Job descriptions that describe the actual job

"Enthusiastic team player wanted for busy restaurant. Competitive pay. Must have a passion for hospitality." Most restaurant job adverts say something like this, and most of them attract the same result: a handful of applicants who could be applying anywhere, a few interviews where nobody quite knows what the job involves and a new starter who leaves after three weeks because the job was not what they expected.

Job descriptions that describe the actual job work better. They say which shifts, which section, how many covers, what the pace is like, what the pay is and what the person will be doing at nine o'clock on a Saturday. They put some people off, and that is the point: the people who apply anyway know what they are applying for, and they are far more likely to stay.

This guide covers what to put in a job description, how to write it plainly, how to state pay and shifts honestly and how to use it through the interview and the first weeks. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

A job description sets out what a role involves: its tasks, its hours, its responsibilities, who it reports to and what it pays. In hospitality, it does two jobs at once. It is the advert that attracts applicants, and it is the agreement that tells the new starter what is expected.

Most restaurant job descriptions do neither well, because they describe an ideal rather than a job. A description written from what the role actually involves does both: it attracts the right people and gives them a clear picture of their first weeks.

A vague advert attracts people who apply for everything. "Busy restaurant, competitive pay, passionate team" could describe any venue, so it gives nobody a reason to choose this one, and gives the people who would suit it no way of knowing they would.

A specific advert does the opposite. A description of the actual shifts, the section, the menu and the pace speaks directly to the people who want that job, and gently turns away those who do not. Fewer applications, better ones.

Start with the hours, because they decide more than anything else whether someone can take the job. Which days, which shifts, how many hours a week, whether there are split shifts, whether weekends are expected and how far ahead the rota is published.

Be honest. "Four evening shifts a week, including Friday and Saturday, usually five until close, which is around midnight" tells a candidate exactly what their week will look like. "Flexible hours" tells them nothing, and often means something they will not like.

Describe where they will work and how busy it gets. A server on a section of five tables in a sixty-cover room, doing two turns on a Saturday, is a different job from a server in a quiet neighbourhood café. A cook on the grill during a hundred-cover dinner faces different pressure from one on breakfast.

Give real numbers where you can: covers on a typical night, tables in a section, the busiest hours. Candidates who have worked in hospitality read those numbers and know at once whether the job suits them.

List the tasks in plain words, in the order they happen. For a server: setting up the section, the briefing before service, greeting tables, taking orders on the till, describing dishes and allergens, running food, taking payment, clearing and resetting, and closing down.

Include the tasks people do not mention in adverts: polishing glasses, restocking, cleaning down at the end of the night. A new starter who finds these on their first night, having never been told, feels misled; one who read them in the description simply gets on with them.

Say who they report to and who they work alongside: the manager on shift, the head chef, the bar team, the hosts. Describe the team briefly, its size and how it works together.

Candidates care about who they will work with as much as what they will do. A line about the team, written honestly, tells them a great deal about whether they will fit.

State the pay rates clearly: the hourly rate or the salary, how tips or service charge are shared, how often pay is made and any extras, such as staff meals or a bonus. Pay hidden behind "competitive" makes candidates suspicious and wastes everyone's time when the figure turns out to be lower than they hoped.

Be clear about tips. How they are collected, how they are shared, who receives a share and when they are paid all matter to hospitality staff, and in some places the law now sets rules for how tips must be handled. A clear line in the description avoids a difficult conversation later.

Say what training the new starter will receive and how they can progress. A first week shadowing an experienced server, a training checklist signed off over the first month, a path from server to supervisor: each tells a candidate that the venue invests in its people.

Be honest about this too. A venue that promises progression and offers none loses people faster than one that never mentioned it.

Use the same names for staff roles in the job description as the venue uses every day: server, host, bartender, commis chef, chef de partie, supervisor, manager. Define what each means at your venue, because the same title can mean different things in different places.

A clear set of staff roles also helps once the person starts: their training, their access to systems and their responsibilities all follow from the role they were hired for. Our guide to staff roles and the permissions that follow covers how to set them up.

