3 Pillars of Successful Restaurant Staffing

Posted on by zippyapp

Recruiting is as much a marketing practice as strategies you use to bring in customers. Just as you promote your brand and emphasize the delights of dining at your establishment, you need to delight candidates in order for them to become a part of your team.

You are utilizing latest technology to engage your patrons before, during, and after their dining experience. You are utilizing mobile technology because you have recognized that it is the device of choice for a significant majority of them. You’ve invested in managing your brand and you use every resource to engage your patrons.

Studies have also shown that many brands’ patrons actually make the best employees.

Well, let’s consider a few thoughts:

  • Are your recruiting efforts keeping up with today’s best practices – including mobile?
  • Are you still using reactive ad postings, praying to get applicants?
  • Are you measuring the effectiveness of your job postings by monitoring the click-to-apply ratio? Is it in low single digits?
  • Are you using the complex HRIS systems designed for the corporate world, which usually require dedicated recruiting staff?
  • Is your recruitment compliance process heavy, putting applicants through a long arduous process just to submit an application?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it might be time to reconsider your recruitment strategies.

Staffing your restaurants with qualified staff relies on three major pillars. Weakness in any one adversely impacts your recruitment success.

Job Description

The job description is often the first impression most job seekers get about working at your establishment. Even if they are familiar with your brand, the job description is the first communication, which tells them what it’s like to work at your place.

We recommend taking this first impression opportunity to tell the candidate why it is great to be a part of your organization. Share with them how rewarding it can be, the flexible hours, opportunity to grow, learning about the wonderful culinary world, etc.

I have seen many job descriptions and many feel like what I call “a prison sentence” – several pages long, riddled with all of the harsh conditions of working at a restaurant. It is perfectly fine to have a job description with duties, which discloses the working conditions and the expectation as a part of the hiring process, but not the recruitment.

The job description should cover more of why a person should be a part of your team and how they can grow within your organization.

Get them excited to apply for your jobs.

Job Distribution

Job seekers have varying habits when it comes to searching for a job. They go to various job boards, Google, your own website, employer review sites, etc. to learn about your business and apply for your jobs. A study recently found that jobseekers often visit as many as 15 sites before they apply to a job.

Let’s not forget the location itself. A restaurant’s location is often the best marketing tool, invoking the following thought in the mind of the best passive applicant “… how wonderful it would be to work at this place.” Can a job seeker apply for a job at your location with their mobile device, with just a few clicks?

Is your recruitment marketing consistent across all these channels?

A comprehensive and optimized job distribution network is of the essence in getting your jobs in front of the right applicants. Your job descriptions need to be exciting, ever-present, optimized for search engines, and distributed to as many job boards as possible for the most exposure.

Applicant Engagement

Applicant engagement is the third pillar of successful staffing. It is critical for every organization to fully understand their entire application process. Consider the mindset of a job seeker looking for a near minimum wage job. Consider the fact that we are in a very competitive and tight labor market. Would you expect someone seeking a line cook position or a wait staff position to take 45 minutes to complete an application?

Ease of applicant engagement is directly correlated to the click-to-apply ratio. A recent study by ERE Media demonstrated that if the application process is less than 5 minutes, a click-to-apply ratio of 12.8% can be expected. However, if the application process exceeds 15 minutes, then the click-to-apply ratio drops below 4%. This is a significant decrease; couple that with the fact that it is generally the best applicants who abandon long application processes (because they have options) and you can see why this is important to you. 

Going through the entire application process from the viewpoint of an applicant enables you to observe the bottlenecks and points of friction. Consider the fact that every decision or click is an opportunity for the job seeker to abandon the application process altogether. 

Conclusion

Many organizations react to their recruitment when in crisis.  Implementing a comprehensive recruitment strategy enables you to have a very proactive recruiting process. A system covering the 3 Pillars with 24/7/365 recruitment provides a constant flow of great candidates, which provides options to truly elevate the quality of your team.

The idea of three pillars implies that the three practices must be employed for the success in staffing. It is essential to address all three simultaneously to achieve the best results. We consider each one the pillars a major topic and worthy of its own comprehensive coverage.

Please look for our upcoming blogs covering each one in more depth.

5 Tips for Hiring in a Tight Labor Market

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As an hourly employer, you know very well it takes longer to staff up your team in today’s market (find out how we can help with your seasonal staffing needs!)

