- Partner hiring initiative provides free resources and technology to help connect job seekers with local restaurant and food service employers looking to hire
According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry is 1 million jobs below where it should be before the pandemic1. That’s why, Indeed, the world’s number one job site, and OpenTable, the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations, announced the launch of Interview Days: Restaurant Jobs. This month-long U.S. hiring initiative, which begins on October 1st, aims to accelerate the recovery of the food and beverage industry by providing free hiring tools to help businesses and restaurateurs source, screen and host interviews. A new dedicated portal will also empower job seekers to discover open positions and access resources to help them succeed in their job search in the restaurant industry.
“They are also places of opportunity for those who work in them. We need employees now – that’s why I was happy to team up with OpenTable and Indeed to bring awareness to the industry’s ongoing labor shortage and help bring staff back to restaurants.”
Indeed and OpenTable partnered with Restaurateur Martha Hoover on this hiring initiative. “If you think that restaurants are merely places to grab meals, I want to challenge that idea. Restaurants are much more than that. Restaurants create change in neighborhoods; they create change in cities. They are where world-changing ideas happen,” said Martha Hoover, Founder & President, Patachou Inc. “They are also places of opportunity for those who work in them. We need employees now – that’s why I was happy to team up with OpenTable and Indeed to bring awareness to the industry’s ongoing labor shortage and help bring staff back to restaurants.” For more information on Martha Hoover’s perspective on this labor issue and hiring in the restaurant industry, visit the OpenTable blog.
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The restaurant and food service industry, which has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, continues to struggle as the Delta variant stalls its recovery. Yet, diners are eager to dine out, OpenTable’s State of the Industry dashboard shows diner volume as high as 30% above 2019 levels in September, and along with it, so has the urgency to staff up to help with diner demand. Data from Indeed shows job postings for food preparation and service roles have increased by 39.9% in the U.S. since February 2020.
“It has been an extraordinarily hard time for local restaurant and food service businesses. When the pandemic hit last year, many had to shut down or significantly reduce operations. Now as they reopen and more people want to return to in-person dining, local restaurants and food service employers are struggling to hire enough qualified workers to meet the consumer demand that will help them rebuild,” said Raj Mukherjee, SVP and GM of SMB at Indeed. “With this hiring initiative, we want to help employers navigate the current labor market, using our resources to highlight their open roles and to help them hire job seekers interested in careers in the industry.”
“Throughout the pandemic, we focused our energy on tech solutions to help our partners survive and navigate changing protocols, but now, we need to bring awareness to the labor shortage,” said Debby Soo, CEO, OpenTable. “Staffing is one of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants today – we’re excited to partner with Indeed to help restaurants overcome this latest obstacle on their road to recovery.”
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Indeed has also partnered with its strategic partner, Goodwill®, North America’s leading workforce provider, and other non-profits, to ensure job seekers in their communities are aware of the initiative. Providing free resources, such as outfitting services, one-on-one coaching and virtual workshops, to help job seekers who want to participate be set up to succeed. Job seekers can visit the initiative’s dedicated job site to search for open positions by job title, keywords or company names in their location, and can visit the Indeed Career Guide to access additional free tools to help them prepare for interviews.
Participating employers gain access to Indeed’s free suite of hiring tools to manage the end-to-end hiring process, from job postings through interviews all on Indeed, with no additional software. This enables them to accelerate hiring, since those who conduct interviews on Indeed are able to hire 20% faster than in-person interviews or virtual interviews on third party apps. To further help restaurants staff up, OpenTable created a robust guide with tips, checklists and job posting templates that offer guidance on how to hire and retain talent. Additionally, OpenTable is offering free training and certification for all hosts and managers to quickly onboard in their new role.
Employers can participate by posting food and beverage jobs to Indeed until October 22, 2021. Eligible employers who successfully hire during the initiative will also receive a $200 Sponsored Jobs credit from Indeed.
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