The Ultimate Guide to Restaurant Recruiting

Recruiting is a crucial part of any successful restaurant business. From hosts and servers to cooks and bussers, every employee plays a vital role in providing exceptional service and creating a positive customer experience. Finding talented staff can be challenging, especially in today’s competitive job market.

There are several strategies that restaurants can use to make the most of their recruiting efforts and attract top-notch candidates. In this guide, we will explore some tips and best practices for effective restaurant recruiting.

How To Recruit for a Restaurant

Recruiting for a restaurant involves identifying potential candidates who demonstrate the skills, experience, and temperament necessary to meet the unique demands of the hospitality industry. Typically, the process begins with a well-written job listing. The listing should be detailed and precise, clearly outlining the responsibilities, skills, and expectations for the role. It should also highlight the benefits and opportunities your restaurant provides, such as career growth, training programs, or competitive pay scale.

The recruitment process should leverage various channels to reach potential candidates. Traditional methods, such as newspaper ads and job fairs, can be effective. Still, online platforms like job listing sites, social media, and the restaurant’s website often yield greater reach. Networking is also a powerful tool. Current employees, industry contacts, and even customers can serve as invaluable sources for recommendations and referrals.

Once you find potential candidates, move those that seem like a good fit to the interview stage. The interview process is a valuable opportunity to assess each candidate’s aptitude and skills, as well as their personality, attitude, and ability to get along with other employees.

How Do I Start Recruiting?

To recruit new employees for your restaurant, start by writing a detailed job listing. Next, distribute that job listing using multiple channels, including job boards and social media. Finally, use candidate interviews to identify applicants with the right skills, attitude, and personality to work in your restaurant.

Common Restaurant Recruiting Tools

Recruiting the right people for a restaurant involves a wide range of tools. Here are some of the most common tools used in restaurant recruiting.

Job boards: Online job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Caterer.com are excellent places to post job openings and reach a large pool of potential candidates.
Social media: Platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram can be powerful tools for sharing job openings, showcasing your restaurant’s culture, and engaging directly with potential applicants.
Recruiting agencies: Specialized hospitality recruiting agencies have extensive talent networks and deep industry knowledge, making them valuable resources for finding and hiring qualified candidates.
Word of mouth: Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth recommendations. Encourage your customers and vendors to refer their friends and former colleagues or ask other restaurant owners or industry professionals for recommendations.
Employee referrals: Many restaurants successfully recruit through their current employees. Offering referral bonuses can incentivize your staff to recommend talented individuals from their network.
Hiring events: Hosting job fairs or open interview days can quickly and effectively screen multiple candidates at once. They also allow candidates to get a firsthand look at your restaurant’s culture and atmosphere.

Tips for Successful Restaurant Recruiting

Every restaurant owner knows a skilled and dedicated team is critical to a successful business. Recruiting top talent is no easy feat, especially in an industry as dynamic as hospitality. Here are some tips to elevate your restaurant’s recruiting, allowing you to attract, hire, and retain top employees:

Define Your Ideal Candidate

Before you start your recruiting process, have a clear understanding of the type of candidate you are looking for. This means defining the skills, experience, and qualities essential for the position. Having a clear definition of your ideal candidate will help you target your recruiting efforts and attract individuals who are the best fit for your restaurant.

Optimize Your Job Descriptions

Creating a strong job description is another crucial step in improving your recruiting. An effective job description should provide a clear and compelling overview of the role, its responsibilities, and the skills and qualifications required. It serves as the first point of interaction between your restaurant and potential candidates, so it should reflect your restaurant’s culture and values while capturing the essence of the job.

Focus on Employer Branding

Employer brand is the public’s perception of your restaurant, including its reputation as a workplace. In recruiting, branding is the image that potential candidates have about the working environment, culture, values, and benefits of being an employee at your establishment. This sets your restaurant apart from competitors, making it an attractive place for top talent to work.

