How To Attract The Right Candidate For The Right Job

The U.S. economy is soaring due to record high growth . The food service industry is benefitting as more people are eating out. Though business is booming, low unemployment and high turnover is keeping the food service industry from converting growth into profits. The shortage of talent has sparked a hiring frenzy. Right now your ideal candidate is being recruited by as many as 20 competitors every day which means you need your job description to stand out amidst the crowd.

Your competitors can match your salaries, benefits, and flexible schedules most job-seekers crave. So what can do you to get staffed?

You can hire as many people that will apply, but that will lead to higher costs and turnover. Get into a bidding war and drive hourly candidates salaries beyond sustainable. You can find a way to get the attention of the right candidates for right jobs.

1. You can hire as many people that will apply, but that will lead to higher costs and turnover.

2. Get into a bidding war and drive hourly candidates salaries beyond sustainable.

3. You can find a way to get the attention of the right candidates for right jobs.

If you chose answer “3”, keep reading to reap the rewards of lower turnover and higher profits.  If you chose “1” or “2”, please finish reading after you’ve learned money alone will not solve your labor problem.

So, how can you attract your ideal candidates to get staffed fast?

Create an Outstanding Job Description

Creating an outstanding job description sends a personal message to your ideal candidates and eliminates wasted time spent on unqualified applicants. It “speaks” to the needs of your applicants by highlighting the benefits they love. As a result, the right applicants visualize working for you and ignore your competition. To write an outstanding job description follow this 2-step process.

STEP 1: Craft the basic needs of your job description 

Whether you are starting a new job description or need to refresh your current one, follow these basic steps.

• Briefly explain your vision, mission, and values of your company. 

• Explain the individual jobs, roles, and responsibilities clearly and how they relate to one another.

• Balance your word count so it will explain enough for the candidate to grasp, but give you the flexibility to add details if needed. It’s better too many words than than too few.

• Choose the right tone for your descriptions. Your tone should match your principles, values, and culture.  For example: If your culture values fun and respect, then use descriptions that are nice and lively.

• Highlight the positives aspect of working for your company without over-exaggeration.

• Uses terms that are gender neutral. Neither gender should feel excluded because of the descriptions used. 

• Promote diversity and inclusion. Celebrate differences to build a strong sense of team work.

• Make it scannable (use bullet points and short sentences).

• Create a sense of urgency by listing the job start date for specific candidates. 

Step 1 gives you the basic framework to make your job description structured and relevant. The next step will grab the attention of your ideal candidates by speaking their language: “What’s in it for me?”

STEP 2: Attract and engage your best candidates

According to a recent survey conducted by Linkedin, the first thing job candidates pinpoint after reading the job title is the salary! So, wherever you list the salary, the applicant will skim the other information until it’s found. To make your job descriptions outstanding, list the sections in the order of importance to the applicants. 

• Job Title—Job titles should be clear and simple, yet distinctive.  This will eliminate any mismatches. Ex:: “Cook” vs “Line Cook”, “Chef” vs “Pastry Chef”

• Salary and Benefits—Here the applicants either stop reading or are encouraged to learn more about your positions. Be bold with salary descriptions! For example: Post “$15/hr” or “Best pay in the industry”

• Qualifications*—Make standard “musts” to work for your company, but also include specific qualifications that are job specific. Some qualifications include, but aren’t limited to:

  • • • Experience

      • Specialized certifications (sanitation)

      • Lifting requirements

      • Age requirements based on equipment use (18 and older)

      • Special skills

      • Literacy

      • English speaking

* Qualifications need to be verified by a licensed professional to be in compliance with regulatory agencies. EEOC, ADA, ACLU etc.

• Job Duties—List general and specific areas of responsibility.

  • • • Include acceptable behaviors related to your cultivating your culture (soft skills)

      • Include primary station duties relating to the standard procedures you’ve outlined.

      • Generally define any duties that are team work related activities.

      • Outline the roles and responsibilities, explaining why they are important.

      • Reinforce job duties through feedback, recognition, and rewards.

      • Connect duties to performance measures for evaluations and merit increases.

*Specific duties need to be flexible to evolve with your business.

• Company Overview:

  • • • Summary – What does your company want to be known for? What impact does it intends to make on customers? 

      • Mission – The mission of your company should be bold and bright.  It should include what you company hopes to achieve on a grand scale and be inspirational to employees. Your mission statement should have strong virtues aimed at serving employees, customers, and investors alike.  It should stand the test of time and change.

• • • • Culture – Culture is the personality you expect your team to display.  If you want to convey a respectful, high energy, fun environment, then describe how managers give high-fives as positive reinforcement. Also, communicate the important rules that make your “work family” successful.

• • • • Principles and Values – Give your idea candidate their “first taste” of what you stand for.  Ideals such as integrity, fairness, and caring give a sense of human value that most people will identify with. 

You can add more sections to your job descriptions as you need. Remember, make your sections scannable and relatable to attract the best talent for your specific jobs.

STEP 3: Creative and Innovative tips

• Use media add a creative punch to your job descriptions. Pictures and short videos leave lasting impression with candidates.

• Integrate a Spanish versions of your descriptions. The Hispanic population is an important resource of the hospitality industry. 

• Use eye-popping fonts to focus the applicants attention.

• Explain application process step-by-step.

• Segment job requirements into “Must Haves” and “Good-to-Haves”.

Creating outstanding job descriptions are the crucial first step to hire the talent you need. Focus on making job descriptions must be informative, detailed, and attractive. Our economic conditions continue to make reducing turnover a top priority to boost profits. So, recruit every qualified candidate like your future depends on it; because it does!