The good news is that there are high-performing candidates and quality hires even in a tight labor market. What is pertinent for you to know is how to attract them. Here are 5 tips on how to hire in a tight labor market.

1. Identify the right talent. As discussed in our previous Blog, How to Develop an Hourly Recruitment Strategy, your current employees are your best brand advocates. Leverage your current employee network and offer incentives for employee referrals. No one will refer a poor candidate, since his or her reputation is on the line too. Post your current job opportunities to multiple job boards and social media channels to increase awareness to your openings. We do this for you by distributing your jobs to the most popular local job boards– like Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, Nuevo, and Juju – and also to popular social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

2. Be specific when placing your job ads. Last week, we discussed the importance of your job titles and descriptions when attracting quality applicants. Be detailed about your requirements – skills, previous experience, age, and salary requirements – to keep less qualified applicants from applying.

3. Keep a healthy flow of applicants. At ZippyApp, our goal is not just to provide you with quality applicants at a time of need, but also to provide a steady stream for future needs. Always be on the lookout for quality hires – post a ‘Future’ job opening on ZippyApp that way you can archive and have quality hires on hand for when they are needed.

4. Reduce your employee turnover. The single best way to reduce your employee turnover and dodging the costs of a bad hire is to hire the right people from the start. Don’t think you have to settle on hiring a low-quality applicant because you feel you are unable to hire a good quality one. You are better off leaving a position open and un-filled than hiring a less-talented employee.

5. Be aware of your employer reputation. Which brings us to our final point – create a good employer reputation to attract the highest quality candidates. Don’t compromise your job requirements for poor talent just to fill a position. Poor performers at your company can turn-off your best performers, as talented employees want to work for companies that house other good talent. Good talent, after all, is what gives your company and brand a competitive advantage. The companies and brands that receive the highest applicant flow on ZippyApp not surprisingly are the ones that also receive great rating on employer-review sites like Glassdoor. When a company cares for its employees and for good talent, high-performing candidates seek employment there.

Do you have any tips to share? Comment your thoughts below!

Are You Ready for the January Hiring Spike?

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Hourly hiring is a seasonal game and the seasonal hiring trend does not end in December. January is a very important hiring month for hourly employers, as many seasonal workers are back on the market. Because of this, you need to develop a big presence in January to attract the best candidates for your jobs. Here are some tips to get you prepared for the new year hiring rush!

1. Post your jobs the first week of January. Many other employers will still be getting back into the work groove, playing catch-up with emails and voicemails. This will limit their time to post their open jobs. Posting yours before the rush can help you capture the best candidates.

2. Add seasonal SEO keywords to your job titles and descriptions. As discussed in our previous guide to Lean and Mean Job Descriptions, your job titles and descriptions are a vital piece in attracting quality candidates. Adding seasonal SEO keywords can help your jobs pop up first in January hiring searches. Our unique job distribution network allows your jobs to be posted to the most popular local job boards (think Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, Trovit, Neuvoo, and Juju.com), giving you the most exposure to capture quality, local candidates.

3. Adopt a one-click apply process. Job applications and old-fashion apply processes can take awhile to complete, deterring the best candidates from applying to your jobs. With our one-click apply process, applicants create one application on ZippyApp and simply hit Apply to submit it to your jobs. Applicants are also able scan your locations’ unique QR code and submit their application straight from their mobile device.

4. Simplify you Applicant Management System. How much time do your hiring managers take to sort through applications and candidate profiles? On average, studies have shown it takes about 30 minutes per application. Our simplified Applicant Management System allows hiring managers to filter, tag, and archive applications based on certain criteria, minimizing the time it takes to look for the information they want.

Are you an hourly employer with seasonal hiring tips to share? Leave your comments here!

9 Steps for Peaceful Holiday Scheduling

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For hourly employers, ­­it is definitely not the most wonderful time of year. On top of the added stresses of hiring seasonal employees, creating seasonal schedules provides more of a burden. To minimize the risk of dampened morale, unhappy employees, and even legality issues, it is imperative to develop preventative measures to minimize scheduling issues. Here are 9 steps for peaceful holiday scheduling.