Investing time and resources into developing a strong employer brand can significantly enhance your restaurant recruiting efforts. You can share your restaurant’s branding through various channels, including your website, social media accounts, job postings, and during the interview process. Sharing stories of your current employees’ experiences, highlighting career growth opportunities, and showcasing the unique aspects of your restaurant’s culture are effective ways to build a strong employer brand.

Remember, potential candidates are not just looking for a job—they are looking for a positive and rewarding work experience. Employer branding is a valuable tool to communicate these things to potential employees.

Create a Restaurant Recruiting and Hiring Team

Assembling a dedicated recruiting and hiring team is another effective strategy for enhancing your restaurant’s recruiting process. This team could include managers, supervisors, or experienced staff members who understand the restaurant’s culture, expectations, and the skills required for each role. The recruiting team’s responsibilities include interpreting the job descriptions, screening applications, conducting interviews, and making hiring decisions.

Having a dedicated recruiting team also helps streamline the hiring process and ensures that hiring decisions align with your restaurant’s needs and culture. This team can also provide valuable insights into the applicant’s potential fit within the existing team, as they are familiar with the daily operations and demands of the restaurant.

Ask Current Staff for Referrals

Referrals from current employees are often high-quality, as individuals typically recommend candidates they believe will fit well within the existing team and culture. Employees making recommendations will likely have firsthand knowledge of the candidate’s work ethic, skills, and attitude, contributing to a more reliable assessment of fit for the job role.

Implement a successful referral program by incentivizing your staff. You can do so through financial rewards, extra time off, or recognition for successful hires. Encourage your employees to recommend friends, former colleagues, or acquaintances from their professional network who they believe would be a great addition to your restaurant team.

Leverage Social Media

Social media offers a powerful means to reach a broad pool of potential candidates. You can use social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to showcase your restaurant’s culture and job openings effectively.

LinkedIn: A professional network like LinkedIn can be highly effective for posting job openings and scouting for potential candidates with specific skill sets. LinkedIn’s robust search feature lets you find professionals with the experience and qualifications necessary for your restaurant.
Facebook and Instagram: These platforms are ideal for showcasing your restaurant’s culture. Regularly post photos and videos of your team in action, highlighting the positive aspects of working at your restaurant. Use targeted ads to reach potential candidates in your area when you have job openings.
Twitter: Twitter is an excellent platform for quick, real-time updates. Use it to announce job openings, share updates, or retweet positive comments from employees. Using relevant hashtags can help increase the visibility of your posts.

When using these social media platforms for recruiting, engage with users who comment or share your posts. This interaction builds a more substantial online presence and makes potential candidates feel valued and seen. Social media platforms also offer a valuable opportunity for potential employees to interact with your brand before they even walk through the door, helping you to attract candidates who genuinely resonate with your brand and work culture.

Attend Job Fairs and Industry Events

Job fairs and industry events are excellent opportunities to supercharge your restaurant recruiting efforts. These gatherings offer direct access to many potential candidates, many of whom are actively seeking job opportunities. They provide an avenue for face-to-face interaction, facilitating a more personal and immediate connection than digital platforms.

Network actively with attendees at industry events, as it’s a prime opportunity to meet potential candidates and other industry professionals who could refer candidates to your restaurant. These events often attract passionate individuals who are involved in the industry and may be seeking new opportunities or who can connect you with potential candidates.

Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Offering competitive compensation and benefits packages is a compelling strategy to attract and retain top restaurant talent. Salary is often a primary consideration for job seekers. However, comprehensive benefits can distinguish your restaurant from competitors and show potential employees you’re invested in their well-being and development.

A competitive compensation package can include a fair wage or salary, tips, and bonuses tied to individual or team performance. On the other hand, benefits could encompass health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, or even unique perks like staff meals, gym memberships, or professional development opportunities.

This comprehensive approach attracts quality candidates and boosts employee morale and job satisfaction, reducing employee turnover. It signals to potential employees that their efforts are valued and rewarded, fostering loyalty and commitment. It’s essential to clearly communicate these benefits during the recruitment process so candidates can fully appreciate the total value of their compensation package.

