Restaurant hiring software: A buyer’s guide

Managing your hiring process without the right technology is like driving somewhere new without GPS—you might eventually get where you’re going, but it will take much longer and be far more stressful. This is especially true in the restaurant industry, which has the highest turnover rate of 50-100% a year. With constant hourly hiring needs taking up so much of your energy and attention, the right technology solution can save time, increase efficiency, and help you keep your restaurant staffed more easily.

So, how do you find the right hiring software for your restaurant? Let’s break down the attributes and features you should be looking for.

Understanding your restaurant’s hiring needs

The first step in selecting the right hiring software is understanding your business’s needs. As we mentioned, the restaurant industry is notorious for overwhelmingly high turnover rates. But that’s not the only challenge facing restaurant owners when it comes to hiring.

Most quick-service restaurant employees are under 35, often juggling school and work, which necessitates flexible scheduling. This age group's availability fluctuates seasonally, particularly around holidays, school breaks, and summer vacations, posing a unique challenge for restaurant owners. Additionally, these hourly workers are frequently looking for better-paying or more convenient positions, meaning you're constantly competing to retain your team members.

To combat these issues, quick-service restaurants are known to spend over $3 billion a year on hiring and training, but it’s often not enough. What they really need are solutions for quick and efficient hiring to save time and money, set new employees up for success, and fill staffing needs as quickly as possible.

Top restaurant hiring software features to look for

The right restaurant hiring software can address many of the issues you routinely face when hiring hourly workers. But that doesn’t mean every hiring platform is created equal. Here are some key features to look for when you’re evaluating different software options:

1. Applicant tracking system (ATS)

When looking for the right hiring software, an applicant tracking system, or ATS, is non-negotiable. At the very least, your hiring software should get applications out of your inbox and into an organized system where you can track how they’re moving through your hiring process. But an ATS can do much more than that.

Automate tasks: A good ATS will streamline your hiring process from start to finish by automating many of the most time-consuming tasks like posting to job boards, sorting applications, and scheduling interviews.

Save time: Automation is a big time-saver. But so is keeping digital records of your applicants in one place. A good ATS will keep you organized so you never lose a document or miss an interview. (This will also make onboarding a lot easier once a new hire accepts your offer!)

2. Mobile-friendly

Almost 70% of applicants search for job openings on their phones and mobile apps. That means your hiring software needs to run flawlessly on mobile. Your application process should be easy to navigate, read, and apply with just a few taps.

Your job applications should not only be easy to complete but also fast. Candidates have a 15-minute attention span when it comes to filling out applications. If your experience is clunky and hard to fill out from the convenience of their phone, there’s a good chance they’ll abandon ship.

3. Built-in communication tools

Good communication is your number one tool to keep applicants engaged during the hiring process. And when applicants are applying to multiple hourly positions at the same time, keeping them engaged in your opening is critical. A good restaurant hiring software will have communication tools built in. Look for a mix of automation and easy personalization.

Automation: Transactional messages are important in the hiring process. They communicate and confirm important information, like letting an applicant know you’ve received their application or enabling interview scheduling via text. You don’t want to skip these messages. In fact, reaching out to an applicant within the first hour of receiving their application increases your chances of hiring them by 25%. But who has time to do that for every application they receive? That’s why you should look for hiring software that automates these types of transactional messages for you, saving you time while keeping applicants engaged.

Personalization: Balancing transactional messages with personal ones is key to any communication strategy. Applicants are 160x more likely to accept an offer if they have a personal conversation with the hiring managers. So, how can hiring software help you do that? Look for platforms that have messaging built-in so you don’t have to use your personal number to communicate with every applicant. (That’s a nightmare!) Your hiring software will centralize all these communications and tie them to applicant records so you can stay organized as you manage all your potential hires.

4. Compliance management features 

Staying compliant with hiring regulations is crucial in the restaurant industry, where labor laws and regulations are constantly evolving. Hiring software helps you navigate these complexities effortlessly, ensuring that your recruitment process meets all legal requirements.

One of the primary compliance issues in the restaurant industry is the correct classification of employees. Misclassifying employees as independent contractors to save on taxes can lead to severe penalties. Hiring software helps you manage this by maintaining accurate records and providing clear guidelines on employee classification. It also streamlines the process of collecting and storing essential documentation like W-4 forms for tax withholding and I-9 forms for verifying employment eligibility. Automating these tasks reduces the risk of errors and ensures that all employee information is accurately documented and easily accessible.

5. Customization and integrations

There is no business quite like yours, so your restaurant hiring software shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Look for software that allows you to customize every detail of your hiring process, like which roles need assessments and panel interviews and which ones allow applicants to self-schedule their own interviews. Not every role at your business will have the same requirements, and your hiring software should accommodate that flexibility.

In addition to customizations, be sure to check how the hiring software you’re vetting integrates with your existing HR tools, especially if it’s not an all-in-one software suite. Having to manually transfer data or input information over and over into different systems is a big waste of time and leaves you open to errors. Hiring software that integrates with your record-keeping, payroll, and scheduling tools will save you time and headaches.

6. Ease of use

Restaurant hiring software is only as good as it is easy to use. If your hiring software isn’t easy to use, it’ll create problems for applicants and your hiring staff. Long, clunky applications will scare qualified candidates away. And software that isn't intuitive and requires excessive training will frustrate your staff and they might even avoid using it. Even worse, if the automation and notifications are too hard to set up, your applicants could get stuck in certain hiring stages, increasing your time-to-hire and hurting your hiring conversion rate.

Your software reflects your effectiveness and thoroughness as a business—a seamless and intuitive interface is vital for applicants and administrators.

7. Customer support and training

On that same note, when you inevitably encounter a question about software functionality or experience an issue with your hiring solution, you need a way to resolve your problem quickly. Selecting software that offers reliable customer support and training resources will directly correlate with how successfully you can adopt it throughout the business. Responsive customer support can make all the difference when it comes to troubleshooting issues and maximizing the effectiveness of the software. 

8. Fair pricing

When shopping for your restaurant hiring software, you’ll likely encounter various pricing models, making it hard to compare solutions and see which deal is best for you. Some charge per employee or location, while others offer a base price and then upcharge for the features you really want.

Take the time to understand the cost-effectiveness of the different restaurant hiring platforms you’re evaluating based on the features and benefits they offer. Being able to prove the ROI of your software investment to stakeholders or partners will depend on your ability to understand what you’re paying for—and avoid any surprise additional fees.

Finding the right restaurant hiring software is the secret to an efficiently run restaurant

From cost to customer support, ease of use, integration options, and beyond, there are many things you must consider when choosing the best hiring solution for your restaurant. But with the right technology by your side, you can hire faster, stay staffed, and even lower your turnover rate by hiring smarter from the start and freeing up time to provide a top-notch employee experience.