  1. Plan early. As mentioned in our previous Blog, always plan and be prepared for what is ahead. Holidays will always be an upcoming challenge for you. So will summer and back-to-school months. When you hire on a candidate, ask them what days, times, and holidays they would be willing to work. This can later avoid accusations of unlawful time off requests for religious-based lawsuits (Federal law states that you must make a “reasonable effort to accommodate employees sincere religious beliefs,” which means you must try and accommodate their time off requests for religious holidays). Also, be upfront and clear with your employees. Set clear expectations of black out days where no one gets to request time off.
  2. Don’t assume everyone wants to take time off. For some, like students back home from school break, the holidays allow for extra shifts, which equates to extra money in their pockets. Don’t assume your single workers don’t want to take time off, or that those with families want more time off. Most employees know their holiday plans in advance, so ask your staff to submit their time-off requests a month (at least) in advance so you can schedule accordingly.
  3. Release schedules for busy weeks well in advance. Create and give your employees their schedules early to allow flexibility for schedule adjustments – like shift switches and covers.
  4. Make note of seniority statuses. To be fair and avoid issues of demoralization, consider who has been at your company the longest and ask them what holidays, if any, they would like off.
  5. Consider who Has worked or is scheduled to work other holidays. Another fair tactic is to prioritize workers who have worked certain holidays previously, or is set to work a holiday already this season. This gives you reason to explain why one worker is getting the time off they requested over another.
  6. Be direct with seasonal employees. Your seasonal staff is there for just that – to keep you prepared for the holiday rush. Be upfront in your seasonal job descriptions and the number of hours, days, and times they are expected to work (we talk about this in more detail in our Guide to Seasonal Hiring).
  7. Try not to schedule consecutive shifts or coinciding shifts to the same workers. Not everyone wants to work all closing shifts, and especially shifts that coincide, like closing late one night and opening bright and early the next day. This is a great tactic to keep in mind for decreasing your turnover and retaining loyal employees.
  8. Alleviate the strain and spread out shifts. Breaking up long holiday shifts into smaller shifts evens out the strain. Also, utilizing shorter shifts is a way to monitor busy and slow times. Overstaffing and top-loading certain shifts can decrease profits, and make for unhappy employees (splitting tips with more workers means less money in their pockets too). Be flexible if it does get busier than you expect (you can utilize our “On Call” feature for times like this!) Or if it is slower than you expected, cut people and let them go home early.
  9. Incentive those who do work those holiday shifts. Incentives are a great way to attract, retain, and keep your employees happy. We are in one of the tightest labor markets we have seen in decades, and incentives make your brand stand out from the rest. A common incentive many companies offer during the holidays is time-and-a-half pay to those who work extra holiday hours/ shifts, but be wary as that can become expensive very quickly. You can also offer gift cards, more time off during regular seasons, priority pick on the next schedule, or even a small bonus to employees who work unattractive holiday shifts.

Do you have any holiday scheduling tips to share? We would love to hear from you! Comment your thoughts below.

Guide to Hiring Seasonal Employees

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Tis’ the season for holiday hiring! If you haven’t already started hiring your seasonal team, don’t panic. Other guides and Blogs will say you should’ve started way earlier in your holiday hiring, and to a certain extent they are right. But if we have learned one thing about hiring during this tight labor market, it is that you should be recruiting 24/7 for your hourly jobs – no matter what season it is.

The good news is a bright holiday season is on the horizon for the restaurant and retail industries, since sales figures are expected to grow and consumer’s wallets are starting to loosen. The retail industry is expected to add 755,000 temporary workers from October to November, which means it’s time for you to start hiring your seasonal employees! This guide will provide tips on how to recruit and hire during the holiday rush.

Where to look:

  • Your current part-time employees are a great first place to start looking. These workers are already loyal to your brand and are familiar with your products, which minimizes training time. Plus they are already on your payroll, which decreases onboarding time and necessary HR paperwork.
  • Past seasonal hires are another group that negates the need to train and onboard. These workers have proven their work ethic, which lessens the uncertainty of whether or not they may be a bad hire. 
  • Hiring someone who has past experience in the industry minimizes training time. These workers are ready to hit the ground running since they are already experienced and have been trained.
  • Hire year round and try not to wait for busy seasons to hire. Always be on the lookout for quality hires. As mentioned previously, we are in one of the tightest labor markets we have seen in decades, which means it is that much more difficult to maintain a steady flow of applicants. A great feature on ZippyApp is that we offer a separate section on your Hiring Page that shows your ‘Future’ job openings. This is a great way to capture passive applicants for future needs. Another feature to utilize is our ‘On Call’ feature, where applicants can select if they are available for last minute jobs/ shifts. Archive these applicants so you are ready when you need them.

