Hiring Wait Staff

Hiring Wait Staff

Your wait staff is your first customer contact and it’s a cliche that first impressions are what makes or breaks you.  You could have the best food in the world and your wait staff could turn you restaurant into an empty hole.

There is no magic formula, set of questions you can ask, or strict guidelines you can follow that will guarantee that you’ll be happy with who you hire. We set down the absolute rule that we would not hire anyone under 18 as a waitress. The first person we hired was a high school girl that was 16, because she walked in and impressed the hell out of us before we knew she was 16. She is the only employee that we’ve had the entire time we’ve been open and she now comes down from college to work on the weekends and we call her our daughter. My hard and fast rule is my gut and it ranges from, well they’re the best that’s come in, to not today, not ever, no way, no how, to I sure hope that person comes back. Truthfully the later is rare, usually it’s door number one or two.

One thing I have learned is that people seem to last a month, or forever. If you have to have a talk with an employee 3 times, more than likely there’s going to be a fourth. Unless it’s a really good waiter just let them go instead of bothering with that fourth talk. As always this is not a hard and fast rule. There are times that you’ll have somebody who’s late on a regular basis, but makes customers swoon. Hey as long as they’re not doing something egregious, sometimes it’s better just to let your superstar have a little wiggle room.

Make sure your wait staff understands how the kitchen works. When they’re on the floor and get triple sat, unless your kitchen is so strong you can handle massive orders, tell your wait staff to put the orders in one at a time. Take one order tell the other tables that they’ll be right back for their order and if possible start with the smallest table and work up. This will create a better flow not only in the kitchen, but with the server. If that server has three tables all ready at the same time they won’t be able to give proper attention to each table. With the orders staggered they can serve staggered and by starting with the smallest table the other customers in that section will see food coming out faster.

Lay down the law about cell phones before you hire someone and become friends with them. Texting seems to be the worst, because they just go into a ethereal realm when their texting. I like to drop a big phone book on the floor next to anyone I find in a clicking trance. It makes quite an impression hitting a hardwood floor. As far as other rules or guidelines, spend some time thinking about it and write yourself a wait staff manual and have every new hire read and sign it. Include a list of things that can result in termination with cause. This will protect you when you have to fire somebody and you will at some point all your losers won’t just disappear of their own volition. The last thing you want to end up doing is paying unemployment to someone who wrecked your restaurant. It’s the nature of wait personnel to be on the fringe. Some are going to be overqualified people that didn’t make it to college or have a degree in a field that pays so little they can actually make more money waiting tables, others are going to be people that reach their peak table-side, then there are those who think anyone can wait tables and can’t. Mixed into these lives will be a lot of drama. Do you best when you’re interviewing to ferret out the drama-rama. If it’s in your wait staff it will be in your restaurant.

In closing take notes on what works and what doesn’t and have training. It’s a lot easier to tell everyone what to do than to be singling out workers for individual scoldings. Push team work. A wait person should never pass an empty plate on anybodies table without busing it, nor pass an empty glass if they are filling tea and water. Good luck and try to keep your sense of humor. In the restaurant business it’s your best friend.