In an increasingly expensive labor market—not to mention an environment of rapidly rising food costs—it’s more important than ever for operators to get their hiring decisions right. Promoting from within and using employee referrals to identify and develop top talent is always preferable, but such hiring is not always possible. So what are the keys to recruiting efficiently and effectively?

First, say operators, a concept must consider carefully its brand and its work culture in crafting a recruiting message that will stand out from a crowd of now-hiring notices. (A vague mention of a “fun work environment” doesn’t cut it.) Second, hiring managers need to target potential talent where they spend their free time—in person and online. Finally, to pre-emptively fight turnover, recruiters should strive to be frank with applicants about schedules and career-advancement possibilities.

For Beaumont, Texas-based Jason’s Deli, on-campus college recruitment has yielded unexpectedly strong results—so strong, in fact, that it is the chain’s top recruitment vehicle.

“It is the best source for our company, no doubt about it,” says human resources director Joe Loyd. “About 35% of hires will come from college recruiting.”

Loyd says that he hesitated when the idea of heading to campuses to find talent was brought up seven years ago. “I was, 'No, I don’t think this will work; we need the more-experienced people,’” he says.

But in targeting colleges with a hotel-restaurant management program, Jason’s Deli has been able to find young people who are “clearly focused in the foodservice industry … this is where they want to go.”

The chain promotes itself as offering “un-fooled-around-with” food—sandwiches made with organic meats and vegetables, and a salad bar free of items made with high-fructose corn syrup, for example; the message resonates with a distinctively health- and environment-conscious generation of young people. “Over the past three or four years, it is rare that I visit a campus where they don’t ask me about our green efforts,” Loyd says.

Students also take a strong interest in quality-of-life issues, he adds, and find appeal in Jason’s Deli’s 48-hour workweek for managers. Daniel Helfman, director of e-marketing and corporate public relations, notes that Jason’s Deli’s positioning as a progressive brand helped attract him to the company.

“I liked that this is a company that is all about sustainability,” Helfman says. “I found the brand as sort of a really strong recruiting tool.”

Motivated job seekers, especially those in generations X and Y, respond well to employers who can showcase flexibility, a sense of humor and a commitment to social values such as sustainability and community involvement.

For the YouTube generation (and its members’ parents, who also have grown accustomed to the Web as a video medium), a one- to four-minute video posted on the “careers” page of an operation’s Web site can be an ideal way to communicate integral elements of the brand’s culture and day-to-day functioning.

On the Web site for Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based The Cheesecake Factory, a slickly produced recruiting video offers a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action in Cheesecake Factory kitchens and provides bites of information about everything from the concept’s history to its automated kitchen management system.

The five employees featured in the video share personal career-development stories and convey an idea of The Cheesecake Factory as a fast-moving, forward-thinking and collaboration-focused employer. One employee notes that he was promoted to executive kitchen manager within six months of joining the company and now works as vice president of kitchen operations. A focus on meal quality is communicated by statements such as “Almost all of our food is made from scratch.”

“I think our profession has become more chic,” says Howard Gordon, senior vice president of business development and marketing, noting the success of restaurant-related TV programming in the past several years. A recruiting video that shares just such an “inside perspective,” then, can find an audience in active and passive job seekers—and particularly in potential candidates who already are strong supporters of the brand.

Hiring 1.0 involved buying ads on one of the major job-search sites and hoping for the best among applications that came from near and far. Fortunately, employers today have a better way to get their message in front of potential hires in their market: social-networking sites.

Granite City Food & Brewery, a 25-unit chain based in St. Louis Park, Minn., turned to a social-networking site for help in its recruiting efforts earlier this year. The concept has units in several college towns and college markets, says human-resources director Liz Severance, and the entrance into the social-networking arena placed Granite City where a significant portion of its talent pool was spending a significant portion of its free time.

The effort works like this: Granite City selects keywords for the site to identify in the online profiles of the site’s members. Members whose profile includes those keywords then can be targeted with Granite City recruitment ads that appear as banners on the side of the members’ profile page. If a member of the site were to identify himself or herself as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then he or she might be targeted with a banner announcing job openings at Granite City’s Madison location.

Severance says that Granite City units in college markets already have seen a 20% to 30% increase in applications received. Granite City’s banner ads—as well as its home page on the social-networking site—emphasize a willingness to work around student employees’ class schedules and include a link to apply for hourly positions online.

Almost every foodservice operation promotes itself as a fun place to work. To win over skeptical job seekers, it helps to differentiate one concept’s brand of “fun” from the competition’s.

Miami-based Burger King sought to leverage the irreverent spirit of its consumer advertisements in creating a more-cohesive recruiting campaign, says Jose Tomas, Burger King’s vice president of human resources. The result, after working with an outside agency, is a series of recruiting ads featuring the tag line “You’re King Material”—drawing on the brand’s widely recognized The King character.

The ads depict smiling, posed Burger King employees conferred royalty status with the addition of hand-drawn crowns, capes and medallions. “You carry your food the same way you carry yourself. With dignity. You’re King Material,” proclaims one.

Calling on The King in recruiting materials suggests a commitment to a consistent brand message—a seamlessness between the attitude projected to consumers and the attitude in stores.

Posters, lawn signs, banners, and window and mirror clings direct viewers to the site bkcareers.com. The campaign even features a tray liner that has an application on the back of it.

“More than 70% of our applications come from walk-ins,” notes Tomas, who says that today’s applicants seek to minimize their travel in finding and commuting to a job. “We need to be able to capture them while they are on their [everyday] travel path.”

Alex Schmit, director of recruiting for Louisville, Colo.-based Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, offers several tips for finding and winning over top candidates:

1. Aim to exceed applicants’ expectations, just as the operation would seek to exceed diners’ expectations. “It’s through responsiveness; it’s getting back to individuals quickly,” she says. “[Applicants] will say, 'You guys were great, somebody called me back right away; somebody met with me promptly.’”

2. Mine references lists for talent. Networking Web sites that invite members to post the names of their professional references can be a good source of contacts for other job openings.

3. As appropriate, let candidates know how the operation strives to combat employee turnover. “When restaurants start running short, that’s when you start to see a spike in turnover,” Schmit says.

Contact writer at christine.lafave@reedbusiness.com