Applicant attraction to the restaurant industry: Examining the impact of compensation, scheduling, advancement, and fun

In the wake of the global pandemic, recruiting individuals for employment in the restaurant industry has proved challenging. To help guide practice and extend previous research, the present study focused on the impact of four job and organization characteristics on applicant attraction in the context of restaurant recruitment—competitive compensation, opportunities for advancement, scheduling flexibility, and fun. With a sample of 286 unemployed active job seekers who evaluated hypothetical recruiting advertisements for entry-level positions, the results demonstrated that competitive compensation messaging had the most consistent positive main effects. In addition, opportunities for advancement messaging was found to be predictive of applicant attraction, with stronger effects for men than women. In turn, fun messaging was found to be beneficial in attracting women, but detrimental in attracting men. No significant effects were found for scheduling flexibility messaging.