It is mostly seen, that restaurants generally prefer to run with limited staff but to cope with the seasonal rush, they do indulge in hiring seasonal restaurant staff. However, you being a restaurant owner, must already know, that hiring a seasonal staff isn’t a straightforward affair; it is rather a daunting task. Even though the concept of seasonal hires are on the rise, you must know where to hire these seasonal restaurant staff from, and how to train them in no time, that will ensure that you achieve your ROI soon also will enhance the overall restaurant management structure. While it is no doubt not an easy task, if you garner the right knowledge on how to go about with hiring and training seasonal restaurant staff, it will surely be a cakewalk for you!
Tips To Tap The Right Part-time or Seasonal Restaurant Staff
If you mistakenly hire the wrong seasonal restaurant staff, then you can be assured that your restaurant will not perform well, if not run into a loss for that season. Hence, considering the predicament of the situation, your pivotal interest must be to know how to tap the right restaurant staff who will make your restaurant a success for that season. Here are some great tips for hiring seasonal staff for restaurants.
1. Consider Getting Your Last Year’s Staff
You need to be farsighted in your business. Hence, after a seasonal restaurant staff has completed his working period, you should not wash your hands off him. You must know, that you might them again next year. Therefore, you must always try and build a relationship with them, that should last throughout the year. Why would you not want the good seasonal restaurant staff whom you hired last year to work for you again? Getting back your previous year’s team will make half of your work done. You will not have to train them like first-timers since they are aware of your restaurant work environment and they are aware of your team members. On top of that, rehires are more comfortable with upselling your products, since they are familiar with your restaurant concept, thus staffs will be efficient enough and will help in bringing in a nice surge of cash flow right away. What more could you possibly want?
2. Recommendations From Your Wellwishers
Your biggest wellwishers are the ones who work for you. They will never mislead you, or do anything that will have an adverse effect on your restaurant business. Hence, when you are looking for seasonal restaurant staff, why don’t you ask your permanent staff if they have any seasonal hires in their circle? Your permanent staff will not recommend anyone unless they are sure about them since if their recommended staff does not work well, it will be a negative thing for your existing staff.
You should also try word of mouth and ask your friends and families to refer to good seasonal help for your restaurant. This is the best place to hire restaurant employees.
3. Target The Community at Large
There will be many in your community, maybe very near you, who are looking for seasonal jobs. Hence, make sure that you spread the news about your search well in the community. Distribute pamphlets and flyers, inform your customers, put up posts on your social media pages, spread the news about your recruitment through word of mouth and be assured that you will come across a few young enthusiasts who are waiting to be hired as part-time restaurant staff.
4. Local High Schools and Colleges Can Be The Home Of Many Seasonal Restaurant Staff
Local schools and college are some of the best places to hire restaurant employees. This is not very prevalent and adequately exploited in India. It is rather a trend abroad, where young, vibrant students in their vacations find various viable options of fill in the pockets. These people are generally buzzing with energy, and are just waiting to be utilized at its optimum level. They will also be more willing to work on those early mornings or late night shifts which your permanent staff dread.
Although it is a difficult thing to start in India since our society is not constructed to let students work for money. But there is no harm in trying. Hence, consider reaching out to local schools and colleges and introduce the job opportunity to the students. You never know you can become a trendsetter in India.
5. Abide By The Local Laws For the Seasonal Hires
Not only do you need to abide by the local laws while hiring cooks and permanent employees, but there are also laws that need to be kept in mind while hiring part-time staff as well. You are under the obligation to provide some benefits under the Indian labor laws, including workers’ compensation. Your seasonal restaurant staffs are also entitled to unemployment benefits, depending on the length of their employment term. Keep your staff happy and they will push their limits to deliver the best for your restaurant.
How to Train Your Restaurant’s Seasonal Staff
Once you have all your seasonal restaurant staff onboard your next major work will be to train them well enough, so that they are at their best from day one. Since the seasonal or part-time staff is not well-versed in the operations of your restaurant, you must train them thoroughly, and that too, in a limited time.
Unlike, the permanent staff, with the seasonal staff, you cannot devote much time to training. Hence, you must simplify the entire process. You can do so, by training all your new seasonal restaurant staff together instead of training them individually. You can at the max arrange for three sessions. Such group training classes will create a sense of belongingness amongst your seasonal restaurant staff, thus it will act as an icebreaker for them. Or while hiring seasonal staff for restaurants look for the people who have some experience and are well-trained.
You can give them a manual that talks about your entire restaurant operations, and to which they can return to in times of need. During the training period, make sure that all your seasonal restaurant staff is introduced to the menu items, how they are prepared, the ingredients that go into each dish. Such comprehensive knowledge will help your seasonal restaurant staff to upsell the menu items well and recommend and suggest your customers as well.
One of the most important things that your new restaurant staff must be taught is how to manage problematic, or disgruntled customers. Once, these basic things are delivered to your seasonal restaurant staff well enough, you can be sure that they will be at their best from the very beginning.
While we know that you might be very apprehensive about how your journey about hiring and training your seasonal restaurant staff would be, if you follow these quick tips and tricks of hiring seasonal hires, it will rather be a pleasant journey for you and will get some of the best seasonal restaurant staff on board.
