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Today’s Special: Hiring Top Talent in the Restaurant Industry
Posted by Katy Ford on October 10th, 2024 
Now, several years past the peak of COVID-19, we are finally seeing restaurant and food industry jobs return to their normal levels. There is, however, still a high need for food service professionals. According to The National Restaurant Association, in the first eight months of 2024, restaurants added a net 10,700 jobs each month. Although lower than pre-pandemic levels, the competition for talent is still fierce, making it vital that restaurant recruiters develop strong hiring strategies to help their jobs stand out against the competition.
Recruiting Challenges in Restaurants & Food Service
Recruiting in the restaurant and foodservice industry might be the most difficult field in which to find and attract candidates, with foodservice employers struggling with fluctuating demand and the constant need for skilled workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic kickstarted a massive labor shortage, leaving the largest employment deficit among all US industries at 4.6% below pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Even as the labor market recovers, many restaurants have permanently reduced their operating hours, and labor shortages remain a critical issue. More than 70% of restaurants are still having trouble filling positions to meet customer demand.
Proven Marketing Strategies for Restaurant Recruiters
It’s difficult to know where to start when building a successful recruiting strategy in such a volatile environment. To ensure your talent acquisition team is on the right track, your organization will need to develop a customized recruiting strategy based on your current needs.
Determine Your Recruiting Needs
Before you begin building your recruiting strategy, you need to assess your recruiting needs. Begin by looking at your current strategy to see where candidates are falling through the cracks. This might mean reevaluating your search engine marketing and programmatic tools, looking at your digital campaigns and your recruiting channels and even checking out what your competitors are doing to attract talent. Once you have evaluated your current recruitment approach, it will be easier to see where you can make the most effective changes.
Create Targeted Campaigns
Once you’ve determined your hiring needs, you can create digital campaigns with geotargeting that optimize search engine marketing and programmatic tools. Developing campaigns that speak to who you are as an employer (your employer brand) and what you have to offer is incredibly important in making yourself stand out to candidates. You can also consider retargeting ad campaigns if you have prospective candidates visiting your site but are having difficulty converting them to applicants. Download our case study to see how we used retargeting to help one of our foodservice clients double their applications in one month.
Use the Right Recruitment Channels
Understanding where your target candidates spend their time online is crucial for effective hiring. Focus your recruiting efforts on the platforms your audience frequently uses. Are you engaging with them on their preferred channels? If not, identify the social media platforms, job boards and websites they frequent and ensure your content is visible there. Want some more guidance on social media platforms? Check out our blog post.
Analyze and Improve Your Hiring Strategy
As your strategy begins to take root, it’s important to track and analyze your results to find the tactics that are working best for you. Are you seeing a lot of traffic from your social media posts? Are your email blasts being ignored? Sift through your insights and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Embrace AI and Automation
Leverage AI-driven recruitment tools to streamline the hiring process, from screening resumes to scheduling interviews. Automated systems can reduce time-to-hire and ensure candidates don’t slip through the cracks. Contact NAS to learn about our chatbot and how it can help improve your communication with candidates and save your talent acquisition team time.
Key Takeaways for Restaurant Recruiters
When recruiting in the restaurant and foodservice space, it is important to leave no stone unturned.
- Make sure your messaging tells candidates why you are different and what’s in it for them.
- Implement proven strategies and experiment with new ones.
- Use analytics to learn where you are succeeding and where you need to improve.
- Partner with an organization like NAS that is an expert in the recruiting space—we have the experience to help with all the above!
Knowing you need to hire more employees for your restaurant but not knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. We understand how frustrating it can be to have so many different job roles open at once and simply not enough applications coming in. As a leading restaurant recruitment marketing agency, we can help save you time and money on hiring top talent. Check out our work with Longhorn Steakhouse to better understand how we can help you.
Katy Ford
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