How to Identify Great Restaurant Managers with Skills Testing

The speed at which business takes place in a restaurant, along with slim profit margins, means every decision matters. That includes hiring restaurant managers who have all of the skills needed to help you succeed.

With the restaurant industry holding the highest quit rate (5.3% in August 2019) of any sector and the U.S. unemployment rate at a historic low, businesses must create a process that better hires for quality.

Identifying candidates who possess both the ‘people skills’ and cognitive ability needed to excel in this ever-evolving role is more critical now than ever.

eSkill makes quickly vetting potential candidates for restaurant management positions simple with a customizable library of job-specific and skill-specific assessments.

HIRING AND TRAINING

Hiring New Restaurant Managers: Consider Hiring From Within

The restaurant industry’s workforce challenges have never been more enormous. With the U.S. unemployment rate sitting at 3.6%, and exceptionally high turnover rates in the restaurant industry, employers can no longer count on hiring people who have job-specific experience.

So, where do you turn to find the perfect restaurant manager? Hidden among your existing employees may be individuals who have the skill sets needed to thrive in a management role. eSkill’s library of skills tests can be used not only to identify these individuals but to determine what, if any, additional training may be needed.

Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to make data-driven hiring and training decisions. While an individual may be missing a portion of the skills needed, personalized training that addresses this deficit will mitigate any potential challenges.

As the skills needed to succeed in any business is changing rapidly, the practice of re-training or ‘reskilling’ existing employees is now a common trend amongst top organizations. Companies like IBM, AT&T, Amazon, and Google are investing millions in efforts to retrain employees to fill current and future positions. Matt Usdin, Principal at Deloitte, a global leader in Human Resources (HR) consulting, advises, “…with the half-life of skills now under four years, working and learning must happen simultaneously.”

Investing in human capital is necessary, not only due to the lack of available talent but also due to the quickly changing skills every business requires.

Hiring New Restaurant Managers: Make Data-Driven Decisions

Whether your HR team is looking internally, externally, or both to hire restaurant managers, using skills tests to making data-driven decisions will improve and speed the process. Relying on quantifiable data—rather than subjective one-on-one interviews, resumes, or work history—bolsters and speeds the talent acquisition process.

The practice of using candidate and employee data to support decisions made by HR departments is becoming so commonplace that a new term was dubbed to describe it, ‘people analytics.’ A 2018 study found that 54% of responding organizations reported using ‘people analytics’ to improve HR effectiveness.

In the race for talent, data-driven organizations are furthering the distance between themselves and their less-informed peers. McKinsey Global Institute reports that data-driven organizations are now 19 times more likely to achieve above-average profitability as a result.

Partnering with eSkill, a trusted assessment platform, allows HR teams to seamlessly administer customizable restaurant management skills tests to acquire the necessary data to make informed decisions—whether that means reskilling current employees or bringing on new talent.

Hiring and Training Restaurant Managers: Evaluate the ‘Right’ Skills

The first step in the assessment process is also the most critical in obtaining useful data: identifying the core competencies of the position.

From automated software that will manage purchasing, inventory, scheduling and forecasting, to digital marketing solutions, customer-facing tabletop tablets, and virtual reality onboarding, top restaurant managers are tasked with quickly implementing and executing the use of new technology regularly. With a vast selection of tech solutions available to restaurants, assessing managers’ ability to determine what, when, and how new technology should be implemented is crucial.

With technology speeding and even eliminating many tasks that used to consume a restaurant manager’s time, interpersonal connections with staff and customers are quickly becoming a priority. Possessing the soft skills necessary to thrive in this role is the key to success and should be thoroughly evaluated.

Once the core competencies are determined, eSkill’s user-friendly platform allows your HR team to combine or individually administer assessments to reflect the requirements of the position accurately.

Further, questions can be edited, created, or cherry-picked from eSkill’s extensive library of skills tests. eSkill provides every client with a dedicated testing expert who will assist your HR team in administering an ‘out-of-the-box’ skills test or developing a customized skills test.

Here is a selection of popular skills tests used for evaluating restaurant managers’ skill sets.

• eSkill’s ‘Hospitality Manager’ assessment covers communication and customer service skills, food and beverage serving skills, event planning skills, and the ability to manage and supervise a team.
• eSkill’s ‘Customer Service’ assessment covers problem solving, adaptability, teamwork and collaboration, and communication.
• eSkill’s ‘Project Management’ assessment evaluates individuals’ ability to assess the quality and risk of business decisions, manage costs, negotiate, and to think critically.
• eSkill’s ‘Change Management’ assessment evaluates candidates’ ability to change software, update technology, hire new staff, or start a new project by strategically developing a unified strategy to monitor and manage changes.
• eSkill’s ‘Discrimination in the Workplace’ assessment covers many topics, including harassment, types of discrimination, rights, and remedies, and effects of discrimination.
• eSkill’s ‘Training Skills’ assessment covers training needs analysis, training objectives and methods, managing training materials, training delivery methods, and evaluation of training.
• eSkill’s ‘Digital Literacy’ assessment covers basic computer operations, email, internet, social media, and working with computers.

While the soft skills needed for this customer-centric role remain constant, the technical and analytical skills top restaurant managers need today are changing as rapidly as technology is evolving. Therefore, correctly identifying candidates and internal employees who will be able to hold their own in this fast-paced industry is critical. eSkill’s assessment platform delivers the answers HR teams need to make better hiring and business decisions.

Interested in Identifying Top Restaurant Managers with Skills Testing?

Learn how to benefit from using eSkill’s library of hospitality industry skills tests to find qualified candidates quickly.

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