Describe the person you need in terms of what they can do, not adjectives. "Has worked a busy dinner service and can carry three plates" is more useful than "dynamic and energetic". "Knows the basics of food safety and is comfortable on a grill" is better than "passionate about food".

Separate what is essential from what is a bonus. A candidate who has never worked a till but has worked a busy floor may be far better than the description's wish list suggests, and a clear list of essentials stops good people ruling themselves out.

Write as you would speak to a candidate across a table. Short sentences, everyday words, no jargon and no clichés. Read it aloud before posting it; if any sentence sounds like an advert rather than a person, rewrite it.

Plain writing also helps candidates whose first language is not yours, which in hospitality is many of them. A description they can understand easily is one they can apply for confidently.

A good job description is long enough to describe the job and short enough to read on a phone, which is where most candidates will read it. A page is usually enough: a few lines on the venue, the shifts, the section, the tasks, the team, the pay and what you are looking for.

Put the most important facts first: the role, the shifts and the pay. A candidate scrolling through dozens of adverts decides in seconds whether to read further.

Include a few lines about the venue: what kind of place it is, the food, the guests, what makes it different. Not a sales pitch, but enough for a candidate to picture working there.

Photos help, if the platform allows them: the room, the kitchen, the team at work. A candidate who can see the place before applying arrives at the interview already halfway to knowing whether they want the job.

Post the description where the people you want are looking: hospitality job boards, local groups, your own website and social media, and with staff who might refer friends. Different roles suit different places; a head chef is found differently from a weekend server.

Keep the description the same wherever it is posted, so every candidate reads the same facts. A description that changes from one site to another raises questions at the interview.

Write descriptions that welcome everyone who could do the job. Phrases such as "young team", "recent graduate" or anything that implies a preferred age, gender or background can put good candidates off, and in many places they also break the law on discrimination in hiring.

Describe the job and the skills it needs, and let candidates decide whether they fit. A description written around the work, rather than a picture of the ideal person, reaches a wider pool and attracts people who stay.

Kitchen job descriptions need the same detail as floor ones. Which section, which menu, how many covers on a busy night, what equipment, who the cook reports to and how the kitchen is organised. A chef de partie on a busy grill station is a different job from one running a small cold section.

Say what the cook will prepare and how: fresh stocks and sauces from scratch, a set menu prepared ahead, or à la carte cooked to order. Cooks read those details closely, because they show what kind of kitchen it is.

Use the job description to structure the interview. Walk through the shifts, the section and the tasks, and ask the candidate about their experience of each. A candidate who has read it carefully will often have questions, which are a good sign.

Interviewing for hospitality works best when it includes the work itself. A short paid trial shift, where the candidate works alongside the team on a real service, shows both sides far more than any conversation, and in many places a trial involving real work must be paid.

Ask questions that match what the job involves. For a server: tell me about the busiest service you have worked, how do you handle a guest with an allergy, what do you do when two tables need you at once. For a cook: talk me through setting up your section, what do you do when tickets back up.

Questions drawn from the description test the things the job actually needs, rather than how well someone performs in an interview.

Every hospitality job has hard parts: late finishes, busy weekends, difficult guests, heat in the kitchen, time on your feet. Mention them in the description and at the interview, plainly.

Candidates who know about the hard parts and still want the job are the ones who stay. Those who discover them on their third shift are the ones who leave, and every early departure costs the venue the time spent hiring and training them.

Update job descriptions when the job changes: new opening hours, a new menu, a new till, different shifts. A description written two years ago, still being posted, may describe a job that no longer exists.

Review them each time a role is advertised, and ask someone currently doing the job to read it. They will spot at once anything that is out of date or simply wrong.

Once someone is hired, the job description becomes the starting point for their training and their first reviews. The tasks in the description are what their training checklist covers; the standards in it are what their reviews check.

Give the new starter a copy on their first day. It reminds them of what they signed up for and gives both sides a shared reference if expectations differ later.

