How to Hire Restaurant Workers on Your Website
Struggling to find workers for your restaurant? It might be time to rethink your website.
Summertime is around the corner and news of restaurant owners still scrambling to find workers continues as pandemic restrictions lifts across the country. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, February saw an increase of 300,000 jobs in the food & bar service industry. Yet, even with incentives in place to attract potential hires, many workers have moved on.
But don’t let bad news make you miss out on a potential opportunity.
The key might not be incentives, but to reframe your workplace. With a large job pool and small job demand, your business is competing with other businesses for workers. And with the prevalence of websites as the digital storefront for many restaurant and bar owners, it might be time to look back at that ‘Careers’ page. Yes, that one page that has been collecting (digital) dust.
Now, a website alone isn’t going to capture a flood of resumes to your inbox, but it will be a key factor when a potential hire is deciding whether they want to work for YOU versus another businesses. A good careers page should show potential hires 3 things: a story, the work culture, and clear job listings.
#1 Tell a Story
The first thing a candidate wants to know is who you are. This is where you share your company story—how did it all start? What do you value? What are your goals? How do you see the business grow in the future?
Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants chose to focus their story what makes the restaurant unique (full-service restaurant + wine tasting) and how that unique idea came to be.
#2 Show the Work Culture
What do you do that helps makes the work environment enjoyable and rewarding? Why choose YOU? This is where it’s time to shine! Talk about benefits, the culture, and potential areas for growth.
Abuelo’s nailed this by giving a bullet point list of reasons why candidates should work for them. They accomplish this by addressing potential areas for concern when seeking a new job. For example, how’s the work/life balance? Is it a positive and friendly workplace?
#3 List Jobs Openings
You might be tempted to have a contact form and leave it at that. But listing relevant and up-to-date job postings, each with their own page, will help visibility on Google search results. Plus, it's a lot more organized!
Ask your webmaster to implement a schema markup (code that tells Google how to read your page) on a job page, so that the posting will show up when a candidate searches for jobs in their area.
For example, let's search for 'restaurant jobs houston':
According to Google, ‘restaurant jobs near me’ get 10K – 100K average monthly searches! And with job postings specifically targeting a user’s location, your job posting can stand out from the crowd. Google will want to following information for each job:
- Job title
- Job description
- Company
- Company URL
- Industry
- Employment type
- Work hours
- Date posted/exp. date
- Location
Implementing this will require a bit of time, but it’s vastly more effective than putting up a ‘Help Wanted’ sign on a window.
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About the Author
Paola Betancourt is a marketing strategist with experience in web design, copywriting, photography, and SEO. With 5 years of experience, she has worked with businesses from restaurants to accounting firms to sharpen branding and improve search engine relevancy. Now, she runs her own marketing business to assist clients across Central Florida. You can contact her at paola@theskybrand.com.