Restaurant Recruiters Work to Take the Headache Out of Hiring

The restaurant staffing crisis is not exactly news. Ask any operator — whether fine dining, fast casual, or quick service — and they’ll probably tell you one of their biggest headaches (behind rising labor costs) is finding and retaining staff. “Wherever I work, we are at a deficit looking for talented management,” says Beatrice Stein, a restaurant consultant for the past three decades. To answer the call, an increasing number of hospitality recruitment agencies have cropped up, helping clients recruit mid- and high-level salaried talent from CEO, to directors of food & beverage, and executive chefs — working on everything from crisis hiring to re-orgs, and general turnover. “Nearly any restaurant can benefit from using a recruiter,” says Mike Hewitt, founder of the hospitality recruitment firm One Haus. But he finds that talent search agencies are best suited to operators who do at least $1-1.5 million sales per year or have at least three to four units. That’s