Create an Engaging Application Process

The application process is often a candidate’s first impression of your restaurant and can significantly influence their decision to apply. Make sure your application process is user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and engaging. Provide an option for candidates to upload their resume or link to their LinkedIn profile, as this can save them time and effort in filling out a lengthy application.

Take advantage of technology by including video interviews or assessments in the application process. This provides an opportunity for candidates to showcase their skills and personality and gives you a better understanding of their qualifications before scheduling an in-person interview. It can save time and effort for both parties, resulting in a more efficient and effective hiring process.

What Position is the Most Important Recruitment Decision in a Restaurant?

The most critical recruitment decision for a restaurant is management. Managers serve as the backbone of the restaurant, running operations, coordinating staff, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Their competence directly influences the restaurant’s atmosphere, efficiency, and, ultimately, profitability. Moreover, a proficient manager can mentor and uplift the staff, fostering a positive work environment conducive to high performance and staff retention.

Manager retention is critical in the restaurant industry. The constant presence of a reliable manager offers stability and consistency, which is beneficial for both the staff and the customers. Frequent management changes can disrupt the workflow and create uncertainty, which can negatively affect the morale and productivity of the team. That’s why it’s essential to have an effective management training program to ensure you instill managers with the right attitude and skills and aid in their professional development to avoid high turnover in these key positions.

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Restaurant Management

Tip Pooling: Pros and Cons

For restaurant owners looking to boost teamwork and make sure every employee gets their fair share, a tip pool or tip share seems like a natural solution. But like there are pros and cons to tip pooling that every operator should be aware of.

Of course, it doesn’t always make sense to pool tips. (And when it does make sense, tip pooling policies are definitely not one-size-fits-all!)

If you’re on the fence, check out our tip pooling pro-con list below and consider how they would affect your restaurant’s unique dynamics.

What are the pros of tip pooling?

It takes a lot of hard work and collaboration to deliver an excellent guest experience. For most restaurants, the primary goal of tip pooling is to ensure all employees are fairly rewarded for their contributions.

Here are a few of the benefits that tip pooling offers restaurant teams.

1. Improved performance

When executed strategically, tip pooling can bring your team together around a shared goal — delivering a top-notch guest experience — and reward them for doing so.

And when employees are all working toward a common goal, they’re much more likely to work together and go out of their way to lend a helping hand or fill in gaps. This can be particularly true for tip pools that include employees who generally aren’t directly tipped, like bussers, hosts, and back-of-house employees.

2. Reduced competition among servers

Does one section get all of the large parties (aka all the large tips)? Or does your patio section get too hot for most guests during the summer? When employees aren’t sharing tips, your workplace culture might start to feel (overly) competitive and even lead to tension or disputes. When servers start feeling slighted or get hung up on who-got-which-table, not only does that affect morale — it slows everyone down.

An equitable tip pool can keep servers from feeling like they need to keep score, so they can focus on providing top-notch service to all of the guests in the restaurant.

3. Increased focus on training

When you bring on new staff, you typically have them train with your best veteran servers. And when those vets know that their trainee will be part of their future tip pool, they’ll be more invested in the training, making sure to give them a master class in upselling and customer service.

4. More equitable distribution

Unfortunately, customer biases — conscious or not — can impact tip amounts. Whether based on race, gender, or other factors, this kind of discrimination can affect your employees’ livelihoods.

While restaurant operators can’t control if some employees receive preferential treatment, they can help to compensate for those injustices by pooling and fairly distributing tips.

Cons of Tip Pooling

While most restaurants these days run some form of tip pool or tip share, there are some common drawback and pitfalls to tip pooling, which are worth considering before you implement a new policy

1. Top performers may feel negatively impacted

If your best servers are consistently bringing in far more than the standard 18-20% in tips, they might not be so pleased to share with employees who may not have the same experience, talent or work ethic.

Couple that with the fact that some servers can turn tables much quicker than others, resulting in a higher volume of sales and a whole lot more tip income — well, your top earners could start feeling cheated by the tip pool.

