Simple Tips For Filling Your Food Truck Job Openings

It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle your politics to know that recruiting in the food truck industry is changing. With the unemployment rate dipping to a 17-year low of 4.1%, most of the best foodservice workers are already employed. Meanwhile, food trucks eager to grow in this economy are trying to find qualified talent to fill their job openings.

Near full employment means that for the first time in years, candidates are picking the companies they want to work for. With more options than ever, these job seekers are now in control, and will even preemptively reject your attempts to hire them.

But just because “job shopping” is the new norm, doesn’t mean you have zero control over the ebb and flow of your talent pool. You just need to embrace the new rules of recruiting for your food truck. Now you must think more about how you’re engaging with candidates every step of the way.

Tips For Filling Your Food Truck Job Openings

Here are some quick tips you should incorporate into your hiring strategy to continue bringing on the top food truck talent.

Simplify the application process

According to recent surveys, more than 60% of candidates abandon applications for job openings that are too complex. This is due to a number of reasons. From difficulty navigating hiring portals, to bug filled or outdated systems. While you may not have control over every aspect that turns job seekers away, there are things you can do to streamline the process.

The easy way to do this is to walk through your application process to test how long it takes to complete. If it takes 15 minutes or more, see if there anything you can do to reduce that time. Try to get the applicant process to take 5-10 minutes.

Also, examine your job descriptions to eliminate industry jargon. Questions that are unnecessarily complicated can turn off candidates investing their limited time into searching for job openings. Try to keep things simple where possible.

Make every candidate feel unique

It goes without saying that in today’s economy, you can’t afford for candidates to feel like just another temporary hire. The days of posting job openings and praying for a good candidate to find it are quickly disappearing. Now, when recruiting employees for your food truck, you can’t be focused solely on administrative efficiency.

You need to center your attention on the candidate. This means that you need to respond to messages promptly, calling them over emailing them and being authentic. You can also make use of your food truck’s marketing materials, to share with candidates. By carefully tailoring these items, you can let candidates know that you’re thinking deeply about how their skills and experiences can benefit your food truck.

Think about branding every step of the way

Remember that the lines between recruiting talent and marketing your food truck are continuing to blur. Food truck vendors need to be aware of how their brand presents itself to candidates. Anyone can do a simple Google search or look for customer and employee experiences shared on social media.

Many parts of branding your food truck are out of your hands. With that said, it is import to button up those things you do have control of. Be proactive on social media, where a response to a complaint could make or break a candidate’s decision to work for you and your food truck.

Any food truck owner can tell you that managing your staff is never easy. Especially in the current state of the job market. But if you start to approach hiring the same way you handle customer and employee experiences, you can begin to develop quality interactions throughout the process and create a great candidate experience.

This process is all about building your brand and revamping your hiring practices to intentionally engage candidates at the right time. Do that, and you’ll leaving lasting impressions on candidates; and hopefully, future employees.

The Bottom Line

Whether you are a food truck startup or an existing mobile food business who just needs to replace someone who quit or retired, you want to make sure you have an efficient process for finding and hiring the right people. Use these tips to help you fill those open positions as quickly as possible, with the best candidates.

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