Beverage recruiters and food recruiters supply the hospitality industry with chefs, servers, managers and bartenders along with sales and marketing people and buyers who specialize in food products. Many companies opt to pay recruiters to fill their staffing needs with qualified personnel.

Beverage industry recruiters specialize in placing people in positions of management, sales, accounts and personnel who are experienced in the wholesale and retail beverage industries. Foodservice recruiters can specialize in campus dining, hotels, kitchen personnel and food manufacturing. Recruiting services for the food and beverage industry basics is a wide topic with specialized areas.

1. Choose food service headhunters who are up to date on the latest trends.

2. Hire beverage recruiting specialists to fill your staffing needs.

3. Look for a food and beverage industry executive recruiter to help you fill top positions.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Talk to food service recruiters about trends and news

Educate yourself on the latest trends regarding the food service industry so when you're speaking with recruiters you know if they're up to date with the latest trends. Choosing a food service recruiter whose on top of trends will help you obtain and retain the best employees.

I recommend: Simply Hired tracks the latest trends in the food recruitment industry with an easy-to-understand chart system. ERE Media discusses the ups and downs of the recruiting industry, giving you valuable inside information that'll help you make the best decision when choosing a recruiting agent for your business.

Find beverage industry recruiters who know their stuff

Beverage industry recruiting is specialized in some cases. Recruitment for research and development in the beverage industry is the source of a number of placements, as are positions in sales and marketing. Choose recruiters who are knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of the beverage industry that are essential to your business.

I recommend: Management Recruiters of Portland specializes in recruiting for the adult beverage industry. Sales Consultants of San Antonio places corporate and sales positions in the food and beverage industry.

Understand what to expect from a food and beverage industry executive search

Recruiters who work with executive candidates are highly beneficial because they vet your candidates and verify their job history and references. In addition, they eliminate those who don't match your criteria so you're only dealing with highly trained and compatible professionals.

I recommend: Global Hospitality specializes in executive level recruiting for food and beverage positions in the hospitality industry. Reaction Search International has a long history of filling executive positions within the food and beverage industry.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider using foodservice recruiters to fill multiple positions in a short period of time. While food servers may be easy to find in small numbers, recruiters can help you locate trained professionals in large numbers for events like conventions.

Are you looking for a new career? One of the biggest areas of industry growth is job placement. For years the energy sector, pulp and paper and medical fields have all used recruitment services to find qualified employees. Today, recruitment for the food and beverage industry is a growing job field for enterprising people.

In its simplest form, food service recruiting is all about connecting qualified job candidates with the right employer. Once a recruiter has found a candidate, they will help the candidate polish his or her resume and coach them for the job interview.

Food recruiters, also called food service headhunters, receive a commission for each successful candidate they place. The commission is agreed upon between the recruiter and the employer, before the placement is made. Payment is issued once the candidate has officially started working. Food service recruiters may work independently or as part of a larger recruiting firm. Food recruitment has several benefits, including:

1. Flexible hours

2. Telecommuting

3. High commission rates

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Decide if you want tackle food beverage industry recruitment alone or as a team

Food and beverage industry recruiters may work independently. These food service recruiters keep 100% of the profit and work as their own boss. However, working as part of a food and beverage recruiting team, food recruiters have access to more job leads and a better chance for a steady income.

I recommend: Check out some of the leading food and beverage recruiters in the nation. Dixie Search Associates, Dick Wray Executive Search and Coughlin and Associates all offer recruiting services for the food and beverage industry.

Understand the drawbacks beverage industry recruiters face

If you work as a food or beverage recruiter, you may be giving up a steady pay check, in the beginning, at least. It can take several months to make your first placement. Be sure that you are prepared, both financially and emotionally, for erratic pay checks as you get your business off the ground.

I recommend: Read more about recruiting at the Lucas Group, a recruitment service in business since 1970. They offer advice on everything from negotiating salaries to how to deal with office politics.

Understand which candidates food or beverage industry recruiters are looking for

National and global chains are the biggest clients for food service recruitment. They can afford to pay top dollar to find an executive chef or a general manager. Familiarize yourself with what these companies are looking for from their food service recruiters.

I recommend: Check out the food service job openings at Monster.com or Jobster.com to see what employers are looking for.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Food or beverage recruiters should not overlook the hotel sector as a place to find both jobs and candidates. Many of the job duties in hotels overlap with those in the restaurant sector.