And in a tough labor market, if a hardworking employee isn’t happy with their earnings, they likely have other options.

2. Under-performers can slip through the cracks

On the flip side of that: a tip pool could allow lower-performing employees to slip through the cracks. If you’re not closely evaluating the average tip amount (and average check size!), you may miss that one of your employees is struggling with their customer service.

3. Compliance is an added consideration

Tip pooling is regulated at the federal and (usually) state level. Some municipalities also have their own rules around how to legally pool tips. These laws can get pretty complicated, making it all too easy to fall out of compliance without even knowing it. For example: managers can’t participate in a tip pool; but what happens if a manager is also performing server duties? Can you include back-of-house in your tip pool? Does your eligibility for the tip credit change if you operate a tip pool? It’s important to know the answers to all of these questions and fully understand the laws that apply to each of your locations. (Especially if you have locations in multiple states!)

Tip Pooling Pros and Cons at a Glance

That’s a lot of information to take in, so here it is a handy-dandy pro-con chart.

To Pool or Not to Pool?

The majority of restaurants in the U.S. operate some form of tip pool. At Kickfin, we’ve worked with thousands of restaurant teams who participate in tip pooling or tip sharing. We’ve found that often, the positives outweigh the negatives.

But that comes with a major caveat: the best tip pooling teams have been strategic and intentional with their policies — and as a result, no two tip pooling policies look exactly the same.

If you want to set yourself up for tip pooling success, here are a few general rules of thumb.

Evaluate your requirements: Ask yourself why you’re running a tip pool. What needs are you trying to address or problems are you trying to fix? Specifically consider your restaurant type, team size, org chart, and local market to find the best policy for you.
Don’t overcomplicate: It shouldn’t require a degree in calculus to calculate your tip pool. If you feel like it’s getting unwieldy, it’s possible you’re setting your team up for mistakes and tracking issues.
Get feedback for better buy-in: This shouldn’t be a decision-by-committee scenario, but it’s worth checking with management and even some of your team’s unofficial leaders to get their input before running with a new policy. This can help get the rest of your employees on board.
Write it down and run it by your counsel: Your tip pooling policy should be on paper, in black and white. You should also have your legal counsel review it to make sure you’re not inadvertently out of compliance with tip pooling regulations.
Communicate everything: Once you’re feeling good about your policy, share it. Make sure every tip-eligible employee understands how it works and has the opportunity to ask questions.
Ensure transparency by tracking everything: It’s not enough to share your policy. It’s important that every payout is tracked, including how those payouts were calculated. Not only does that streamline accounting and reporting; it also creates a culture of trust with your employees. If there is ever any question around a payout, having a digital paper trail is invaluable.

The best tip pools are automated

Tip pool calculations often happen in a spreadsheet, which is less than ideal. Kickfin integrates with your POS, so you can eliminate spreadsheet math, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring every payout is accurately calculated and tracked. Plus: Kickfin customers can send instant, cashless payouts directly to their employees’ bank of choice.

The result: All the benefits of tip pooling, without the hassles, risk, and time required. (In fact, many of our users can calculate and pay out tips at the end of each shift in under 60 seconds!)

Want to learn more? Request a demo today.

Product and Company News

Kickfin Recognized on the 2025 Inc. Regionals List

Kickfin has earned a top spot on the 2025 Inc. Regionals list in the Southwest region! This recognition places us among the fastest-growing privately held companies in America—and we couldn’t be prouder of what this means for our team, our customers, and the restaurant industry at large.

A Milestone Achievement

As the #1 tip distribution platform, Kickfin is trusted by thousands of restaurant teams to automate tip pooling and payouts. Since 2017, our technology has given managers hours back in their week while improving accuracy, visibility, and reporting for operators.

Only 951 companies made the cut across all regions, and in the Southwest alone, the businesses on this list contributed 13,809 jobs to the U.S. economy while achieving a median growth rate of approximately 106 percent from 2021 to 2023.

