When it comes to staffing, many restaurants find themselves grappling with the same old questions: How do we reach the most qualified job candidates? Who should we hire? How do we know we’re making the right choice?
While these may be old questions, we now have access to many new tools for answering them. Today, a growing number of restaurants rely on advanced hiring software to streamline and enhance the recruitment, screening, and on-boarding of new employees. If your restaurant management system doesn’t include leading edge hiring tools, it may be time for an upgrade.
But which is the best hiring software for restaurants? How can you be sure that you’re choosing the right software-based solution for your business?
Read on for a look at some of the hiring and recruitment features that you should look for in a restaurant management system.
Three Innovative Hiring Software Solutions for Restaurants
The right hiring software for your business will depend on your restaurant’s size, budget, and needs. However, some platform providers stand out from the crowd for offering unique and forward-thinking solutions to persistent hiring challenges.
The other Back of House experts and I agree that the best hiring software for restaurants should offer a balance between standard features and innovative functionalities. I’m particularly impressed with the three solutions and providers listed below.
Pre-Screening Assessments from TraitSet
The best hiring software for restaurants will typically include advanced screening features. Once you’ve identified prospective candidates, you want to be sure they’re a good fit for your team. Personality and compatibility assessments can be an effective way to do this.
For example, hospitality-focused human resources software company Traitset offers pre-screening assessments that allow you to measure potential hires based on factors such as work ethic, customer service skills, and leadership traits.
“It's very effective,” says Dan Longton, TraitSet's co-founder. “Our assessments are very accurate, and, more importantly, they predict behavior to the point of it being reflected in performance appraisals.” Those who perform better on assessments, Longton explains, also perform better as long-term employees.
In other words, the best hiring software for restaurants can not only streamline the hiring process but improve retention as well. In fact, TraitSet — which counts Burger King and Buffalo Wild Wings among its clients — claims its assessment tools can cut employee turnover in half.
As TraitSet’s vice president of sales and marketing, Dave Anstett, explains, “We don't tell people who to hire. We score them — and they might score high or low. Employers can hire anybody they want, but then they'll at least have a profile.”
AI-Powered Assessments From Sprockets
Preventing turnover is also part of the mission at Sprockets, a restaurant hiring software company that counts Five Guys and Chick-fil-A among its clients. Sprockets uses AI-powered assessment tools to predict whether an employee will be a good cultural fit at your restaurant.
Sprockets deploys a unique method for creating this cultural assessment. The key, explains founder AJ Richichi, is to gather data on your current employees first. The qualifications you seek in prospective candidates, says Richichi, should be based on “the aggregate mental makeup, and needs, values, and personality traits of your top-performing people.”
Sprockets uses this aggregation of data to provide a baseline for assessing prospective new hires. This solution is built on a unique combination of AI-powered tools and human-powered data inputs. It’s also the type of innovation that distinguishes the best hiring software for restaurants in an increasingly crowded IT market.
And ultimately, argues Richichi, leveraging state-of-the art assessment tools is about more than just bringing on new hires. This approach to hiring can help you cultivate a more positive overall workplace culture for your restaurant.
As Richichi points out, “All of your customers are interfacing with almost all of your employees. Whether you make one bad hire, or 10, or 100, over the course of the year, it can negatively impact your company. Deploying any screening tool, in my opinion, is just invaluable.”
On-Demand Staffing From SnapShyft
SnapShyft provides restaurant owners with what it calls a labor marketplace, where pre-vetted restaurant workers are available and on-call for work shifts as needed. SnapShyft conducts background checks, handles pre-screening, and filters out candidates with a history of missing shifts. Restaurant owners can access these candidates at a moment’s notice through SnapShyft’s mobile app.
What truly makes this one of the best hiring software solutions for restaurants is its mutually beneficial dynamic.
For gig workers, SnapShyft offers stability, regular paying work, and employee benefits. For restaurant owners, SnapShyft offers a reliable and lightning-fast solution to sudden, emergent, and immediate staffing needs. SnapShyft also takes the legwork out of screening, assessment, and background checks, which can reduce your risk of making uninformed hiring decisions.
As SnapShyft founder Thor Wood explains, “We only allow people that have actual verifiable industry experience to use the platform, so you're not getting temps. You're getting, potentially, your competitor’s chef who has a night off or needs some extra cash for the holidays who’s willing to wash your dishes.”
What To Look for in a Restaurant Management System
The best hiring software for restaurants reduces the lead time, labor, and costs that go into hiring new employees. While the providers that we’ve highlighted above offer three unique hiring solutions, each is a demonstration of how a well-selected restaurant hiring software can streamline the hiring process and improve your long-term staffing outlook.
To start your search, talk to me or one of the other Back of House experts about possible solutions to your staffing problems.
