Skilled Labour Shortage in Hospitality: 7 Strategies That Really Work

Skilled labour shortage in hospitality: how to find the right staff anyway

The skilled labour shortage in hospitality is no longer an industry secret — it is a full-blown crisis. More than 70,000 vacant positions in the German hospitality sector speak a clear language. Restaurants are cutting opening hours, hotels are closing entire floors, and café owners are standing behind the counter themselves simply because there is no one to hire.

Yet while many restaurateurs resign themselves to the situation, there are businesses that recruit successfully despite the skilled labour shortage. What are they doing differently? In this article we present 7 proven strategies that will help you receive more and better applications — practical, actionable and tailored to the reality of the hospitality industry.

Strategy 1: A mobile-first application process

Here is a figure that changes everything: more than 70% of all applications in hospitality come from a smartphone. Your prospective chefs, service staff and bartenders are not sitting at a desktop PC filling in PDF forms. They are scrolling through Instagram or Google on the couch in the evening and come across your job ad.

What this means for you:

• Your careers page must work flawlessly on mobile. No zooming, no horizontal scrolling, no tiny buttons.
• The application process should take no longer than 2–3 minutes. Anything that takes longer leads to drop-off.
• Skip the cover letter and CV upload. In hospitality, personality counts — not the perfect document.
• Enable one-click applications via WhatsApp, a short form or even a voice message.

Restaurateurs who have consistently shifted their application process to mobile report up to 300% more applications. The reason is simple: you lower the barrier exactly where the candidates are.

Practical tip

Test your own application process from your smartphone once. Is it completed in under 3 minutes? If not, you are losing potential applicants every day.

Strategy 2: Interactive application funnels instead of long forms

Classic application forms with 15+ fields are the death of any recruiting campaign — especially in hospitality. The solution: interactive application funnels that guide candidates through the process step by step.

This is how an application funnel works:

1. Opening question: "Which area would you like to work in?" (kitchen, service, bar)
2. Experience: "Do you already have experience in hospitality?" (yes/no — either is fine)
3. Availability: "When can you start?" (immediately, in 2 weeks, in a month)
4. Contact details: name, phone number, optionally email
5. Done: confirmation and next step

The principle behind this is gamification: each step feels easy, a progress bar motivates the candidate to keep going, and at the end they have submitted a complete application — without ever experiencing it as a chore.

Tools such as Recruiting Funnel Pro make it possible to build such funnels without any technical knowledge and embed them directly on your own website or as a standalone landing page. For hospitality in particular, solutions like these are a huge advantage because they dramatically reduce the drop-off rate.

Why funnels work better than forms

Criterion	Classic form	Application funnel
Completion rate	5–15%	30–60%
Average duration	8–12 minutes	2–3 minutes
Mobile optimisation	Often poor	Built in by default
Candidate experience	Frustrating	Positive

Strategy 3: Fast feedback — within 24 hours

In hospitality, applicants rarely apply to just one business. Whoever applies today has often already accepted an offer elsewhere by tomorrow. Speed is the decisive factor.

The figures make this strikingly clear:

• 78% of candidates choose the employer who responds first.
• After 48 hours without a response, most applicants have lost interest.
• Replying within 24 hours — that is the new standard set by successful restaurateurs.

How to deliver fast responses

• Automatic acknowledgement of receipt: a friendly message by email or SMS immediately after the application.
• Fixed recruiting times: set aside 30 minutes every day to review new applications.
• A short phone interview instead of a lengthy invitation: a 10-minute conversation is often enough to know whether someone is a good fit.
• WhatsApp for communication: faster, more personal and closer to applicants' everyday reality than email.

Restaurateurs who have reduced their response time to under 24 hours report a hiring rate twice as high — simply because they are faster than the competition.

Strategy 4: Employer branding on social media

Your future employees are on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook — not on job portals. Employer branding means presenting your business as an attractive employer where your target audience spends its time.

What makes good employer branding in hospitality:

• Genuine behind-the-scenes insights: show the kitchen, the team, the after-shift drink.
• Employees as ambassadors: let your team explain in their own words why they enjoy working for you.
• Values instead of clichés: "a family-like team" is something everyone says. Instead, show concretely what it means — e.g. team outings, fair rosters, free staff meals.
• Consistency: a single post once a week is enough to stay visible.