Write a description for every role, not only those being advertised: servers, hosts, bartenders, each level in the kitchen, supervisors and managers. Together, they describe how the venue works and who does what.

They also help with promotion. A server who wants to become a supervisor can read the supervisor's description and see exactly what they would need to learn.

Descriptions for supervisors and managers should say what they are responsible for and what authority they have: running services, the rota, stock, the team, the money at the end of the night, the figures they are measured on and who they report to.

Be specific about the authority. A manager who can hire, set the rota and agree a comp knows where they stand; one who discovers in their first month that every decision needs the owner's approval may not stay long.

In many countries, employers must check that each new starter has the right to work there before they start, and keep a record of the check. Mention in the description what documents candidates will need to bring, so nobody is caught out on their first day.

Say too what else the first day involves: a contract, bank details, uniform sizes, any food safety training to complete. A new starter who knows what to bring arrives ready to begin.

Clear job descriptions are one part of hiring restaurant staff who stay. The others, a fair interview, good onboarding, a reasonable rota and a team people want to be part of, all build on the honest picture the description gives.

Our guide to hiring restaurant staff who stay past August covers the whole process, and our guide to onboarding staff so night one is not chaos covers the first shifts.

Part-time and seasonal roles need the same honesty as full-time ones. Say how many hours, which days, how long the season lasts and whether there is a chance of more hours or a permanent role at the end.

Seasonal staff who know when the job ends plan around it and often come back the following year. Those told a summer job might become permanent, when it will not, leave disappointed and do not return. A clear description of the season brings back the same good people year after year.

Say who the guests are: families at weekend lunch, business diners on weekdays, tourists in summer, regulars who expect to be remembered. Serving each takes a slightly different touch, and candidates who enjoy that kind of guest will be drawn to the job.

It also tells candidates something about the pace and the tone. A server who loves busy family lunches may not enjoy a quiet tasting menu, and the other way round.

An invented brasserie's advert for servers reads "enthusiastic team player wanted, competitive pay, flexible hours". It attracts forty applications, few of them from people with experience, and two of the three servers hired leave within a month.

The manager rewrites it: four evening shifts including Friday and Saturday, a section of five tables in an eighty-cover room, two turns on a busy night, the hourly rate and how tips are shared, a week of shadowing and a four-week training checklist, finishes around midnight. The next advert attracts twelve applications, most from experienced servers, and both of the servers hired are still there six months later.

servearound does not advertise jobs, collect applications or run interviews. Where it meets the job description is the role. A new network starts with Manager, Server, Host and Kitchen, each described in a line, such as a server who "takes orders and payments at the tables", and the owner can rename them or make new ones, choosing view, create, edit and delete module by module, so the access a new starter gets matches the job you advertised.

New starters are invited by email with their role and the venues they will work in, and sign in on shared screens with their own name and PIN. servearound does not build rotas today, so the shifts in the description come from your own rota for now. And if you would like to work on the tools themselves, our careers page lists our open roles.

The shifts, the section and pace, the tasks, the team, the pay and how tips are shared, and what the person must be able to do.

Yes. "Competitive" makes candidates suspicious and wastes time when the figure is lower than expected.

About a page, readable on a phone, with the role, shifts and pay first.

Yes. Candidates who know them and still apply are the ones who stay.

Yes, if they involve real work. In many places the law requires it.

Walk through the shifts, section and tasks, and ask about the candidate's experience of each.

Each time the role is advertised, checked by someone doing the job now.

Yes. It is the basis of the training checklist and the first reviews.

Job descriptions that describe the actual job attract the people who want it and turn away those who do not. Say which shifts and when they finish, which section and how busy it gets, what the tasks are, including the ones nobody likes, who the team is, what the pay rates are and how tips are shared, and what the person must be able to do rather than which adjectives describe them.

Write it plainly, keep it to a page, use the same names for staff roles as the venue uses every day and keep it up to date. Use it to structure interviewing for hospitality, with a paid trial shift, and then as the basis of training and reviews, because hiring restaurant staff who stay starts with telling them the truth about the job.