How to make a good/great restaurant, and prevent a bad restaurant: Staffing

It was with mixed feelings that I watched a series of shows lately on improving poor restaurants, and with some disappointment I noticed that the formula was far too similar to Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.


The big gun goes in, eats a meal, confronts the manager and/or chef and/or owner, then with furious gusto and overly dramatic musical score, sets about making a heap of changes.

As I am watching this, I am again stunned by how an entire industry seems to appear to many as an easy and simple profession that anybody can waltz in and set up, without the proper or efficient guidance.

As good as some of these shows are, they are about fixing.

For us, it needs to be about prevention.

So I thought that for hospitality improvement, we would take this step one further, and actually focus on each step one by one. More to the point, we would look at the prevention of what is often the rot for a bad restaurant before it even begins.

Naturally I don’t profess to be a psychologist, but problems in a restaurant are like problems in life.

If they are not confronted or acknowledged, they will get worse until the most terrible nadir sets in and no-one can actually see the problem (which ironically has become glaring at this point). Furthermore, if the problem is covered up or ignored, it then becomes so deep that it will ultimately spread to affect the entire setup.

Case in point a poorly designed menu. This leads to slow sales, rising food costs, the disillusioning of the kitchen team, no interest in the floor staff selling the dish, and eventually the destruction of the entire business.

So to start, let’s look at the core foundation of any business, the people.

The first key to recruitment is deciding what exactly the job is, and what needs to be done. Often the most sure-fire way of setting this up is by compiling a job description. Unfortunately for hospitality such a crucial piece of documentation is often over-looked, but it should not be as it is such a valuable tool.

Used properly it not only tells us what we are looking for in a prospective employee, but makes sure that the new team member knows exactly what is required from them. This can be taken further and implemented via a sign off, to give some level of informal protection to the business.

Try to make this the platform of your staffing process.

Next is to hunt down the employee.

There are two ways to do this, either by sourcing yourself, or using a recruitment agency.

Agencies have the advantage, irrespective of their core function (agencies, headhunters, niche recruiters, outsourced HR companies) of doing all the hard work for you.  They do however come at a cost.

They are ideal for owners.

Personally though, I find adding another link to the chain to be a problem at times, essentially by using a recruiter you are adding a middle person when really a manager should have the ability to do this his/her self.

If you do it yourself, you need to source the potential employee via advertising. A popular medium now is the internet, although newspapers are still a big traffic driver. There is also the option of using niche styled venues, such as putting the position up in the local hospitality college. I have found the latter to be highly effective.

However, this does mean you could potentially attract hundreds of resumes and you will need to screen them.

To do this with a little more ease, make sure you are specific on your job advertisement. Keep it simple, make it abundantly clear as to your requirements, and think of the job applicants and put a comment such as “only shortlisted candidates will be contacted” and so forth.

Next is to screen, and ensure you select the right person for your style, your team and your venue .

As above key is the job description, but ensure that you know exactly what type of person you are trying to attract.

Get a person who will fit into your ethos, and make sure that you understand the consequences of hiring particular people, whether they are students, backpackers, look a particular way, and so forth.

The best restaurants are staffed by the best people, but it only takes one or two bad eggs (poor workers, trouble makers, back stabbers, etc) to de-stabilise a venue.

Often, an interview may not truly answer the question as to an individuals suitability, so don’t be afraid to get potential team in for a trial, but if you do, make sure you have designed criteria for such a process – including if they get paid, what they should be doing, and so forth.

Recruitment and hiring is a series of processes, if one is flawed, then the whole act can fall apart. 

But ultimately, always put the attention into recruitment, the hiring, and then the initial steps (the first week or two) to ensure the employee is a success.

Good recruitment is ultimately about time invested, and this in turn is a valid step in ensuring your restaurant can be great.

To read some relevent posts, check this piece out about the first investment for the employee
http://www.hospitalityimprovement.com/2009/04/hospitality-training-introduction.html

And this regarding training for waiters/waitresses (f&b attendents, etc)
http://www.hospitalityimprovement.com/2009/04/hospitality-training-waiter-waitress.html