One of the keys to a restaurant’s success is having the right people in the right roles. Hiring and onboarding staff is a continuous process, and each step of that process should be guided by your overall brand strategy.

Today’s workforce is interested in joining businesses that put their values front and center. In fact, according to recent studies, roughly a quarter of all job hunters think about whether they are compatible with a brand prior to applying. It’s about more than a paycheck — it’s finding common ground on a team that aligns with your values. Let’s take a more in-depth look at how to define your brand, tell your story, and find your people.

Define Your Brand

Before you ever opened your doors, you probably spent a lot of time considering what kind of brand your business would embody — how it would look, feel, the vibes it would bring to the community. A brand communicates with the public three essential elements of a business — values, personality, and purpose — ideally across every touchpoint.

It’s essential that the materials and language you use to represent your brand — from website to social media, menus to signage, and event booths to swag — reflect these foundational signifiers.

Tell Your Story

Job applicants want to have a sense of the kind of company they’re applying to. You can communicate this in a variety of ways, including your sourcing practices — working with local farms and other sustainable sourcing options you might use; your ties to the community — collaborating with other like-minded businesses and nonprofits; and your team culture — how you build a community among your employees with site visits, special trainings, and other team-building opportunities.

When you engage with the community at large in this way, you’re letting folks know exactly what makes your restaurant unique, and that will attract people who share your vision.

Paint a Vivid Picture

Branding and marketing go hand-in-hand. Branding is the way you establish who you are, and marketing is how you communicate it and attract your core audience. Work with your marketing team to make sure your brand and marketing efforts are working collaboratively with each other, not counter to one another. Commit fully to using the brand palette, images, and language you’ve created, and educate your staff so that they’re empowered to do the same on your behalf.

This could mean creating server scripts that you use to train new FOH employees, so they are using the proper verbiage about various menu items or your reservation system. It’s important to strive for consistency — everyone on your team should be operating from the same playbook. Your employee handbook should cover, in detail, every aspect of your business as it relates to your staff.

Another important element in communicating your brand is social media. It’s essential that the tone of your brand is conveyed accurately in your digital and web presence, from the fonts to the language itself. That’s why it can be so useful to have one dedicated employee, at a managerial level, who is accountable for these aspects of your operation. When this person posts online or responds to guests’ comments, they should sound like what you envision for your brand voice — every single time.

People Who Represent You

Brand development is something that continues throughout the life of your business — it doesn’t just end once you’ve got a logo and signage. Part of telling your ongoing brand story is about the people you choose to represent your business. Create testimonials from current staff about your work environment and have prospective candidates speak with team members who can provide an authentic view of your restaurant.

Ultimately, you’ll want to create policies for hiring and onboarding new employees that is an extension of your brand, including the way you recruit new employees. For example, if you’re looking for adventurous, youthful team members, you might want to consider posting job listings on university message boards. If you’re looking for career cooks and servers who are interested in long-term, full-time employment, you should explore specific hiring apps or other industry-specific sources. By knowing who you’re looking for, you can target your approach to the right audience.

The interview process is another extension of your brand. Remember, everyone who walks through your doors is a potential guest and should be treated accordingly, whether they’re applying to be a dishwasher or a sous chef. Assemble a team of trusted management capable of representing your brand through the entire hiring process and tap seasoned staff to help with onboarding and training new hires, so that they are always learning from the best of the best.

A massive part of your brand is how you value your team, from competitive benefits to staff meals, embracing input on menus and service, and shift flexibility. Communication is always key. Your business means everything to you; leverage that important brand to put the best possible people around you — saving money on the hiring process in the long run.