Working with a professional recruiter can help take the work out of finding, interviewing, and hiring good candidates, but it can be costly. On average, it can cost 20-35% of a hire’s first-year salary or thousands in recruiter retainers. Fortunately, there are cost-effective alternatives.
When hiring on a budget and in a tight market, small businesses and restaurant owners may try to tackle hiring themselves by posting in their own social networks, in local classifieds, or by using word of mouth. While that kind of DIY approach can save you hard cash, it can also cost you in time and stress–and distract you from the important work of managing your business.
Today, there are alternative self-service and cost-effective options that can help save you money and time when seeking, interviewing, and hiring candidates for your restaurant. Check out this list of websites designed to help restaurants of all sizes–whether a local pub, a regional chain, or a multi-location franchise–find the talent they need on a budget.
READ: 17 restaurant job descriptions for front-of-house
These top recruiting sites, although not specifically for restaurants, reach a vast number of talents seeking employment.
As the world’s largest professional network on the internet, LinkedIn is a place for workers to set up their online resume or profile, find jobs or internships, establish and nurture professional relationships, and more. LinkedIn Talent Solutions offers free job postings and a monthly subscription to Jobs + Recruiter Lite to help boost visibility and simplify the process of finding candidates. It’s available now with a 1-month free trial.
With over 350 million unique visitors worldwide each month, Indeed is a popular site for jobseekers and opens the door to a plethora of resumes for small businesses. What’s more, Indeed for employers has created a dashboard for employers to help manage job postings, candidate resumes, and even the interview process. Setting up an employer account is free, and Indeed offers two pay-to-play services to help you find candidates more easily. Indeed Resume is a subscription service that helps match candidates to your job listing–it comes with a 14-day free trial. You can also boost the visibility of your job listing by sponsoring it.
Monster, a global leader in recruiting, has been transforming the recruiting experience for candidates and employers for over 25 years. Although Monster doesn’t focus solely on the food, beverage, or hospitality industries, it definitely includes job openings that attract a wide range of candidates seeking employment, including restaurant and hospitality work. Employers can opt for pay-as-you-go pricing or a monthly subscription for access to tools that can help create job listings, distribute them to matching candidates, and even promote job listings to relevant candidates.
ZipRecruiter, aiming to help small businesses find great candidates, has grown into a leading online employment marketplace that connects millions of job seekers with companies of all sizes. ZipRecruiter uses smart AI to match the right people, right away. And, it offers 3 different plans for employers to choose from with a try-it-for-free option.
Snagajob specializes in helping businesses of all sizes find hourly staff. With tools to help you screen, filter, and track applicants, Snagajob partners with multiple industries, including the restaurant and hospitality industries. And, their self-service hiring platform helps small businesses quickly post jobs and hire employees with up to 3x more qualified applicants.
Small businesses can sign up for free, and there’s even an enterprise solution for businesses with large-scale needs.
READ: How small businesses use talent marketing for talent acquisition
These restaurant employment websites share your job listing within their own network of talent and, for a fee, distribute it to their network of partners to reach candidates.
Like LinkedIn, Culinary Agents is a networking site specifically designed for food, beverage, and hospitality professionals and reaches over 1.7 million culinary professionals. For a per-job fee or a monthly subscription, Culinary Agents can market your job to its network of 500 partners, including Google, Indeed, LinkedIn, and many more. That means you simply set up a job description once on Culinary Agents, and they distribute and market that job listing across their network of partner sites. And, since many culinary professionals maintain a profile on Culinary Agents, you also have access to the industry’s largest talent pool of passive candidates–those not actively looking for a job.
If you have multiple locations or are expanding into a franchise, RestaurantZone may be able to help you. Known for having the largest pool of hospitality talent, pre-screened and vetted for businesses, RestaurantZone is a platform designed specifically to help nationwide restaurants and hotels hire management and hourly positions. The site offers a network of millions of jobseekers, hundreds of job board partnerships, and lots of other resources to support hiring needs of all sizes. Start by contacting them.
If creating meaningful food experiences for customers and staff alike is your goal, you may find Good Food Jobs to be just the ticket. Founded in 2004, Good Food Jobs is “a gastro-job search tool, designed to link people looking for meaningful food work with the businesses that need their energy, enthusiasm, and intellect.” They’re open to posting jobs for a broad range of positions–farmers and food artisans, retailers and restaurateurs, economists and ecologists, and more. For a modest, flat fee, you can post a job for up to 60 days. And, they even offer a special option to pay what you can for organizations that may need extra help–simply contact them directly for more information on that option.
Sirvo offers top hospitality jobs for top hospitalitarians–that is, it’s focused on connecting talent with restaurant, retail, and hospitality jobs. Its employer solution connects with the Indeed network and offers simple pricing based on the number of hires per location.
Poached aims to help hospitality businesses avoid the time-consuming hiring processes and gain flexibility in a tight schedule. They specialize in providing workers to fill shifts temporarily, part-time, or even permanently with pricing plans for hiring permanently or filling individual shifts–a great way to try before you hire.
Once you’ve found great talent, you’ll need to run background checks, onboard them, train them, and develop strategies to retain them. Clover has your back with a marketplace of recruiting and hiring apps like JazzHR, TransUnion background checks, and more.
Learn how a Clover POS system can help you manage employees and your business, so you can focus on delivering an unforgettable dining experience.
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