The hiring process can be costly. Your restaurant will spend a fortune placing job ads, recruiting qualified candidates, and screening applicants. So when you bring a prospective candidate in for an interview, it’s absolutely critical that you make the most of this time.
This starts with a well-chosen sequence of restaurant server interview questions. The interview is an opportunity to get a stronger sense of each candidate’s personality, their qualifications for the position, and their fit for your company culture.
If you're looking for a cost-effective way to bring quality candidates through the door, find out what these top staffing services can do to help.
But then once you’ve found the candidates, build your interview process around these restaurant server interview questions.
6 Essential Interview Questions for Restaurant Server Job Openings
Your interview should be way more than just an interrogation of potential candidates:
- “Do you know how to properly store fresh ingredients?”
- “Do you have any food safety training?”
- “Have you ever worked with a cloud-based POS system?”
This is all stuff you can find out just by using a simple application form. But a face-to-face interview should provide you with the chance to dig a little deeper.
This means that your restaurant server interview questions should create the opportunity for an open-ended discussion. Proceed with questions that leave space for conversation. This is the space where you’ll truly get to know prospective job candidates.
Here are my suggestions for essential interview questions for restaurant server job openings.
1. What led you to apply with us?
Restaurant hiring is fiercely competitive these days. Find out what brings this person to your door. Was the candidate attracted to the workplace culture, the menu, or the compensation and benefits package? This is a good way to gain a greater understanding of each candidate's professional goals.
As you interview prospective servers, the answer to this question could offer insight on how likely each candidate is to perform well, stick around for the long term, and perhaps become a team leader. You can learn a lot about a prospective server’s future potential based on how they answer this question.
2. Describe a time when you resolved a customer service issue
This question serves as a great way to gauge a candidate’s real-world job experience. Instead of simply asking for a rehash of the work history listed in their resume, ask candidates to provide anecdotal background.
Not only does this approach offer a more meaningful window into each candidate’s on-the-job experience, but it also sheds more light on each candidate’s personality. Are they friendly, shy, aggressive? The way your prospective hire answers this question may tell you a lot about their fit for your customers and your workplace culture.
3. What kind of dining experience do you prefer?
This question is a bit of a curve ball, but not the kind that’s designed to trip up qualified candidates. As noted above, restaurant server interview questions should create opportunities for conversation. Dining preferences should be a great conversation starter for somebody with experience in the industry.
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The objective here is not to evaluate or critique the candidate’s tastes. The objective is to find out how freely each candidate can speak on subjects like menu items, ambience, service, and quality assurance. How each candidate answers this question can tell you a great deal about how well they are likely to represent your menu and brand to customers.
4. What does your ideal schedule look like?
Your job posting should include details about the hours and shifts you’re looking to fill. So asking this question can give you some sense of how closely each candidate paid attention to the initial job requirements.
But it can also serve as a way to start a broader conversation about each candidate’s flexibility, potential scheduling conflicts, and availability on nights and weekends. Instead of outlining your expectations here, let your interviewee lead the way. How each candidate answers this question will tell you a great deal about their ability to work during the hours and shifts for which you most need coverage.
5. Do you have experience with POS systems?
In addition to screening for suitable candidates, you can also use restaurant server interview questions to gauge that amount of technical training required upon hire. Use this question to learn more about each candidate’s comfort level with this increasingly standard restaurant technology.
Find out how familiar the candidate is with POS (point of sale) systems, and whether or not they have any experience using your particular POS. If not, that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker. But how each candidate answers this question will tell you about their tech comfort level, which will give you an idea how much technical training they’d need during on-boarding.
6. Do you have any questions about our restaurant?
Once you’ve completed the information-gathering portion of your interview, you should extend the same opportunity to your prospective hire. Your final restaurant server interview question should give the candidate a chance to inquire about workplace culture, scheduling, compensation, menu design, the makeup of the customer base — or anything else on their mind.
Not only is this a chance for you to provide deeper insight into the experience of joining your team, but it also offers another window into each candidate’s professional goals. The questions that they pose during this segment of the interview process can tell you a great deal about each candidate’s priorities and even their potential for long-term retention.
Refining Your Interview Process With Staffing Support
The interview process is a chance to capitalize on your recruitment efforts. Make sure you’re getting everything you need out of this process.
If you feel like you could be getting better results from your recruitment and hiring efforts, you may want to enlist the services of an experienced HR and staffing agency. A lot of the top services now offer innovative tech-based solutions that can help with staffing, interviewing, and hiring.
Reach out for your very own personalized consultation to find out how the industry’s leading vendors can help!