If hiring based off of a new roster of candidates, there are certain attributes to be on the lookout for:
o Eagerness: A willingness to understand the job and products.
o Flexibility: Are able to work extended holiday hours and weekends.
o Fast Learner: Has demonstrated in past jobs they are quick to learn.

Mistakes to avoid:

Don’t hire a low-quality candidate just to fill a position. Anyone who works with your branding on their clothing is a representative of your company. Your customers will not forget poor service because it was given by a seasonal employee. It’s better in the long-run to leave positions unfilled than to hire an unfit or poor quality candidate (we will talk about the costs of a bad hire in an upcoming Blog, stay tuned!)

Don’t just assume your full-time regular staff will stick with you through the holidays. You have to be prepared if someone quits. Offering incentives like bonuses and/ or overtime pay to these workers can help keep them loyal through the season.

Look over your job descriptions and change them for seasonal employment, or create new seasonal openings. Your seasonal job descriptions are not the same as year-round ones. Oftentimes, seasonal workers wear many hats and need to be ready to take on and juggle a variety of tasks. By explaining this in the tasks and duties required of the job, you can reduce turnover. Be sure to add job categories and keywords related to seasonal work or temporary employment so your jobs appear during seasonal work employment searches.

If you are having trouble hiring seasonal employees, are behind in the game, or are experiencing general hiring issues – we can help! Our software is specifically designed for the hourly job market, with a core focus on the restaurant and retail industries. We provide one-stop advertising by distributing and posting your jobs to the most popular local job boards, casting a wider net for applicant flow. Learn more at: http://zippyapp.com/business.

4 Tips to Lean and Mean Job Descriptions (to attract more candidates)

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In our last Blog, we discussed recruiting as a marketing strategy to attract and engage applicants. Your job descriptions are a vital piece in your recruitment marketing strategy, since they give the first impression of your company and is what connects you with a candidate. In order for your jobs to stand out in a sea of thousands of others, you will need to think outside the box to attract and engage talent. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Think of your job titles as a story headline. What story titles attract the most readers? Exciting stories with captivating headlines. And unless you’re an attractive brand that everyone in town wants to work for (CREAM anyone?), you will need to be creative with your job titles. Use the same approach and include exciting terms and incentives that will attract candidates, such as sign-on bonuses or a guaranteed amount of hours. We hate to say it, but corporate titles come standard, and are repeatedly listed on job boards giving the applicant zero incentive to click and view the job. Which job title would you be more inclined to view?

          Server – Joe’s in San Jose, CA
OR     Part-time Server (guaranteed 20 hours per week!) – Joe’s in San Jose, CA

Be sure to think of other job titles the applicant may be searching for. For a Team Member position, adding in “Cashier,” “Counter Crew,” or “Barista” (if applicable) to the Categories section on ZippyApp or to the job description can increase your search engine optimization (SEO) on our system and to the job boards we distribute your jobs to.

There is however, a fine line when creating captivating and unique job titles. Don’t go overboard and add too much information into your titles (that is what the job description is for), and don’t list every job duty as a separate job posting — like “Produce Chopper” and “Dough Presser,” instead keep them all under “Kitchen Prep” — as it only confuses job seekers.

Exercise: Go through your job titles now. Do any of them stand out above the rest? Go to ZippyApp and type in your open positions — do they get lost in a sea of others? What can you do differently to make yours stand out?

2. Cut out any filler words. Take a look at your job descriptions. Do they take up an entire page? If you were a job seeker, what would your first impression be? If it looks like a prison sentence, then chances are you won’t receive many applicants. Scan your job descriptions and delete any unnecessary words or information that is not imperative to the applicant. Keep your job descriptions clean, simple, and to-the-point. An interesting study done by Appcast.io shows the click-to-apply rate for too short and too long of job descriptions. You can view the study here.

3. Include any job requirements up front. Job seekers want to know exactly what they are potentially signing up to do, and what will be required of them. Outline the basics of the job, including the skills and experience that is required for the applicant. If you can, include the age requirement for the position (this is a common question asked by our job applicants!), whether or not they need any certifications or licenses, and if the position is full or part-time. Be sure to include your establishment address — state, city, and zip code — to your location hiring page (our software inserts Google Maps to your Hiring Page). Doing these things will weed out any applicants who aren’t serious about the position, or ones who are not qualified.

