Can personality tests help your restaurant build a dream team?

The success of your restaurant isn’t guaranteed only by the exceptional quality and outstanding flavours of the food you serve. Actually, at large, it lies in the hands and efforts of your team. Getting your employees to work as one, however, isn’t always an easy job.

Especially not when the hiring and promotions are only concerned with the hard skills and experience, instead of taking into account individuals’ personalities and team clicks too. And sure, sometimes we all just get a hunch that a person would do great as part of the team, or can take on a bigger role in your restaurant. But it’s hard to quantify and justify a hunch, so how can we actually make it a part of the recruitment process? Personality tests might just be the answer you were looking for.

What are personality tests?

Personality tests provide a mapping of a person’s character, behaviour and traits by typically analysing their preferences, strengths and weaknesses. While not an exact science, the tests provide quite a comprehensive overview to predict a person’s attitude in a particular role, as well as their ability to form deeper connections with their colleagues.

However, many restaurant owners remain sceptical. Could it really be worth all the time and effort? Indeed, implementing new tests doesn’t happen overnight, but they have been deemed to make a significant difference and here’s how.

Standardise the personality assessment

Personality tests help tackle the issue of personal bias when assessing a potential or current hire. Unlike the personal hutch that resembles more of a gamble, personality tests can ensure that all applicants, as well as current staff are evaluated against the same benchmark. This not only helps formalise the process, but also provides a standardised measure to ensure a fair and objective selection process.

Match restaurant jobs to the right personalities

Hard skills certainly matter, but do you feel like some jobs are done better by certain personalities, and not the others? At the end of the day, when we think about a front-of-house position such as a restaurant host or a waiter, we usually imagine a more people-orientated, extraverted and high-energy person. Or in the case of chefs, we usually opt for more detail-oriented individuals. Personality tests can easily help you match employees to roles where they are most likely to excel and maximise the overall performance of the team, as well as the restaurant.

Promote thriving team dynamics

By understanding personality traits, you can create teams that flourish by combining complementary skills and traits. By ensuring that each personality type is matched to their existing teams, you can improve the team dynamics, in turn boosting the overall performance of your team. By fostering a more positive working environment, you will eradicate unnecessary conflicts and generally create an atmosphere where the workers want to do better.

Enhance customer experience

It’s not only you who will appreciate an elevated team spirit, trust us. From the customer’s perspective, it’s a win too. By integrating personality tests as part of your selection process, you’re more likely to identify candidates with strong interpersonal skills and a friendly demeanour, further enhancing the customer experience. Plus, staff who are friendly with each other are more likely to go an extra mile to help each other out even on the busiest shift, bringing forward the best service on any day or night.

Prove restaurant retention stats wrong

Restaurant industry is notorious for its outstandingly high turnover rate that topples almost all industries globally. Constantly caught in the midst of the hiring process, restaurants are making significant losses by having to constantly train staff from scratch. By using the personality tests, on the other hand you are more likely to find a better fit and enhance the overall job satisfaction. When employees feel they are well-suited to their positions, they are more likely to stay, reducing turnover and training costs.

Grow talent

Knowing the personality traits of your team members can also guide personalised training and development plans. For instance, some staff may learn best from the hands-on experiences, while others are much more receptive to the theoretical part before getting their hands dirty. By knowing these little personality traits, you can always ensure that all employees receive the support they need to further grow and excel in their roles.

How to implement personality tests

Ready to test out the benefits of personality tests at your own restaurant? Here are four quick steps to get you started:

Identify the key personality traits important for different roles within your restaurant and select the best test for your purposes. With a variety of options available including OCEAN, MBTI, DISC, as well as various EQ assessments, you can pick out the one that really hits the nail on the head for the personality traits you are testing.
Then, review your current hiring practices to swiftly encourage all the future employees to fill out the questionnaire, as well as distribute it amongst your current employees. Be transparent about the purpose of the tests and how the results will be used.
Provide training on how to administer and interpret the test results to the person responsible for hiring at your restaurant. This ensures that the tests are used effectively and ethically in making hiring decisions.
Measure the performance of your team. The best identification that you are successfully achieving your desired goal would be observing efficiency of your team, as well as asking your customers for feedback. Prompt your customers to review the customer service in an automated questionnaire, that’s now available even with a free subscription at Tableo.