Powering the Future of Tip Management

In the past year, Kickfin has taken automated tip management to a whole new level. In addition to exciting new features that make our platform more robust than ever, we continue to add to the list of our direct integrations with the leading POS brands—which currently includes Toast, SkyTab, Square, Heartland, RPOWER, PAR POS, Oracle MICROS, NCR Aloha, and more.

→ See how the Kickfin-Toast integration “changed everything” for HOBNOB restaurants

Kickfin’s POS integrations give our customers the ability to auto-calculate even the most complex tip pools in just a few clicks, which eliminates unwieldy tip spreadsheets, saves managers even more time, and gives operators unprecedented visibility into payout calculations and history.

A Heartfelt Thank You

This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the trust of our customers and the dedication of our team.

As Justin Roberts, co-CEO of Kickfin, puts it: “We’re incredibly grateful to our customers who have made this growth possible by trusting Kickfin with their tip management needs. This recognition is a testament to the value that automated tip management brings to restaurant teams—helping them save time, reduce risk, and take care of their people.”

We’re honored to be included in the 2025 Inc. Regionals list, and we’re excited to see what the rest of 2025 has in store!

Product and Company News, Technology and Software

Kickfin Integrates with RPOWER POS to Automate Tip Distribution for Restaurants, Bars and Nightlife

You heard that right — Kickfin has added yet another partner to our ever-growing list of POS integrations!

RPOWER POS has joined the list of leading POS systems that now integrate with Kickfin so users can fully automate tip calculations and payouts.

RPOWER is a trusted name in the restaurant industry known for its handheld devices, online ordering capabilities, and robust reporting. RPOWER’s dedication to staying on the cutting edge of restaurant tech makes the integration with Kickfin a perfect match!

With the RPOWER-Kickfin integration, restaurant operators can:

Easily build out highly complex tip policies
Calculate tip outs based on roles, shifts and hours worked
Distribute tips directly to employee bank accounts
Establish an electronic “paper trail” for every tip out

( …and more. Dive into the latest Kickfin updates for the full scoop.)

Like all of our integration customers, when RPOWER users activate the Kickfin integration, they’ll have access to our robust Customer Success team (at no extra cost!). We’re here 24/7 to review and build out your tip policy within the platform, so you’ll be up and running in a flash.

Collaboration with Riot Hospitality Group

This integration was especially exciting because we worked hand-in-hand with one of our longstanding customers, Riot Hospitality Group, to ensure the integration checked every box — and that it could handle their complex tip pooling policies.

“Kickfin has been an outstanding partner to Riot Hospitality Group for years,” said J Goldin, the systems director for RHG.

“They had already helped us go fully cashless, which eliminated a lot of risk for our teams. When we decided to completely automate tip payouts, they were a natural choice to help with that as well. We worked hand in hand with Kickfin and RPOWER to ensure the system could handle the intense complexity of our rules, while still being incredibly easy to use for our operators.”

“Kickfin is easy to implement and easy to use. If you’re thinking about trying it, you’ll be glad you did.”

As our co-CEO Justin Roberts puts it, this integration is a “no brainer for RPOWER users who understand how valuable their managers’ time is.”

RPOWER users, we’re ready for you! Schedule a demo to learn how you can activate your integration.

(Not an RPOWER user but want to take advantage of these time-saving features? See if Kickfin is integrated with your POS!)

Product and Company News

Kickfin Product Updates: New Year, New Features!

We kicked off 2025 with some major (!) updates to our Tip Calculator features.

It was a big release, and we’ll break it all down for you here — but the big headlines are:

More integrations
More speed
More flexibility

If you’re not already using Kickfin — or if you haven’t integrated Kickfin with your POS to automate tip calcs just yet — this is for you! Read on to see how you can use Kickfin’s newest tip calc features to un-clunk your tip pooling process.

More integrations, coming right up

We’re continuing to roll out integrations with the leading POS systems, giving restaurant teams the power to auto-calculate tip pools and shares in a matter of clicks.

(Side note: Kickfin only builds direct POS integrations — not using a third-party solution! — which streamlines your tech stack and keeps your costs lower.)

