Hourly associate recruiting

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Permalink Reply by Terryl Bronson on March 18, 2008 at 8:44am

I have struggled with this too Andy. A few things I have seen work for BOH associates is contacting your local junior colleges that have a culinary arts program. This is a great source for line/prep cooks. For hosts, some of the highschools have a co-op program where they go to school for part of the day and have to work 25-30 hours a week. The students in the program have to perform well because their employer has an impact on the grade they receive. For servers/bartenders I have seen referral programs work very well. Also, recruiting at local colleges is a great source for servers. If anyone esle has some ideas, please weigh in:)

Permalink Reply by Nora on March 19, 2008 at 3:11pm

I agree with Terryl. Local colleges or culinary arts programs are fantastic resources! Students from these programs, and college students as a whole tend to have great upbeat attitudes and work hard. Another good source if you are able to take on the 16-18 year old age group is high school athletics. These also tend to be a very goal oriented and driven group to succeed. A word of caution though, the students may only be looking for employment to match their 4-5 year school limit; and, therefore, they may only work to that known life span. I know from working in a restaurant where a large portion of our staff comes from 3 surrounding colleges that this thought process/work ethic can sometimes create extra stress on management and the restaurant in general every few years.

Permalink Reply by Andy Swingley on March 23, 2008 at 9:28am

Have any of you heard of snagajob.com or jobseekers.com? Our current recruiter is looking into it for hourly staffing.
If you have any experience with these let me know.

Permalink Reply by Terryl Bronson on March 23, 2008 at 11:02am

I haven't had much success with snagajob and I haven't used jobseekers.com. If the cost to post on those is small, I would give it a shot. Let me know what your results are. Another source for hourlies that I have recently encountered is your local government. In one of my markets, there is an orginaztion that helps place people on well fare in to jobs. In Mississippi, people on govt assistance have to work a minimum of 30 hours a week. They will place them in a job for free. They know each persons background so they will not send you someone with a criminal record. I'm not sure if they have the same program in your area, but it is worth looking into for some hourlies.

Permalink Reply by Andy Swingley on March 23, 2008 at 11:28am

Thanks Terryl!

Permalink Reply by Nicole on March 24, 2008 at 10:14pm

Hey Andy,

We have used Snag-a-job several times in the Big East....it wasn't very successful w/ the locations we tried it at. A couple off the top of my head were #307 and #310. Never hurts to give it a shot (cost is minimal @ $100.00) Currently we are looking to get in a partnership w/ ProStart...This is a phenomenal organization w/ho targets specific highschools where students are focusing on a career in the hospitality industry! They have first class events ( I just attended the one in Columbus in February-AMAZING) and compete throughout the entire state. These kids are serve safe certified and focused. I have my second meeting this Wednesday and also meet w/ PJP to go over details...Stay tuned.

Permalink Reply by Amanda Hite on March 23, 2008 at 2:33pm

There are sites like you talk about I think one is call snag a job.... monster also has a division that is specifically for hourlies... I don't remember which one but on one of them you can set your restaurant up with a posting for $100 bucks and have the applications sent directly to the restaurant...

Permalink Reply by Ken Burgin on March 23, 2008 at 2:46pm

Don't forget to have an attractive Employment page on your website, with plenty of photos of young people at work - 'people like us'.

Most restaurant sites have almost nothing, or one that talks all about what they want eg honest, fast, creative, energetic, (blonde), motivated, committed (yeah right....) instead of what's in it for the candidate. A great example at Nathania Springs - see the team and employment pages

Permalink Reply by Amanda Hite on March 23, 2008 at 2:35pm

Another recommendation would be Pro-start!

Permalink Reply by David Hick on March 31, 2008 at 8:40am

I can tell you that one of your best tools is already in your backyard. If you can set up an attractive incentive plan for your existing staff to refer new associates, you are going to see results very quickly. I have helped to develop referral programs for some international casual dining chains and I can tell you that they have turned into one of their most effecive tools for front line recruitment. It doesn't have to be a financial incentive prgram by the way. You can design your program based on whatever your market research is telling you will attract young employees. This is often going to be, flexible scheduling, swag, and the like. Each operator has to be aware of what is going to work in their own region.

Permalink Reply by Justin Jones on June 20, 2008 at 2:09pm

Increasing applications is tricky, there are so many approaches and most will be like shooting a shotgun at a target and trying to measure the results. I have several programs in place that I use regularly that all revolve around places most likely in your backyard anyway.

1. Churches - the youth groups are great and some often have programs for individuals really trying to get back on their feet.

2. Pro -Start - this one has been a good resource through the restaurant association

3. I have contacts at every single high school in the area and contact them regularly, even if it is to just "check in". I'll sometimes bring them lunch too, and who do you think is the first person they mention when a student comes to the office looking for a job?.

4. Universities - I'm on their job boards and have contacts in their career department as well as run ads at the begining of school (not hiring ads, usually a fun ad with a small snippet about our flexible schedule, holidays off, culture, and competitive pay

5. Current crew - these are my best cheerleaders - anytime they are out around town or talking to friends that need jobs I'm the first one they recommend. Afterall, who doesn't like to work with a friend or two?

6. Customers - I inform ALL of my regulars when I'm scouting for new talent. You never know who they know that will be looking for a job.

7. Representative Crew - this simply means that I hire people that I think will best represent the brand, myself, & the culture.....b/c these guys will attract people just like themselves. It's always tougher when you get in a bind to turn down someone that fits the availability that you need, but I have a simple rule - they don't get hired if they can't represent myself and my restaurants outside of the 4 walls. You'd be surprised at how this simple concept will evolutionize your application flow in the future.

So many managers have the "sit & wait" approach, the problem is that time is against you - so I believe in going after the people that I want working for me.

I'm always "top Grading" my lowest performer and filling positions with better crew that bring in better crew. We have become the place to work at and it didn't happen over night - It will take a lot of work, I spend about 10% of my time during the week working on recruiting so much so that I have gotten one of my best culture managers involved in recruiting.

Proof this system works: we are 110% staffed, 16% of my crew have been with me for 2 years, 46% have been with me for 8 months or longer the remaining 28% have been with me between 6-8 months leaving about 10% that I'm upgrading from the lowest performers (which equals 3-4 crew)

I believe that staffing can be a struggle if the managers that are in place within the organization don't quite understand what it is that you're trying to accomplish, the people that you want, and ultimately those that will represent your organization when they are around town wearing your logo.

We discuss in our interviews things that don't have anything to do with the job what so ever - if I notice someone pulls up on a motorcycle I'll ask them questions about it to see if they can hold a conversation with me and give me details - (true story by the way, they guy stayed with me for 18 months and ended up being one of my managers when graduating high school)

Good luck with your programs......get management to buy in to what your trying to accomplish and 3 months down the road you'll be turning people down.

Permalink Reply by Lee Kneale on July 13, 2008 at 8:22am

We are fighting the same problem here in Boerne Texas, right outside of San Antonio. It seems like many people, especially people in thier early 20s think that they deserve better than a hourly wait staff position or host position. Some things we have been doing are going to local colleges and seeing if we can recruit from there, as well as Craigs List. Its really big here in Texas. Have you also tried incentives for your employees now to bring on new employees? Cash incentives always work