Discover how recruitment marketing helps restaurants cut turnover, save on hiring costs, and attract top talent.
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September 2, 2025
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The biggest threat to restaurant profitability isn’t food costs or a labor shortage.
It’s turnover.
Turnover is quietly crushing P&Ls across the industry — draining thousands in recruitment expenses, training costs, lost productivity, and operational chaos, and causing burnout to people operators and hiring teams.
But here’s a secret: the problem isn’t a lack of workers looking for jobs.
It’s about how you’re consistently and effectively attracting top talent.
Most restaurants are still relying on outdated hiring methods that don’t work in today’s competitive labor market. Pouring thousands into job ad boosting? That just burns cash while unqualified candidates flood in.
The solution? Recruitment marketing.
Recruitment marketing is your secret weapon for consistently attracting top talent before your competitors do — and turning hiring from a cost center into a competitive advantage.
Today, we’ll break down what recruitment marketing really looks like in restaurants and hospitality, and share 4 key takeaways to help you attract, engage, and convert top talent faster.
Before we begin, let’s take a look at exactly what recruitment marketing is.
Every successful restaurant knows how to market to customers. Iconic taglines, recognizable colors, memorable experiences—you understand what resonates with diners because it drives revenue.
But while customer marketing answers "Why should I eat at your restaurant instead of the one down the street?", recruitment marketing answers "Why should I work at your restaurant instead of the one down the street?"
Instead of waiting for applicants to find you, recruitment marketing proactively builds your employer brand, creates compelling candidate experiences, and nurtures talent relationships over time.
In order to maximize your chances at attracting top hospitality talent, this means shifting from reactive "Help Wanted" signs to strategic campaigns that showcase your culture, career growth opportunities, and unique value proposition to potential employees.
While restaurants have continually pushed the boundaries of food service and hospitality, recruitment marketing remains an overlooked piece of restaurant operations.
The disconnect is costly: 76% of restaurant operators report difficulty finding qualified candidates, and time-to-fill for key positions now averages 28 days.
The problem isn't lack of available talent—it's that most restaurant groups are still using recruitment strategies from a decade ago while competing for attention with brands that have embraced modern marketing principles.
Most restaurant groups still rely on outdated approaches:
The result? You're essentially running a marketing campaign with 1990s tactics while your competition—and candidates—have moved into the digital age.
A cutting edge recruitment marketing strategy isn’t just a good idea in concept – it’s been proven to drive serious results.
Torchy’s Tacos, the viral Austin hotspot known for their Damn Good tacos and queso, leveraged advanced recruitment marketing strategies to reduce turnover by 66% and time-to-hire by 62%.
Now that we’ve set the stage for what recruitment marketing is and why you need it, let’s dive into how to create a recruitment marketing strategy for your brand that’s optimized for 2025.
To kick off your new recruitment marketing strategy, start by defining your Employer Value Proposition (EVP).
Your EVP answers the key question that we discussed at the beginning of this article – "Why should someone work for you instead of the restaurant down the street?"
Consider the following factors when crafting an EVP that helps you stand out from the competition:
Another key part of building your recruitment marketing foundation is performing an audit of current recruitment marketing efforts.
Remember, the goal is to work smarter, not harder. Chances are, your brand is already doing some things that are working well.
The point here is not to fully overhaul everything about your recruitment marketing strategy (unless absolutely necessary). It’s to build on what you’re already doing, and optimize those tactics to maximize budget and effectiveness.
Make sure to note down current recruitment metrics (time-to-hire, interview-to-hire ratio, applicant-to-interview ratio, etc.) to track your progress once your recruitment marketing strategy is in place.
Your audit revealed which job boards deliver results—now it's time to build on what works and let go of what doesn't.
Instead of playing whack-a-mole with individual job boards, use your baseline metrics to deploy integrated job posting strategies that work smarter, not harder:
Set Strategic Budget Allocation: Rather than spreading your budget thin across every platform, focus your spend on the job boards and social channels that historically deliver quality candidates. Start by allocating 70% of your budget to proven performers and 30% to testing new channels.
Track Performance by Platform: Create a simple spreadsheet to monitor key metrics for each platform—applications received, quality of candidates, cost per application, and time-to-hire. This data will guide your future budget decisions.
Prioritize Based on Role Urgency: Not all positions are created equal. Kitchen managers and head chefs might warrant premium job postings and social media promotion, while entry-level roles can rely on organic reach and employee referrals.
Optimize Posting Timing and Frequency: Test different posting times and refresh job ads regularly. Most platforms favor fresh content, so reposting every 7-14 days can improve visibility without additional cost.
Pro Tip: Consider tools that integrate with your existing ATS to streamline reporting and cut down on busywork. This way, you’ll get a 360 view of which job boards succeed at drawing in successful candidates.
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In 2025, the world is online. More specifically, the world is on social media.
While job boards may be able to attract active job seekers to your job, remember that a significant amount of top hospitality talent are passive job seekers.
Grabbing the attention of these passive job seekers requires meeting them where they are spending their time. And while they may not actively be looking on job boards, chances are that they’re still scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
With your EVP and baseline metrics, you’ll 1) create a content strategy that showcases your restaurant's unique culture, and 2) explore distribution channels to maximize reach.
Consider the following ideas to create high-energy, attention-grabbing content that helps your brand stand out as a hospitality employer of choice:
You’ll want to mix up different forms of content – videos, single images, carousels, text-based posts. Different formats work better on different platforms; this ensures that your content stays fresh and relevant to each audience.
While you can manage your new recruitment marketing approach manually with spreadsheets and calendar reminders, many growing restaurant groups find that the complexity quickly becomes overwhelming.
The math is simple: if you're posting across 10+ platforms for multiple roles, that's hundreds of individual posts to manage, track, and optimize each month. Add content creation, performance tracking, and budget optimization, and you're looking at a full-time job just managing your hiring marketing.
If you’re ready to take recruitment marketing off your GMs’ and recruiting teams’ plates, our team is here to help.
LANDED Plus takes the guesswork out of job board spending with proactive sponsorship management. You’ll get more qualified applicants, faster, without the busywork.
We integrate with all major ATS systems, giving you clean, streamlined reporting. And our social media team creates engaging content—like employee spotlights and behind-the-scenes videos—so your employer brand stays active without extra work for your staff.
Ready to level up your recruitment marketing? Click here to chat with our team about LANDED Plus today.
