As a hiring manager in the fast food or retail industry, a significant portion of your workforce is likely made up of high school and college students working part-time. While these young employees can bring energy and flexibility to your team, managing them does require some unique strategies compared to your more seasoned staff. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the key things to keep in mind when managing your student workforce.
Recruiting and Hiring
The first step is finding and bringing on board the right student employees in the first place. Keep in mind that most students are seeking part-time work that fits within their academic schedules. They often desire flexibility with scheduling because of classes, exams, extracurriculars, and other commitments.
When recruiting student candidates, be sure to promote the flexibility you can offer in terms of scheduling. Many students appreciate having control over choosing and adjusting their schedules. You should also highlight any other benefits you provide, such as competitive wages, employee discounts, bonuses, and opportunities for growth or promotion.
In the interview process, get a sense of the student’s personality and soft skills. Things like communication, reliability, critical thinking, and teamwork are just as important as any previous job experience for these roles. Be clear about expectations for punctuality, attendance, and performance to set them up for success.
Training and Onboarding
Once hired, properly training and onboarding student staff is key. Don’t assume their part-time status means they don’t require an in-depth training process. Provide the same structured onboarding you give any new hire. Show them how to clock in, review company policies, provide branded uniforms, and give an in-depth orientation on food safety procedures.
Also, invest time upfront demonstrating detailed expectations for job duties and providing hands-on training for their specific role. Set clear guidelines on proper workplace communication, food prep procedures, serving sizes and presentation, cleaning tasks, and closing duties.
Scheduling and Availability
The right scheduling approach is critical for successfully managing student employees. Ask for their school schedule and input on availability as soon as they are hired. Block out times when they have classes or exams as unavailable in your scheduling system. Remain as accommodating as possible with their changing availability week-to-week based on academic demands.
Provide plenty of notice when the schedule is released each week and allow for shift trades and pickups. Be flexible about letting them adjust the schedule when conflicts arise. Also, keep open lines of communication and be understanding when school activities or priorities mean they may have limited availability at times.
Motivating and Engaging
Since your student workforce is part-time and transitional, it can be challenging to keep them motivated and engaged with your business long-term. Really listen to any career ambitions or interests they share that may relate to your industry, such as aspirations of owning their own restaurant someday. Offer relevant growth opportunities, like letting an aspiring chef help out in the kitchen.
Provide positive feedback when you observe good performance or progress being made. Highlight specific examples of jobs done well and contributions to the team. Offer words of encouragement during training as they learn new skills. And don’t forget rewards or small incentives to keep motivation high. Things like employee meals, movie tickets, gas cards, or bonuses for holidays can go a long way. Even small recognitions of their efforts make a difference in making them feel valued.
Communication
Communication with your student employees needs to accommodate their constantly connected world. Social media, texting, and messaging apps are often their preferred methods over emails or phone calls. Maintain approachability as their manager by meeting them on their channels. Just be sure to provide guidelines on responsiveness expectations.
When giving feedback, take their maturity level and experience into account with how you communicate. Offer guidance in a constructive way focused on developing their skills versus harsh criticism. Remain professional in your tone while also showing empathy. Also, set clear expectations that you will communicate schedule changes promptly and hope for the same from them. Establish mutual responsibility for keeping each other informed, given the likelihood of evolving availability.
Compliance Considerations
There are also a few compliance considerations unique to student employees under 18:
– Adhere to any state or federal regulations on the number of hours allowed for minors, curfews on school nights, and latest shift times.
– Maintain parental consent forms allowing minors to work.
– Ask for proof of age during the I9 process to ensure they are of legal working age.
– Follow all safety regulations on hazardous equipment minors are prohibited from operating.
By accommodating their availability, providing flexibility, offering incentives, and communicating effectively, you can build an engaged student workforce. Keeping their school priorities in mind and understanding their motivations will allow you to set them up for success.
Leveraging Chattr to Streamline Hiring
Managing the hiring process for your student employees takes a lot of extra time and coordination. With Chattr’s recruitment automation platform, you can simplify and speed up hiring student workers for your fast food or retail location.
Chattr allows you to screen candidates with custom questions like academic schedules and availability. Automated scheduling improves response rates by letting candidates choose interview times convenient for them.
You can also automate background checks, digitally collect W4 tax forms and parental consent, and initiate I9 verification for student applicants. Chattr’s portal keeps all hiring documents organized in one secure, centralized place.
With AI-enabled chatbots, you can automate communication with candidates to answer common questions and remind them of interviews. Useful metrics and analytics give you data-driven insights to improve your student recruiting and hiring strategy over time.
By removing time-consuming manual tasks and streamlining cumbersome processes, Chattr lets you hire the best student talent quickly and efficiently. Sign up today for a free demo to see how Chattr can transform your student recruiting.
