Interview Questions for Restaurant Help

One thing is for certain that no matter what staff you employ for your restaurant, they must have excellent people skills. It must be remembered that they are representing your establishment both when working and when not, and the caliber of people that you hire is critically important for the overall reputation of your establishment. The very first question that you need to ask any of the potential employees, is how much they enjoy people and what they attribute as good people skills. 
 

Once you get past that question and it is satisfactory, the next question is how much experience do they have pertaining to the position that needs filling. You have to determine according to the wages that you are prepared to pay, whether you are looking at someone to come in at the ground level, or you want an experienced individual. 
 
There are certain questions that you will not be able to ask according to the laws of your area in respect to privacy rights. But one thing you do need to know is whether the applicant is trustworthy or not, and you will have to rely on questions that are applicable and allowable to be asked in this circumstance. 
 
You want to know what type of formal training the individual has had pertaining to the job that you are interviewing for.  

Most often in the restaurant business it requires shift work. You must ask the applicant if they are prepared, and available to work whatever shift may be required for this specific position. Another question you must ask is, if they are flexible enough that if there services are not required in one area, if they are prepared to work in another area of the restaurant. 
 
Another thing that you must be certain of is that you are going to be able to get some sort of reference as to their previous experience, and also some proof of their education or training that they have received in this area.  
 
You must be absolutely sure that they have a clean bill of health as this will be very important when it comes to the public health issues. 
 
You also will need to know, what are the expectations of wages, as the position may not be high enough of a caliber to carry the wages that the individual is expecting, and it will come down as a waste of time for both parties. If the wage is too low and the applicant has indicated a much higher wage, then chances are they are not going to stay very long even if they did accept the position. You are going to waste a great deal of time training and then have to go though the whole interviewing process all over again.  
 
You want to know what the expectations of the applicant are.  Are they hoping to make a career in the restaurant industry, and if so is there place for advancement in your specific establishment. If not then be wary of hiring this particular applicant, as once again they will not be keen on staying in a position that is stale mated, or that they won't be able to advance.  

If there are positions for management that may be possible in the future you also want to keep in mind whether the applicant you are interviewing may be potential management material.

Article source: Contributed by RestaurantNewsResource.com, a global restaurant news distribution service.


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