4. Be specific about the job benefits and salaries. Candidates love to be incentivized, and if you offer any be sure to include them in your job descriptions. Do you offer free lunches? 1/2 off friends and family meals? Flexible schedules? If you don’t want to post your salaries, or if salary depends on the candidates experience, providing a salary range is better than not putting anything about what can be expected. List specific benefits rather than saying “We Provide Benefits.” Do you offer healthcare? Eye Exams? Dental Coverage? 401K?

If you’re suffering from a shortage of applicants, providing lively and exciting job titles and descriptions is the easiest way to attracting more applicants. Make sure to include key terms and words in the description (think titles that are similar to the one you are posting) to increase your search engine optimization (SEO) on our system and to the job boards we distribute your jobs to.

Blog photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The Hourly Hiring Game Is Changing: How to Develop an Hourly Recruitment Marketing Strategy

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As a business owner, you know marketing your products and services is a must in attracting and retaining customers. But did you know that recruiting and retaining top talent requires similar strategies and focus?

At ZippyApp, we know that one of the biggest challenges you face as an hourly employer is healthy supply of quality applicants. That’s our focus, and we provide you with the most efficient and cost effective recruiting solution to meet your staffing needs.

As discussed in our previous blog, Recruiting and Hiring Millennials (for your restaurant jobs), Millennials are expected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2020. Why is that important to you? Because in order to develop a recruitment marketing strategy to attract this demographic, you need to understand them and how they engage.

For starters:

  • Mobile: Is the device of choice for millennials, and over 90% of job seekers.
  • Social: Are their channels of engagement.
  • Local: Is the nature of hourly jobs.

As an hourly employer, some of the challenges and barriers you face are:

  • High Turnover: 50% to 300% annual turnover is common.
  • Classified Ads: Costly, noisy, and ineffective.
  • Difficult Apply Process: Any friction / bump in the apply process limits engagement and reduces applicant flow.

What the workforce needs:

  • Easy apply process.
  • Lots of jobs.
  • Quick response and reaction time.

In today’s competitive market, most job seekers consult up to 15 resources, including job boards, business website(s), employer-review sites, and social media channels to learn about the opportunity and the employer. They also want to understand the work culture (extremely important to millennials), the work style, issues at the workplace, and whom they might be working for or with. Because of this, it is important for your entire web presence — website(s), career sites, social media channels, and even job ads — to have a clear, consistent message and apply process.

Your recruitment marketing strategy must be comprehensive, with a wide range of coverage on your employer brand sites and an ease of engagement for your applicants. Your job opportunities must be described with excitement and have fewer words that include key requirements to attract the right candidates (we will give tips on writing leaner and meaner job descriptions in next week’s Blog, stay tuned!)

Your current employees and loyal customers are your best advocates.

Your current employees are your best advocates for your job opportunities. They are the ones to share with family and friends about current open positions, and often toot their employer’s horn on the work environment and conditions. Implementing an employee-referral program is a good way to incentivize them, and get pre-qualified candidates.

Be sure to leverage your current customers as potential candidates when applicable. Hand our hiring cards, hang banners, and place hiring placards at your restaurant tables to capture the passive applicants at the location. ZippyApp’s unique QR Code System provides a QR Code for each of your hiring locations, where job seekers simply scan and apply using our Common Employment Application, attracting candidates on the spot.

Focusing on marketing as a recruitment strategy can pay off in the long run. Developing a strategy that will attract new candidates is a challenge in itself, but retaining them and reducing your turnover is one not to be forgotten. Be aware of this and develop a comprehensive strategy that appeals to both will keep you at the forefront of hourly recruiting.

Do you have any recruitment marketing tips to share? We’d love to hear from you! Comment your thoughts below.

Holiday Hiring: Local employers come up with ways to fill seasonal positions despite fewer unemployed

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[Originally posted in KenoshaNews.com]

Tis the season … to hire seasonal workers.

As many companies, especially retailers, prepare for the upcoming holiday crush, they may find the pool of workers smaller this year. And it may take companies longer to find the right person for the wage they want to pay.

While the Kenosha County and the southeastern Wisconsin labor markets have been described as robust, increased competition from some of the larger, more well-known companies, such as Amazon, may make it tougher for smaller companies, according to experts at local staffing firms.

Carving a niche
Companies like Mars Cheese Castle, 2800 120th Ave., located across the road from mega-employer Amazon, attract and retain seasonal help with bonuses, flexible work schedules and the employer/employee individual interaction that larger companies may not be able to provide.

