In many ways, finding a new restaurant manager is one of the biggest hiring challenges a restaurant owner can face. After all, restaurant managers take on so many different roles and work with so many different people on your team. You want to make sure you find someone competent in the tasks at hand and personable to lead. This is why having the right restaurant manager job description is key to hiring for this position.
How you attract high quality candidates who have the experience you need and the right mindset for the job starts with a well-composed job description. It’s all about getting your hiring process off on the right foot.
Restaurant Manager Job Description Title
The job title on your restaurant manager job description should be specific and detailed, but also concise. That might seem like an oxymoron, but it’s more about balancing the two aspects. Depending on the job website, you might have a limitation on characters for your job listing title. Keeping it under 80 characters is usually a good idea.
People will often search specifically for “restaurant manager,” so having those two words back-to-back is important. But highly qualified candidates will be scanning these sites for job titles that specifically fit where they are and where they want to go with their careers. You want the title to stand out.
So, if you’re hiring a back-of-house restaurant manager, that’s how you should title it. Or if you’re hiring for a fine dining restaurant and want a manager specifically with similar experience, using “Restaurant Manager – Fine Dining” works as well.
Avoiding Gender Bias
While you’re describing the ideal candidate, stay away from using he/him pronouns. Using masculine pronouns sends the message that you assume the best applicant will be male, which means you might miss out on excellent female applicants even sending their resume at all.
Instead, stick with they/them pronouns (it’s grammatically correct and unbiased). Also consider working in more second person tense with “you” pronouns, like “you will be managing a team of 20” or “your daily routine will include…” Besides avoiding gendered pronouns, using “you” is more proactive, putting the potential candidate already in the mindset of the role.
Opening Paragraph
The introductory paragraph in your restaurant manager job description should also include an overview of restaurant. This is your chance to sell the applicants on why they should want to work there.
Discuss the overall brand, the menu, the work culture you’ve developed, and any achievements or connections to your community. If you’re an entirely vegan restaurant, say so. If your team does volunteer work for local organizations, mention it. If you’ve won a prominent culinary award, bring it up here.
Give the potential manager a sense of who you are so they feel like applying for the job is worth their time. That being said, still keep this part to a paragraph only — if you make it any longer, the applicant won’t read it and will just scroll past to get to the job requirements.
Listing Benefits
As with the opening paragraph, listing the benefits you offer your restaurant manager is meant to further entice the applicant. It’s part of you selling them on the position with a restaurant manager job description, and why they should be excited about the opportunity. But it’s important to be honest and accurate in this section to set the correct expectations about insurance, paid time off, and any other benefits you’re offering beyond the paycheck.
Necessary Skills and Traits
Before you get to the official responsibilities in the restaurant manager job description, this bulleted list sets up your own expectations for a great candidate.
Think about the kind of leader you’re looking for in your new manager. Organizational skills, interpersonal skills, detail-oriented, and even just the ability to efficiently delegate tasks are important. Consider asking your employees (especially those who will be working with this person) what they appreciate in a manager. You might just get a sense of the traits the whole team wants in a leader.
You should also mention more specific experience-based traits you’re looking for in your manager. Experience working with food vendors, handling paperwork and financial records, overseeing stock levels, and supervising shifts are all good examples. And if you expect your new restaurant manager to have specific certification (ServSafe, for example), you should mention it here.
Responsibilities
This is the core of the restaurant manager job description, where the applicant gets a good overview of what this job would look like both in terms of their tasks each shift and their larger responsibilities within the business.
There are a few different levels to this section. First you should lay out the big picture responsibilities that come with the position. Next, go over the basic day-to-day tasks you’d expect from the position. Finally, explain how this position fits into the business as a whole, including who they would report to and who will report to them.
The idea is for the applicant to be able to skim this section, not get bogged down by big paragraphs. The responsibilities should be in bulleted lists to make them as easy to read as possible, and try to err on the side of brevity for each item.
Salary
It’s recommended that instead of a specific salary, you list a salary range that is competitive with this position in the industry. This will let you adjust the official salary depending on the new employee’s pay history and experience. It also gives applicants a good sense of what you’re offering in terms of compensation and if it fits their needs upfront.
Just make sure you can back up this estimate when you eventually offer a candidate the job. It’s advisable to bracket down on the high end of your range in order to allow some wiggle room for negotiation (and not to show your hand too much before salary negotiations even start). But also, don’t go so low that you might end up turning away the kinds of applicants who have the skills you’re looking for.
Do a little research ahead of time to see what other restaurants like yours are paying for a comparable position – whether that’s through online research or networking with other restaurant owners in your area.
Posting a Restaurant Manager Job Description Online
As you start jumping into posting your restaurant manager job description, it’s important to remember that different websites handle the job description format different. If you’re posting on multiple sites (which is usually a good idea to get the word out), you may possibly have to organize or phrase the job description a little differently as you go. But if you have to adjust your job description from website to website, just make sure the actual information you’re giving is consistent.
Want a leg up on the interview process? Download our FREE eTool “10 Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring Restaurant Staff” today!
