldn’t wait for a week to offer them a job as it’s likely they’ll have accepted another offer.

If you’re struggling to choose between candidates, go for the one who’ll click with your staff and customers, even if they’re less experienced. You can teach skills to a newbie, but you can’t fix someone’s attitude, work ethic or team spirit.

It’s also essential to have all your paperwork ready to go so that when you like the look of someone, you can get them on board immediately.

8. Nail the onboarding process

First impressions count, and a well-structured onboarding process can set your new employees up for success from the first day.

Training is a crucial part of an employees onboarding process, and while it can be a time-consuming process, it’s worth investing in and can decrease staff turnover. Plus, a thorough training programme shows new employees they’re entering into a supportive work environment.

Train new staff on the following:

• Their day-to-day duties, task and responsibilities
• How to use your POS system
• Your menu
• Upcoming and regular events
• Daily specials
• Health, safety and hygiene procedures
• Fire safety guidelines and evacuation procedures

9. Retain staff with ongoing training and incentives

Creating a positive and supportive work environment will empower staff to give their all and provide the best customer experience time and again. Therefore it’s crucial to invest in your employee’s development and provide regular training so they remain motivated and are less likely to leave.

Consider implementing some of the following strategies to keep your team motivated:

Team building – take the whole team out for a team-building exercise. This doesn’t have to be anything extravagant; a few drinks in a local bar or BBQ at the beach will work.

Regular meetings – catch up with your team members regularly to check in with how they’re doing, give them feedback and ask if they have any questions or concerns.

Ask for their opinions – ask your team what works well for them in their day-to-day roles and what needs to be improved. Anything you can do to make their lives easier will have a positive impact on your customer experience.

Set incentives and rewards – when team members hit their goals, make sure to reward them for their efforts. This not only shows your appreciation but also motivates them to do well in the future.

Hospitality recruitment: find your dream team

There’s no denying that it’s a tough time to be recruiting hospitality staff. With the international border set to be closed until mid-2022, the number of job openings will far outweigh the pool of potential candidates for the next 12 months. As a result, it’s imperative for hospitality owners to perfect their recruiting process to find the most suitable candidates, and create an environment that minimises staff churn.