For some job seekers, the work environment is a greater benefit than a few extra dollars in the paycheck.
“It’s difficult for a small company like ours to compete against a large corporation,” explained Michael Ventura, a co-general manager with Mars. “We sell products that make people happy. It’s so great to be working in a business that makes people happy.”

To gear up for the summer, its busiest season, Mars begins hiring seasonal workers in March. Last year, the Christmas holiday season was better than previous seasons. It already has a pool of employees ready to cover the holiday period.

Work conditions can be attractive. Mars has had one seasonal worker who has been with the company 15 years.
“She just knows when we might need someone and she comes in to help out,” Ventura said. An employee who left earlier this year to work for Amazon, returned two months later, “because he liked working here better.”

Staffing experts also attribute the recent hiring binge as having an effect on the seasonal labor pool. They said some people who might have been available for seasonal work, have taken full time positions with some of the newer employers in the region.

Search is on
The Seattle-based Amazon — with a distribution center in Kenosha — has recently launched a massive search for seasonal workers in preparation for the holiday season. Last year when it opened its sortation center, it hired 500 part-time seasonal workers, some of whom have become full-time associates at the adjacent fulfillment center. The e-retailer opened its fulfillment center in June staffing it with 1,000.

Now with 2,000 full-time employees, Amazon will host an official open house Wednesday. Though it has bulked up its staff, it still is seeking part-time, seasonal associates to assist with the upcoming holiday crush. It has even enlisted the services of staffing agencies to help in their search. Amazon is offering $11.50 an hour.

Seasonal hiring nationally is expected to be somewhat flat partly because retailers hired 449,500 people from March through August — up from 437,000 during the same period a year ago, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement research firm. A canvass of retailers revealed they expect to add roughly 755,000 seasonal hires to their payrolls in the final three months of the year.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger said in a statement, “In addition to steady hiring leading up to the holiday season, changes in the way consumers shop are making it possible for stores to meet increased holiday demand with fewer extra workers. When retailers do add holiday workers, fewer of those jobs are in traditional spots, such as sales clerk or cashier.”

High demand locally
Locally, employers still have a need. Some are finding it harder to fill open positions as quickly as in the past. Staffing agency officials say seasonal wages range from $8.50 to $20 an hour.

Gordmans, a discount department store located in the Southport Plaza shopping center, began hiring seasonal associates in August. Typically hiring 75 for the holiday season, plans call for the same number this year. So far, it has only filled 45 positions. “It’s been a struggle. We’ll be hiring up until Dec. 31,” explained assistant store manager Renee Novy.

Shopko, a department store at 5300 52nd. St., began hiring part-time, seasonal employees in early September. “We typically hire between 25 to 30 teammates,” said Michelle Hanson, a company spokeswoman.

Shopko has declined to discuss wage structure. But seasonal teammates, Hanson said, may be retained depending upon the hiring opportunities beyond the holiday season. Headquartered in suburban Green Bay, Shopko operates 75 stores in Wisconsin. It has stores in both Kenosha and Racine.

What best describes the Kenosha area seasonal jobs market? “You can say there are less people and more people needing people,” explained Amy Prellberg, a vice president with Quantum Personnel, 5017 Green Bay Road. “It’s not been like this in a long time.”

Six Flags focused on schedule, higher pay in filling its seasonal positions. As the region’s largest seasonal worker employer with 4,000 hires, Six Flags Great America has developed a strategy and raised wages to attract the people it needs to operate the amusement park.

Last fall when Amazon opened its Kenosha sortation center, offering to pay part-time seasonal employees $11.50 an hour, some employers in the region wondered how that would affect their ability to find the people they needed for their seasonal openings.

Though Six Flags’ season starts during Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day, it began hiring in March. Recruiters went to high schools and colleges, attended job fairs and used social media to find its people.

Six Flags officials had already planned an across-the-board wage increase, including raising the entry-level wage from $8.25 to $9 an hour.

Increased pay and a bundle of special benefits, including complimentary tickets, helped the entertainment company attract the people it needed to perform clerical, operational maintenance, landscaping and customer service duties. “It was an investment we thought was important to make,” said company spokeswoman Katy Enrique.

Nevertheless, it did experience a drop in the number of experienced job seekers who applied this year.

