How to hire a cook, cashier, and waitress

How to hire a cook, cashier, and waitress, step by step

Here's a step-by-step cook, cashier, and waitress hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a cook, cashier, and waitress job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new cook, cashier, and waitress
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your cook, cashier, and waitress job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a cook, cashier, and waitress for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a cook, cashier, and waitress to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a cook, cashier, and waitress that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of cook, cashiers, and waitress.

   Type of Cook, Cashier, And Waitress	Description	Hourly rate
   Cook, Cashier, And Waitress	Food and beverage serving and related workers perform a variety of customer service, food preparation, and cleaning duties in restaurants, cafeterias, and other eating and drinking establishments.	$10-17
   Pizza Maker	As the name entails, pizza makers are the individuals who prepare pizza at restaurants and stores that include pizza in their menus. Besides preparing pizza, they also help with other kitchen operations such as packaging food items, cooking different menus, and maintaining the kitchen and kitchen equipment... Show more	$10-17
   Lead Crew Member	A lead crew member is responsible for supervising crew members during their tasks, ensuring that they provide the highest customer service to ensure customer satisfaction that would boost the business' reputation, generate revenues, and increase profitability. Lead crew members assist the team on food handling procedures for safe consumption, as well as reiterating the sanitary and hygienic standards during operations... Show more	$12-20

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Clean Kitchen
   • Customer Orders
   • Food Orders
   • Food Safety
   • Safety Standards
   • Food Preparation
   • Drink Orders
   • Dishwashers
   • Customer Complaints
   • POS
   • Stock Shelves
   • Bus Tables
   • Clean Tables

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Help clean floors, clean fryers, and clean lobby.
   • Operate POS system and perform cash, credit card and check transactions.
   • Organize and split each bill accordingly and enter them in POS, for a fast and easy dining experience.
   • Monitor and maintain cleanliness, sanitation, and organization of assign station and service areas.
   • Make smoothies, coffee, customer service, cashier, fill bakery cooler, inventory, stock, and clean!

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your cook, cashier, and waitress job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A cook, cashier, and waitress can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, cook, cashiers, and waitress' average salary in louisiana is 44% less than in washington.
   • Seniority. Entry-level cook, cashiers, and waitress 39% less than senior-level cook, cashiers, and waitress.
   • Certifications. A cook, cashier, and waitress with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a cook, cashier, and waitress's salary.

   Average cook, cashier, and waitress salary

   $13.67hourly

   $28,436 yearly

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   Entry-level cook, cashier, and waitress salary

   $22,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

4. Writing a cook, cashier, and waitress job description

   A job description for a cook, cashier, and waitress role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a cook, cashier, and waitress job description:

   Cook, cashier, and waitress job description example

   • Must be at least 16 years of age

   • Speaks clearly and understandably

   • Reads, writes, counts and measures

   • Physical dexterity and the ability to move up to 50 lbs. from one area to another • Must be a team player with a strong work ethic and commitment to customer satisfaction

   • Attendance and punctuality a must

   Benefits:

   • Flexible Hours

   • Paid Vacation (Full-time)

   • Medical Insurance (Full-time)

   • Meal Discounts

   • Training & Advancement Opportunities

   • Team Members perform a variety of functions, including serving great food and providing excellent customer service. No experience required.

   Company Introduction

   We are a family owned company that has been a Long John Silver’s franchisee since 1972. In 2001, we started the process of co-branding A&W restaurants into some of our existing Long John Silver’s restaurants. We operate stores located in Iowa, Illinois and Arizona.
   At our stores, we strive to provide you with the freshest food possible. It’s so important to us that you get hot, fresh food, that outside of our busy times, we don’t make the food until you order it. During the meal times, the longest we will hold our quality fish, chicken, shrimp and fries in a warming bin is 5 minutes. Many of our competitors have no problems holding their food for 20 minutes or even more, YUCK!
   We believe if we provide you with great food, served by friendly employees in a clean restaurant, you will have a great experience and come back to see us more often. Our way of doing things does slow us down a little compared to the “fast food” guys, but we hope that you find our food to be worth the wait.
   Through our commitment to hot, fresh food, served by friendly employees in a clean setting we hope you will think we’re creating a better fish story at Long John Silver’s.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find cook, cashiers, and waitress for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any cook, cashiers, and waitress they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level cook, cashiers, and waitress with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your cook, cashier, and waitress job on Zippia to find and recruit cook, cashier, and waitress candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit cook, cashiers, and waitress, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new cook, cashier, and waitress

   Once you've decided on a perfect cook, cashier, and waitress candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new cook, cashier, and waitress. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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