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Finding Your Culinary Dream Team

Decoding the Perfect Recipe with SEEN by Clock'd

Image of a waiter typing an order into a POS system.

There's a beautiful, brutal ballet danced in the belly of every successful restaurant. The heat, the noise, the symphony of chaos finely tuned into a machine that's both a battlefield and a sanctuary. I've spent enough of my life in those trenches to know that the heart of any restaurant is its people.


But how do you find those people—the ones who can take the heat, literally and figuratively, out of a sea of applicants? Statistics from the National Restaurant Association (2021) reveal that the industry faces a turnover rate of over 70%. That's a lot of aprons to fill, and a lot of potential mistakes to make.


Let me tell you, there's nothing more heartbreaking than a bad hire. Not just for you, but for the whole team. It's like adding too much salt to a dish—it ruins everything. But I'm not here to trade war stories. I'm here to tell you about a secret weapon: SEEN by Clock'd.


SEEN is an Applicant Tracking System that takes the guesswork out of hiring. Picture this: it's like having your very own maitre d’ who's met all your potential hires before you have, and knows exactly who will fit your kitchen's unique rhythm.


Here's what it does: SEEN gathers applicants from different sources, organizes and filters them, and presents them to you in a user-friendly dashboard. It's not about reducing people to numbers or keywords—it's about giving you a clearer vision in the smoky haze of CVs and cover letters.


80% of business owners reported that a bad hire had significantly impacted their business.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021) reports that restaurants and other eating places added 133,600 jobs in April alone. Now, imagine trying to sift through that number of applicants without a little help. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it?


But if you’re using a recruiter like Clock’d, it's a different story. This system streamlines the hiring process, freeing up your time to do what you do best—run your restaurant. It helps you recognize the diamonds in the rough, the ones with the right attitude, the right skills, and perhaps most importantly, the right fit for your team.


Don't get me wrong. SEEN won't turn you into a mind reader. It won't tell you who's going to be the next Marco Pierre White or Thomas Keller. But it will give you a better sense of who's in front of you.


In a survey by the Harvard Business Review (2022), 80% of business owners reported that a bad hire had significantly impacted their business. But the same survey also reported that businesses using effective hiring tools like SEEN saw a 50% reduction in bad hires.


The restaurant business, like cooking, is part art, part science. SEEN by Clock'd brings in the science, enabling you to better practice your art. And in a world where the right people can make or break your restaurant, that's an ingredient you can't afford to leave out.


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So, if you're tired of the hiring dance, and the thought of another stack of resumes makes you want to reach for the nearest bottle of bourbon, give SEEN a try. You might just find that it's the missing piece in your hiring recipe—the secret spice that transforms your kitchen from a place of constant turnover to a place where culinary dreams come true.



 

Marc LaPierre is a 10-year veteran of the food and hospitality industry, Certified Staffing Professional, and CEO/Founder of Clock’d + SEEN. From cooking in James Beard award-winning kitchens to opening and managing a nightclub in Mexico, he worked every job in the industry. Today he connects professionals looking to advance their careers with clients eager to find an all-star team.

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