A Job Description Makes Hiring and Posting an Ad Easier

By John Foley

Fortunately, my wife, Kranston is a corporate guru and when we worked together she would always handle the front of the house and management hiring. And firing.

In the beginning of any restaurant venture the initial hiring process is enjoyable. However I always found it to become more and more tedious as replacing staff that had left or got fired was not the most enjoyable task I had to deal with. I would much rather deal with an angry vendor or hostile customer than I would a candidate to be interviewed for whatever position.

Kranston had numerous hiring policy secrets she used to standardize and perfect the process, but one of her most successful tools was the job description. She would analyze the restaurant, break down the various positions, and write a complete job description for each position. The detailed descriptions outlined the responsibilities of each position down to the side work duties for servers. I found it vital to our organization and success. It also was a meaningful tool for management to use in the performance review process.

The other evening I was surfing Craigslist for advertised restaurant jobs. The site is a good barometer of how the industry is doing and whether businesses are hiring. One ad in particular caught my eye. The Laguna Beach restaurant was looking for a "Seasonal Manager" to work until August. What kind of trouble was that restaurant looking for by hiring someone for only eight weeks.

It made little sense to me. How could they possibly train someone in that amount of time? How could the new candidate familiarize themselves with company policy and procedures in less than twelve weeks? And finally, although it is commendable to be honest in advertising, candidates looking for work might hesitate to apply for a job that ends so quickly.

Part of the problem with the ad is that management may not know exactly what they are looking for. Restaurant managers have certain roles and responsibilities that frequently take longer than twelve weeks to grasp. Yet, shift supervisors and assistant managers could professionally work into a schedule without any problems in a short period of time.

An important element of advertising for staff and filling open positions is to know what position you need to fill and what qualifications are needed to fill that position. This is where the job description comes in handy.

So before you place another ad, sit down and list all the responsibilities the position you need to fill requires. Turn that outline into a job description and use it for your advertising guidelines, show it to those applying for the job, and make sure your managers review it. It will give them an idea of everyone's responsibilities that work with them.