While the park saw the usual mix of retirees, teachers and others who liked a flexible schedule, wanted a second job or simply wanted to work in a fun place, a number of this year’s hires had never had a job, Enrique said. “If a person wants to work weekends, second or third shift, they can do that here. We can accommodate their needs,” she said. “This is a very unique place to work. A lot of people like it.” Pairing seasonal employees, employers.

Flexible Workforce Coalition
The coalition — originally known as the Wisconsin Seasonal Workforce Coalition — was developed by David Karst and works as a clearinghouse to help seasonal job seekers find positions and to help companies find the people they need.

Most importantly, it was developed to help seasonal workers — some of whom didn’t have much work experience — transition from one seasonal job to the next throughout the year without a gap in employment. “I wanted to make sure they were able to continue to develop their skills. These were good people who wanted a place to call home,” Karst said.

From 2008 through 2012, Karst estimated he placed 8,500 job seekers and helped several companies, including BuySeasons, UPS, Marcus Hotels & Resorts, Quad Graphics, Klement’s Sausage, Time Warner Cable, and Home Instead Senior Care. The service is free for employers and job seekers.

ZippyApp
Kamyar Faron knew how difficult it was for small businesses to find seasonal employees. As a staffing industry veteran, he knew they often would have to search longer with fewer resources than larger companies. “Some people don’t know how to promote their job opening properly. Some don’t have the financial resources,” Faron said. “Some small businesses cannot afford to take out ads on Monster.com.”

Faron has developed ZippyApp, a software system designed to help employers in the hospitality, food service and entertainment industries recruit the people they need for peak periods in their business operation cycles.

Employers can list their job descriptions, and job seekers can access the software to find jobs in their area.

Despite the name, ZippyApp is not a mobile device package. It is a system that prospective employers can load onto their computers. For more information, go to www.zippyapp.com.

Recruiting Millennials in the Mobile and Social Age: ZippyApp Founder and CEO Presents at the 2015 FSTEC Conference

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ZippyApp Founder & CEO, Kamyar Faron, presents at the 2015 FSTEC conference in Washington, D.C. on Recruiting Millennials in the Mobile and Social Age. 

Sunnyvale, CA, October 13th 2015 – ZippyApp Founder and CEO, Kamyar Faron, presented at the 2015 FSTEC conference in Washington D.C. on Recruiting Millennials in the Mobile and Social Age. FSTEC is an annual technology conference , and is the only one of its kind focused solely on the foodservice industry.

“The presentation was well attended with great audience participation. It was clearly a topic of interest. Many participants visited our booth for more details and further discussions on the topic. There was a lot of enthusiasm from restaurant owners and operators on the innovative technology ZippyApp offers,” stated Faron.

Hosting over 1,400 Executives, FSTEC offers a forum-like setting for new ideas and solutions for foodservice technology issues.

Which is where Faron and ZippyApp step in.

Hourly recruiting and hiring practices have changed drastically over the last decade, yet hourly employers are still working with decade-old practices – like paper applicants and traditional applicant tracking systems.

Since millennials are expected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2020, hourly employers need to be ready with a recruiting and hiring strategy to engage these workers.

“The workforce of today and tomorrow is highly engaged on mobile devices and social channels, and efficiency and connectivity are required at all stages of the job search,” explains Faron during the presentation.

ZippyApp faces millennial recruiting and hiring issues head-on by posting to popular local jobs boards and targeting jobs on social media offering maximum exposure and one-stop advertising. ZippyApp’s unique QR Code Application System allows job seekers to simply scan a barcode and apply to jobs straight from their mobile device.

About ZippyApp: A true innovation in the hourly job market, ZippyApp is the social, local, and mobile recruiting and hiring solution for the hourly job market. ZippyApp fits into any recruitment budget so organizations have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying this innovative approach to staffing. For more information, visit: zippyapp.com/business.

Kick Apps: 7 cool tools for restaurant operators

Posted on by zippyapp

[Originally posted in restaurant-hospitality.com]

ZippyApp promises restaurant operators swift and easy recruitment of qualified local job applicants and a more efficient way to manage the application, interview and hiring process. This new new app and marketplace for employers and hourly workers has job candidates fill out one application and apply to any restaurant in ZippyApp’s employer network. Job seekers learn about job openings at your restaurant from ZippyApp’s employer marketplace or on their Facebook and Twitter feeds. When they see ZippyApp’s window decal at your restaurant, they can simply scan the decal’s QR code with their smartphone to apply for a job.

To see the rest of the Kick Apps, go to: www.restaurant-hospitality.com.