We were thrilled to add RPOWER to our growing list of integrations, which already includes Toast, Square, SkyTab, SpotOn, PAR and more.

If you’re an RPOWER user and you’re not yet a Kickfin customer, request a demo and we’ll show you the integration in action!

Handle autograts with ease

For servers and bartenders handling large parties, autograts can be great — but for managers, they can turn into a logistical nightmare. Now, Kickfin can help with that…

With this latest release, you can break tips and autograts into separate categories with their own set of rules for distribution. You have the flexibility to manage autograt tip splits completely separate from regular tip outs, so you can fairly reward a hardworking server-bartender-busser trio for a job well done on a 30-top.

Tips & Autograts Broken Out on Tip Data Page

Tips & Autograts Broken Out on Review Screen

With this new set up, you’ll also get more transparency in reporting. You’ll be able to see the breakdown of tips and autograts collected by each user in your reporting dashboards (more on that later!).

Include cash tips in your distributions

You heard that right — we can now distribute shares of cash tips digitally, directly to your employees’ bank accounts. Instead of doing the math on cash tips by hand, you can easily add cash to your tip pool, and we’ll calculate the share among employees for you.

Important note: cash distributions aren’t available for all of our integration partners. Contact us for more info.

Advanced Tip Rules (for even the unruliest policies)

Think your tip policy is extra tricky? Don’t worry — we’ve seen ‘em all. And there aren’t many Kickfin can’t handle, thanks to our Advanced Tip Rules feature.

If you have Advanced Tip Rules enabled, we’ve added a few new capabilities so you can further customize your tip share while we take care of the complicated math behind the scenes. Here are just a few examples of the new features we’re rolling out.

Not using Advanced Tip Rules? Reach out to us if you’d like to enable these features.

Per Segment Tip Sharing

We’ve been calculating tip shares on a check-by-check basis. For example, if you have servers sharing a percentage of tips with bussers, we would only calculate and deduct that percentage if a busser was working at the time that a check was processed. We call this Per Check Tip Sharing.

Now, we’re introducing Per Segment Tip Sharing, which gives you the option to deduct a tip share from every check processed during a shift. Let’s go back to our example — servers sharing a percent of tips with bussers. With Per Segment Tip Sharing, we would deduct a percentage of the server’s tip for every check processed, even if the busser gets cut two hours before the server.

Split Evenly

Would you prefer that all of your support staff take home an even share of their tip pool? We can now make that happen.

Previously, our tip shares entered a pool and were divided among beneficiaries based on how many minutes they worked during a shift, which we call splitting by Time Worked. With our new product update, we’re introducing the Split Evenly option, which enables you to send an equal part of a tip share to every beneficiary that worked within a segment.

More accuracy

In the past, cash autograt payments were lumped in with credit card autograts and credit card tips, resulting in credit card fee deductions on cash transactions. But that is no more!

Now we’re able to deduct credit card fees only where they apply, so you’ll no longer see credit card fee deductions attached to cash autograt transactions.

Plus, we’ve gotten even better at math. With our new update, we can prevent rounding errors, so our tip disbursal should match the tips collected in your POS to the penny.

Revamped and expanded reporting

We added new reporting views to give you more insight into each pay period, individual pay sets, and tip calculations. Here’s a quick look at your new pay period report with expanded filters:

Main Pay Period Report - Filter Bar Expanded

You’ll notice that there are now separate columns for tips and autograts, but you can still view the gross amount earned (tips + autograts = gross).

And it doesn’t stop at the main reporting page. You’ll see this more detailed reporting when you look at individual employee pay period reports, review a specific pay set, or export the information from any of your reporting dashboards.

We know this is a lot of new information to take in — but we’ve got you covered with our full Product Release Recap. Simply log in to Kickfin, click on your name in the upper left corner and select “Support” to access that portal.

Not using Kickfin? Dying to get rid of your old-fashioned gratuity management system? Drooling over these new features? We’d love to have you. Reach out to us today to see how our platform could save you time and money.