Food industry recruiters work with a variety of businesses and candidates within the food and beverage industry providing their expertise so you can get the best candidate for your particular job opening. These recruiters have a vast amount of resources and tools at their disposal, making it easy for them to quickly find the right person to fill the vacancy.

As an employer, using recruiting services for the food and beverage industry saves you time and money, because you don't have to spend hours posting advertisements, sifting through resumes and prescreening applicants. In addition, they can close the deal for you by negotiating with the candidates and offering them a position within your company. Here's what to expect when working with recruiting services for the food and beverage industry:

1. Employ food service recruiters to advertise your openings professionally.

2. Use food recruitment services to handle all the recruiting needs of your company, from prescreening to reference checking.

3. Allow food industry recruiters to handle negotiations and offers with top candidates.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use food industry recruiters to advertise your company's positions

Take advantage of the tools and resources food and beverage recruiters have at their disposal and let them post your job openings via the Internet and food industry publications. Provide the recruiters with detailed information about your company and culture, as well as the job description, expectations and degree requirements needed for the position, in order to develop a professional advertisement.

I recommend: OSI is a leader in food industry executive recruitment with diverse experience in food technology, marketing and food manufacturing. They handle the overall recruitment process in addition to advertising job openings within the industry. Look to Dixie Search Associates to handle background verifications, professional references, psychological testing and more.

Free up your time and let beverage industry recruiters find candidates for you

Not only do food industry executive search firms handle all your advertising needs, they will work directly with each candidate, sifting through thousands of resumes, prescreening and interviewing each one. This process is extremely time-consuming, so letting a search firm do it for you frees your time to handle other tasks.

I recommend: Food Management Search's recruiting process involves getting to know the client's business in detail starting with how the organization and inner-culture works in your company. They manage all aspects of the recruitment process for you, from prescreening candidates through reference checking and more. Food Service Recruiters handles all the prescreening and interviewing of candidates, providing you with only the most qualified recruits within the food manufacturing industry. Resources in Food (RIF) combines traditional recruiting methods with the newest Internet technology, maintaining the largest database of candidates in the industry. They will screen, background check and even review relocation possibilities for you.

Close the deal with food recruiters

Once you've had your chance to interview the top candidates, let the search firm complete the process. Provide the search firm with a salary range for the position, where they can start low and negotiate within the range you specify. Provide the firm with contract details and benefit package information up front and let them do all the negotiating for you.

I recommend: The Raven Group will work with you to define the most realistic compensation package for the open position. Bryant Associates' five-step approach to recruiting services includes all facets of getting the right candidate for you and handles the contract negotiations.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Food industry headhunters work directly with companies and job candidates. If you're looking for a new career, use them to simplify the process. Since they get paid by the client, their services are free and they can professionally market your talent, placing you in front of companies that otherwise might not see you.
• •  Look for special guarantees when searching for a recruitment agency, like offering you a free replacement for the position if a candidate doesn't work out.

Recruiting services for the food and beverage industry have a language all their own. From pre-screen to negotiations, these search consultants take a potential candidate through the hiring process. Learn these terms before beginning the search for a new food and beverage industry position.

Before your business begins a relationship with a recruiting service, it is important to know these key terms. Know what the recruiter means and what he plans to do for your business when you hire a recruiting service for the food and beverage industry.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Performance skills

The term performance skills refers to what skills the candidate must possess in order to be eligible for a position.

I recommend: Food Management Search provides a list of performance skills necessary for food and beverage positions.

Headhunters

A headhunter is another name for someone working in recruiting services.

I recommend: SYL offers information on headhunters, what they do and how they operate. Bristol Associates has more information on what headhunters in the food and beverage industry do.

Pre-screen

Pre-screen is the process used by recruiters in the food and beverage industry to find out if the applicant has certain basic qualifications for the position.

I recommend: Star Chefs provides extensive information about recruiting, including a section on pre-screening.

Assessment

Assessment refers to the process of delving into a potential candidate's profile to see if they are eligible for a current position.

I recommend: Kinsa provides information about what assessment means. J B Hunt provides information on how recruiting firms assess potential candidates for the food and beverage industry, which is one of their specialties.

Hiring process

The hiring process refers to all the steps the candidate can expect to take when applying for a position.

I recommend: Dick Wray offers detailed information on the hiring process of recruiting firms specifically as it relates to the food and beverage industry.

Negotiations

Negotiations refers to the process of a recruiter acting as go-between for both parties, in order to handle salary and other issues.

I recommend: HCI provides information on negotiations. MRI Network provides information on negotiations as it refers to the food and beverage industry.