Hiring Quality Employees

The hiring process starts when the candidate comes into your restaurant and wants to fill out an employment application.

It is best to have on hand a candidate interview scheduling form to be used to schedule interviews. Schedule interviews only when applicants come into your establishment during peak times.

It is ideal that interviews are performed during the off peak times.

Use a telephone reference form to ask certain questions about the previous employer.

If you have time to interview a person than do it instantly. Have your greeter seat the applicant in an area away from customers.

Give the applicant a cold drink or a cup of coffee while they wait for the manager to interview them.

Give the applicant an application to fill out ahead of time before they are interviewed.

If you are scheduling applicant interviews it is best to screen the applicants by conducting past work experience and personal reference checks prior to the interview.

This process will allow you to weed out individuals that have bad reference checks, this saves time and money.

Ask open ended questions. The interviewer talks 20% and the applicant takes 80% of the time.

To get a second opinion have another manager conduct a second interview, two eyes are better than one.

Make the applicant as comfortable as possible.

After you decide if you are going to hire the applicant, you should schedule an orientation to explain the restaurant policies and procedures (Hand Book).

Have the applicant sign a form indicating that they understand the policies and procedures. By signing the form it will act as a paper trail in case it is needed in an unemployment hearing or a civil suit.

Always use employee warning notices, document employee related issues will create a paper trail if needed.

How to write up employees will help you in the long run especially in unemployment hearing and civil suits.

Before hiring an individual, make sure you are clear that following your rules, policies and procedures is a requirement of employment.

Hiring Quality Employees

You can not ask:

• Ancestry, national origin, descent, or national
• Private organizations
• Religious affiliations
• Date of birth
• Ancestry, national origin, parentage, or nationality
• Names and addresses of relatives other than a spouse and dependent children
• Marital status or Sex
• Height or weight, unless you can show that information is justified by business necessity

When conducting interviews it is very important that you ask legal questions:

Hiring Quality Employees

Questions that you can ask:

1. Addresses – past and current.
2. How long have you lived in your specific city.
3. The applicant’s home or cell phone number or how can we reach you.
4. If the applicant looks under aged than you can say can you furnish a minor permit to show proof of age. Never ask an applicant their age.
5. After the applicant is hired than you may have the applicant fill out a I-9 Employment Verification form to verify their identity and age.
6. You may ask language skills only if it pertains to the position.
7. You can ask if they are a US Citizen. If the applicant is not a US Citizen than they must have US Visa status.
8. You can ask about convictions and misdemeanors. You cannot ask about the specific conviction.
9. It is illegal to ask the applicant about disabilities. However, you can ask if they are fit to perform the specific position.
10. You can ask the applicant about office skills and professional schools that they may attend.
11. You can ask about their writing and reading skills, only if they pertain to the position.
12. You may ask about his or her employment history, names and addresses,  dates, salary and why they left the job.
13. After you hire you can ask about their marriage status for I-9 and W-4 purposes.
14. They applicant may need to prove that they can perform the job position, heavy lifting, standing for long periods of time.  A physical examination may be required.
15. You can ask an applicant about normal hours and days of work required by the job to avoid possible conflict with religions or other personal convictions.
16.  You can an indicate that your restaurant is an equal opportunity employer.