Revolutionizing the Restaurant Hiring Process: How Best Served Creative's Jensen Cummings Flipped 75% Interview No-Shows to 88% Interviews Attended
by Best Served Creative Team
Read Time: 6 Minutes
When Jensen Cummings, founder of Best Served Creative, set out to revamp the hiring process for a new restaurant, he knew he needed to gain a deep understanding of the pain points experienced by both hospitality industry workers and operators.
So, he asked thousands of them about their experiences. The feedback was clear on the worker side of the equation - what needed to be created is what Cummings calls Workplaces Worth Working.
The 3 biggest issues for workers were:
Interviews wasted their time
A lack of humanity in the process
Poor communication of expectations
Cummings also knew he needed to understand the challenges that operators were facing. On the owner / operator’s side, there were three layers of pain points in the hiring process he dubbed, "Hiring Process Leakage," which are as follows:
Not enough people apply for jobs
Not enough people show up for interviews
Not enough people accept job offers
To address these issue, Cummings’ team at Best Served Creative developed their “5 Hiring Solutions”
Let’s look at what the Best Served Creative team created: A “New Hiring Model For Restaurants,” which addresses the expressed needs of workers and of operators. Following, are the worker and the operator issues (and solutions) outlined separately. By the end of this article, you’ll see how they overlap and create a comprehensive program.
Cummings takes a unique approach to address these issues head-on. This approach became known as “Interview Flow.” Some of the core components include a pro-active and comprehensive expectations & communication flow, personalized pre-interview videos, and increasing interview timeframes. Let’s get into a few more details of these three approaches.
Expectations & Communication Flow includes detailed and engaging information about things like location, transportation, parking, attire, interview questions, etc., as well as updates leading up to the interview.
Personalized Pre-Interview Videos are a 20-30 second video recording made by the interviewer on their phone about (and sent to) the interviewee. This simple video humanizes what can be an awkward first meeting, so candidates know who they’ll be speaking to, and begin to establish a level of comfort and rapport.
Increasing 3-Interview Timeframes begin with a 10-minute phone call, followed by a 24-minute video chat, and finally, a 40-minute in-person interview. By breaking down the interview process into smaller, more manageable chunks, candidates feel less overwhelmed and more informed about how their time will be respected.
Now let’s look at how Cummings took the struggles of operators: not enough people apply, not enough people show up for interviews, not enough people accept job offers, and applied five new approaches; Best Served Creative’s “5 Hiring Solutions.”
JOB STORIES
WANTED ADS
INTERVIEW FLOW
WBCE BUILDER
WORKER'S GUIDE
For the problem of not enough people apply, Job Stories and Wanted Ads give you a more dynamic and engaging version of stale old job descriptions and hiring (and social) platform postings with custom copy by platform.
To combat the problem of not enough people showing up for interviews, it was all about the Interview Flow approach you’ve already learned about.
Finally, to address the issue of not enough people accepting job offers, solutions include using a WBCE Builder and providing a Worker’s Guide.
The WBCE Builder is a tool that helps to create a comprehensive Wages, Benefits, Culture, and Education package to offer employees.
The WBCE Builder also works to forecast the costs involved so the ROI can be measured against the cost of turnover.
Afterall, with an industry standard annual turnover rate of 106% (in 2023) X $6,000 to replace each employee (in hard and soft costs combined) X a staff of 30 employees, the overall loss to a business would be $190,800 PER YEAR.
The Worker’s Guide provides valuable information to candidates about the company culture and expectations.
By providing this information, candidates will be better equipped to make informed decisions about accepting job offers.
This is not your typical Employee Manual, sitting on a shelf and collecting dust. This is a constantly referenced document that guides the entire employee life cycle and the overall health of the business.
The results were astounding. Cummings was able to flip the status quo of over 75% no-shows to interviews to 88% interviews attended. In the end, the new restaurant was able to attract top talent and build a strong team, thanks to our New Hiring Model For Restaurants. By listening to the needs of industry workers and operators, we can continue to navigate a process that is efficient, effective, and humane; ultimately increase employee satisfaction and retention; and usher in an industry known for having “Workplaces Worth Working.”
Jensen Cummings is a fifth-generation award-winning Chef, Public Speaker and Restaurant Industry Strategist based in Denver, CO. He is the host of Best Served Podcast and Restaurant Idea Factory.
He is committed to reflecting on his own culpability in the status quo of the industry, to reimagining restaurant culture, investing in our unsung hospitality heroes and building a better mode, what he calls a Workplace Worth Working.
He began his career at 17 years old as a dishwasher. He spent the last twenty-plus years working across the industry from cook to server to bartender, Cicerone, Fermentationist, General Manager, Owner, Consultant, Podcast host, even kitchen burnout.
