Top 8 Websites to Hire Restaurant Staff

Hiring and retaining top talent has been a common stumbling block for restaurants, but the issue has reached a crisis point in the wake of the pandemic, and restaurants across the country are struggling to find staff.

When you have a job opening in your venue, the standard practice is to stick an ad in the window and hope for the best. While this method is tried and tested, it’s not always the best way to attract top talent. 

Ensuring your job ad is seen by the right people as quickly as possible is imperative. As with most things, taking your recruitment online is the best way to find and attract the best talent.

To help with your search, we’ve rounded up the eight best websites to hire restaurant staff.

Let’s dive in.

8 websites to hire restaurant staff 

If you’re struggling to find applicants for your latest job openings, try advertising on one or more of the following websites and job boards.

1. Indeed
2. Monster
3. Craigslist
4. ZipRecruiter
5. Culinary Agents
6. Good Food Jobs
7. Sirvo
8. Snagajob

1. Indeed

Indeed is one of the biggest job sites in the world, with over 225 million resumes stored on the website and over 300 million monthly visitors. 

While Indeed doesn’t solely focus on recruiting for the hospitality industry, it’s a well-known and popular website for jobseekers in the hospitality industry. 

It’s free to set up an Indeed account and to post a job ad that will appear in general search results. To reach more potential candidates, there’s also an option to promote your job opening for a fee. And according to Indeed, sponsored job ads are 4.5 times more likely to result in a hire.

2. Monster

Monster is a global leader in recruiting and has been connecting employers with candidates for over 25 years.

While Monster doesn’t specialise in recruiting for the hospitality industry, thousands of open hospitality roles are on the site, and venues often use it to recruit staff. Employers can also access job description templates to help craft the perfect job ad. 

Pricing for a single job ad starts at $279/mo; however, if you’re a new customer and have never advertised on the site before, you can opt for a free trial. There are also other price options available if you’d like to post more than one ad, these range from $399/mo – $649/mo. 

3. Craigslist

Craigslist is an advertising website where users can post anything from job ads to services, items for sale and housing ads.

The website is particularly popular for small local businesses searching for restaurant staff, as it’s quick and easy to post an ad and often cheaper than some of the bigger job boards.  

It costs between $10-$75 to post a job ad on Craigslist in the USA and selected areas in Canada. The fee varies depending on which area you’re posting the job ad from.

4. ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter is one of the biggest recruiting websites in the US, and four out of five employers who post an ad get a quality candidate within the first day.

ZipRecruiter specialises in helping small to medium-sized businesses connect with qualified candidates, so you can fill your open roles as quickly as possible.

It’s free to create an account and post a job ad with ZipRecruiter. There are also paid plans available to help boost your job ads to the right audience, and with a paid plan, your job ad will also be pushed to over 100 other job websites within the ZipRecruiter network.

5. Culinary Agents

Culinary Agents is a specialist recruitment website for the hospitality industry in the US.

With a community of over 1.2 million members, Culinary Agents makes it quick and easy to connect hospitality businesses with top talent. The site also has a resources hub that contains everything from industry data to best practice tips for recruiting. 

It costs $49 to post one basic job ad, $46 if you purchase 5 ads or $44 if you purchase a pack of 10 job ads. You can also opt for the $100/mo subscription if you’re looking to recruit on a regular basis. 

6. Good Food Jobs

Good Food Jobs is another specialist job website that helps businesses in the hospitality industry connect with the best job seekers.

With over 161,000 active users, Good Food Jobs is a great network to tap into if you’re on the hunt to hire new restaurant staff. 

Pricing for job ads starts at $60, and your ad will be live for 6 days. You can also buy in bulk to save money – packages for 5 job ads cost $250, 10 ads will cost $400, and 15 job ads will cost $450.

7. Sirvo

Sirvo specialises in recruiting for jobs in the service industries, with a specific focus on restaurant and retail roles.

Sirvo is also an official Indeed partner, and all job ads posted on the Sirvo website are automatically pushed to the Indeed network for wider reach. 

Sirvo offers lots of flexible pricing options to suit every business. One stand-alone job ad costs $40 and will be live on the site for 30 days. If you’re a multi-site operation, then there are subscription packages available to manage all your recruiting from one place. Subscriptions start from $110 for one location.

8. Snagajob

Snagajob is a job website that specialises in advertising roles that pay by the hour. This is a great resource for restaurants that are looking to hire staff that aren’t salaried, such as bartenders and servers.  

With over 6 million active jobseekers, Snagajob is America’s largest marketplace for hourly workers. It’s also possible to find staff to cover shifts on Snagajob rather than recruiting for a specific role.

Pricing starts from $89/mo for basic job ads and shift covers.

Where to promote your new job opening

Once you’ve decided which job websites best fit your job opening, the next step is to promote your ad far and wide.

• Social media – post your job ad on all your social media channels, with a short description of the role you are hiring for and a link to the ad so people can easily apply.
• In-venue – pop a small ad in your window advertising your job and where candidates can apply. You could also include a QR code with a direct link to your ad, so people can scan it to learn more and apply.
• Email – send an email blast out to your customers saying you’re hiring – you never know who might be looking for work, and your customers will already be familiar with your venue and what you do. Don’t forget to include a brief outline of the open role(s) and links to the job ad.
• Staff referrals – ask your team to refer any friends and family they think might be suitable for the role. You could also include an incentive if their referral gets the role.

Looking to hire restaurant staff?

Finding the right staff for your restaurant can be tricky. With more people going online to manage their day-to-day lives, it’s important for restaurants to post their job openings online to ensure they reach as many people as possible and, more importantly, are seen by the right candidates. However, which website job board you choose to post your new role will depend on your budget, the type of job and how quickly you need the role to start.