How to Take It Easy When You Need to Hire Seasonal Staff

Summertime… and the living’s probably not easy when you’ve got a restaurant to run. You spend all year building up, training, and supporting a team that you hope will last. And then the summer arrives — the sunshine, the days spent by the water, the barbeques, the need to hire seasonal staff — and you realize it’s time to start slogging through new resumes again.

But is it?

Take It Easy

According to Snagajob’s 2016 Summer Hiring Survey, many of you aren’t very optimistic about this year’s round of summer hiring:

• The top three difficulties restaurant managers expect to encounter are: (1) finding quality resumes, (2) finding the right candidates, and (3) taking the time to hire and onboard temporary staff.
• 66% of managers expect they’ll need to hire brand new employees this year.
• 56% of managers are willing to accept more mistakes from temporary workers so long as customers walk away satisfied.

Summer hiring (or any seasonal hiring, for that matter) is one of those necessary evils you probably try to put off doing for as long as you can. Rather than procrastinate in hiring for this summer season, look at this as another opportunity to build upon your restaurant’s ability to deliver quality service. Just because this new group of employees may only be with you for a few months doesn’t mean the investment isn’t worth it in the long-run.

If you haven’t started your summer hiring yet or if you’re still in the process of onboarding, here are some tips to consider:

1. Turn to your data: Your restaurant’s history can tell you a lot about what to expect over the summer months. How much busier will you be? Where will the increase in sales come from (food, alcohol, special promotions)? Will students’ schedules affect how busy you are? Which shifts will require extra coverage in the BOH and FOH? Historical data can do wonders in helping you plan for the right amount of seasonal employee coverage.

2. Talk to your team: In Snagajob’s survey, 66% of employers expect their new hires to only be available to work part-time. But what about your current staff? Are they planning to take any time off? Will their hours change over the summer? If you can ask these questions now you can plan for proper coverage all throughout the summer by scheduling employees when they want to work, incentivize seasonal staff to cover the rest, and make sure you have a good balance of seasoned veterans and new hires to work each shift.

3. Hire dedicated people: The task of hiring new employees doesn’t have to feel like a burden — especially if you’ve developed great relationships with seasonal staff in the past. Look to them first and find out if they’re looking for summer employment again. Bringing on employees who have worked for you previously will not only help in boosting team morale, but will also help in saving time and energy if you were to onboard someone completely new.

4. Consolidate the process: If you’re reviewing historical data and checking in with current team members on their preferred availability, planning for what you need should be a cinch. Where you’re going to need to save time is in the onboarding and training. Since you know how many temporary team members you require this summer, aim to hire, onboard, and train them simultaneously so you’re not spending all spring and summer conducting rounds and rounds of the same training.

5. Act natural: There’s no need to treat seasonal employees any differently than your regular staff — especially if you want your customers to continue to receive the same level of service. Welcome them to the team, provide them with rigorous training, celebrate their wins, and reward them when they go above and beyond. Just because they might only stay with you for three months on their summer break doesn’t mean they won’t return over the holidays or the following summer.

6. Find the right tools: You don’t have to manage the restaurant on your own. This doesn’t mean you need to hire a temporary manager for the summer, but it does mean you need to have the right tools on your side. There are affordable and very easy to use cloud-based tools that can help you in hiring the right applicants, training new hires, and managing guest engagement — with the end goal of ensuring there are no serious disruptions to customer service in your restaurant.

It can be difficult to keep cool when the summer months arrive — the restaurant’s busier, there are more and more campers keeping you from turning tables, and everyone wants to get done early so they can go to John’s party. If you want to keep your team productive, your customers happy, and your restaurant profitable, make sure you have the right planning and tools in place.