Content ideas for hospitality employer branding

• "A day with us" — a story format with photos or short videos
• Introductions of individual team members with personal quotes
• Behind-the-scenes glimpses of special events or new dishes
• Open positions as creative reels instead of dull text ads
• Team challenges or funny moments from everyday work life

Important: authenticity beats perfection. A shaky phone video from the real kitchen comes across as more credible than a highly produced corporate film.

Strategy 5: Career changers welcome — rethink your requirements

The biggest mistake many restaurateurs make when recruiting: requirements set too high. "3 years of experience, completed vocational training, fluent German" — and you have already excluded 80% of potential applicants.

The reality: many of the best employees in hospitality are career changers. People from retail, from care work, returning from parental leave — they bring customer focus, resilience and motivation with them.

How to open up your applicant pool

• Word your job ads invitingly: "Experience is great, but not a requirement" works wonders.
• Emphasise what you offer: onboarding, development opportunities, flexible hours.
• Lower the language barrier: use simple, clear language in the job ad. Many potential employees speak good German but are put off by ads loaded with technical jargon.
• Offer an internship or a trial day: a low entry barrier with high commitment.

Businesses that deliberately appeal to career changers report an applicant pool 40–60% larger — with consistently high-quality hires.

Strategy 6: Employee referral programmes

Your best recruiters are already on your team. Employee referral programmes are among the most effective and most cost-efficient recruiting methods of all.

Why referrals work so well

• Trust: a recommendation from a colleague carries more weight than any job ad.
• Cultural fit: employees recommend people who fit the team.
• Speed: referred candidates are hired on average 55% faster.
• Retention: employees won through referrals stay on average 25% longer.

How to set up a referral programme

• Define a clear bonus: €200–500 per successful referral (after a passed probation period).
• Make it easy: a link or QR code that employees can share.
• Communicate transparently: everyone on the team should know that the programme exists and how it works.
• Pay out quickly: the bonus should arrive promptly, not months later.

A well-functioning referral programme can cover 30–40% of all new hires — at a fraction of the cost of a job ad on Indeed or StepStone.

Strategy 7: Digital tools for the entire recruiting process

Many restaurateurs still manage their recruiting with Excel spreadsheets, email inboxes and sticky notes. This is not only inefficient — it actively costs you applicants, because enquiries get lost, responses come too late and you lose track of everything.

What digital recruiting tools deliver

• Centralised applicant management: all applications in one place, with status tracking.
• Automatic notifications: acknowledgements of receipt, reminders for follow-ups, appointment confirmations.
• Application funnels: serve an optimised funnel directly instead of a form (as described in Strategy 2).
• Analytics: see where the best applications come from and which channels work.
• Team access: head chef, restaurant manager and owner can access applications together.

Solutions such as Recruiting Funnel Pro were developed specifically for the needs of the hospitality and hotel industry. They combine an optimised application funnel with a clear back end for applicant management — without complicated setup and without four-figure monthly costs.

The ROI of digital recruiting tools

Let's do a quick calculation: an unfilled position in hospitality costs on average €1,500–3,000 per month in lost revenue, overtime and temporary staff. A digital tool that shortens the time-to-hire by just 2 weeks already saves hundreds of euros — per position.

Conclusion: the skilled labour shortage can be solved — with the right strategy

The skilled labour shortage in hospitality is real and it will not disappear on its own. But it is not a law of nature. Businesses that modernise their recruiting process, make their requirements realistic and are present where their target audience spends its time can still find good employees today.

The 7 strategies at a glance:

1. A mobile-first application process — go where the applicants are
2. Interactive application funnels — make it easy to apply
3. Fast feedback — whoever responds first wins
4. Employer branding on social media — show who you really are
5. Career changers welcome — open up your applicant pool
6. Employee referral programmes — use your best network
7. Digital recruiting tools — professionalise the process

Ready to take your recruiting to the next level? Start with an optimised application funnel — the simplest step with the biggest impact. Find out how Recruiting Funnel Pro can help you receive more qualified applications.