10 Job Interview Questions To Ask When Hiring Restaurant Staff
Running a restaurant requires many people. Running a successful restaurant requires many well-trained staff. To find this staff you to need to ask the right questions during the interview. The responses will help ensure that you hire friendly, helpful employees who genuinely want to please your customers.
What are these questions? Read on to find out.
1. Why Do You Want to Work for Us?
One of the first questions asked when interviewing job candidates is why do you want to work for our company? Yeap, that simple. Still, the answer to this question can tell you a lot about the candidate and how serious they are about the position.
Why has the candidate chosen your restaurant in particular? Was it because of your stellar online reviews? Were they referred by a friend who had a good work experience?
The candidate’s answer can tell you a few things. Along with their enthusiasm and commitment, you may also gain a little insight into your restaurant’s reputation.
2. Tell Me About a Conflict You’ve Dealt with Involving a Customer and How You Handled It
The purpose of the question isn’t to hear a story about customer conflict; it’s to see how the candidate handled a difficult situation. What did they do to resolve the problem? Was everyone happy with the resolution? Did they admit to being wrong and apologize?
Your employees will undoubtedly have to deal with irritable or rude customers. It’s important for them to handle these types of situations in a calm, professional manner. If employees are rude or combative, the situation could easily escalate and reflect poorly on your restaurant’s image.
3. What Does the Word “Hospitality” Mean to You?
Hospitality can mean different things to different people. It’s important for your employees to be on the same page as you on this subject. The candidate’s answer could tell you a lot about their behavior and how they will respond to guests.
If the response is very different from what you’re expecting, the candidate may not be a good fit for your restaurant.
4. How Do You Deal with Conflicts Involving Co-Workers?
The answer to this question will tell you whether or not the candidate is:
- A team player
- Mature
- Able to deal with difficult personal situations
Conflicts between co-workers can ultimately affect customer service. Employees who tend to hold grudges or harbor resentment towards co-workers may be bad for business.
5. Tell Me About Your Hobbies
Every restaurant operator wants to hire dedicated employees. But work/life balance is important if you want them to avoid burn-out and provide the best possible service to your customers.
Learning more about the candidate’s hobbies will give you some insight into their view on maintaining a balanced life. It will also help you determine whether the candidate will be able to handle the busy restaurant life on top of their everyday life.
6. What Was Your Favorite Customer Service Experience?
Asking about their favorite customer service experience will accomplish a few things:
- It will help you gauge the candidate’s level of enthusiasm.
- It will give you some insight into what the candidate views as great service.
Pay attention to how the question is answered. Are they excited or happy when telling the story? Do they seem genuine? The story itself will help you truly understand what hospitality means to them.
7. What is Your Greatest Strength?
This is a common restaurant interview question, and the answer will give you an idea of the candidate’s self-confidence.
The strengths should be related to the restaurant industry. Ideally, restaurant employees should be great with people, calm under pressure, outgoing and focused.
8. What is Your Greatest Weakness?
It’s not necessarily the answer that’s most important, but how the person answers the question. Do you feel that the person is being honest? Is there any mention of trying to improve that weakness?
You probably don’t want to hire someone who claims that he has a bad temper or doesn’t like dealing with conflict. These are two qualities that don’t bode well in the restaurant industry.
9. What Do You Know About Our Restaurant?
This is another question that will give you some insight into the candidate’s motivation and knowledge of your business.
If the person doesn’t have an answer, it may mean that he or she applied on a whim. But if the person does have an answer, it means that he or she did some research before coming in or has first-hand knowledge of your restaurant.
10. What Do You Like Most About Working in Hospitality?
Asking this question will give you an idea of the person’s experience in the restaurant business. This question may be particularly important when hiring servers. Ideally, you want someone who understands the ins-and-outs of serving customers.
Does it seem like the candidate is only in it for a paycheck, or is there a genuine interest in working at your restaurant? Some people love serving or working in a restaurant atmosphere. But it can be a tough industry, and it’s not a job for everyone.
Source: https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/questions-to-ask-on-a-restaurant-job-interview