Combating Food+Beverage Workforce Hiring Challenges
Struggling with recruiting talent for your open positions? Well it’s no secret that, thanks to the variety of trials and tribulations we’ve faced this past year, the food and beverage industry workforce has taken a serious hit. Whether you’re struggling with where to go to find new candidates or just don’t know where to start in attracting them, you’re in the right place! We have aggregated a list of some creative, unique ways to start attracting great new talent for your business and to kick-start your hiring process.
Utilizing Your Platforms
While the traditional job posting platforms like Indeed are always great resources, we recommend trying out a variety of alternative methods to recruiting talent. Post on Poached to target local, food and beverage-specific candidates looking for work, and Poached On Demand to fill last minute shifts or hire event staff. Another unique platform approach is to post your open position on Craigslist and/or Facebook Marketplace to reach different candidate demographics.
You can also take advantage of your native platforms by posting on your social media channels (PRO TIP: Try using Instagram stories as a quick way advertise your open position) and by advertising the position directly onto your website. Try to get creative and have fun with it — the more you authentically showcase your culture and values, the easier it will be to attract candidates who’ll be a good fit into your team.
Bonuses and Incentives
If you feel your business has the extra financial bandwidth for this particular hire, think about offering monetary incentives to gain a larger candidate pool. Advertising a signing bonus (in effect upon acceptance of the position) in your job posting can be a great way to incentivize more people to apply and follow through with the hiring process.
You can also leverage your current team and a referral bonus as an internal ask of your team to send awesome candidates your way. If their referral gets hired, they’ll get a great reward in the form of a referral bonus!
Why not also leverage your loyal customer base? Try stapling a small referral offer to pick-up orders with messaging that shares your core values and asks your fans that if they know someone who’s looking for work in a company like yours. If someone does refer them and their referral is hired, they’ll get $X or X% off on their next order!
Outreach Options
Some other fantastic ways to attract local, eager candidates is to do some outreach into your surrounding community. This can come in the form of outreach to local high school counselors and high school job fairs if your position doesn’t have any type of 21+ restraints. You can also do outreach to Portland Community College or other community colleges, hospitality, or trade school programs to share your position on their job boards and/or in other career resources. You can also contact your local job fairs to attend and meet potential candidates (whether it be virtually or socially distanced). This is a great chance to gain more face time with potential candidates even before seeing their application.
Another form of outreach you can do is by working with your fellow food and beverage owners/managers who may only have part-time work for their team, but have some employees that want to be full-time. Local businesses work best by helping each other help each other— like offering supplemental hours to employees who may want them. You can also have your managers/owner go to other eateries and, when they have a great experience, have them share their business card to inform them that you’re hiring.
No matter which avenue(s) you choose to find your next team member, remember: be creative, have fun with it, and think outside the box! As always, HR Annie is here to advise you every step of the way.