Meet Your Restaurant Staffing Needs Before You Open

Part of opening a successful restaurant is ensuring that you have the proper staff in place as soon as you open your doors. Snce first impressions are crucial, taking the time to figure out your sfaffing needs can make or break your new business venture. But how can that be done successfully even before you know how many people will come to your new venue?  What are the key elements to staffing a restaurant and how can you figure them out? Once you have found the right staff, how can you ensure that you will not be over or understaffed?  Here are some tips that can help you get started with staffing your restaurant.

Determine Staffing Needs

Before you can effectively hire staff, you must know all the details of your operation  What is the concept and the size of your operation? How will the food be served? Will it be buffet style, casual style or fine dining? Each of these styles requires different staffing. A fine dining establishment will require more experienced chefs, more servers and more bussers than a fast casual enterprise.  A cafe will require fewer servers than a large family restaurant.

The type of food will you be serving, and type of food preparation involved will also be critical when figuring out your staffing needs. The more specialized your restaurant, the more you will need to invest in hiring experienced personnel for key positions. The more details you have about your operation, which can be gleaned from your business plan, the more accurate you can be about your hiring requirements.

Job Positions

There are many jobs to fill in a restaurant. The most common positions include: the executive chef, restaurant manager, cooks, serving staff, hosts, dishwashers and maintenance staff. If you sell liquor at your restaurant, you will need a bartender. Considering the ramifications of the pandemic, you may need to swap out some servers for delivery drivers and dishwashers for packaging to-go orders. Finding personnel who are flexible in terms of willingness to perform different duties may serve you well.  

When you have added all the considerations together, as discussed earlier, you can determine how many staff members you will need to fill each position. You will also need to write job descriptions so you can clearly define the roles for potential applicants.

Time to Hire

The first thing to do when hiring, is to hire the most critical positions first. In a fine food establishment this may be the chef, and restaurant manager. In a cafe or diner, it may be the cooks and kitchen manager, it all depends on the type of restaurant you are running. These employees can then help with the process of hiring others.

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