Pizza Hut Has Expedited Its Hiring Process To Bring On Employees in Record Time

Jonathan Maze of Restaurant Business Online wrote a column on Tuesday highlighting the hiring push from restaurant giant Pizza Hut, and the sizable measures the brand has implemented to satisfy a need for 40,000 workers. The brand hosted a virtual hiring conference on Sept. 29th, showcasing its ability to bring in employees of all backgrounds and get them working in record time.

To be considered for a position, a Pizza Hut applicant can reportedly submit an application in as little as four minutes. This model is engineered to rival the hiring processes of quick-hire services like Uber Eats and GrubHub.

Pizza Hut’s hiring conference is engineered to help the brand achieve a rapid influx of staffing. Its strategy is designed to not only get more workers on the job quickly, but to also provide an opportunity for employees to grow with the company unlike other organizations (it can be tougher to climb the organizational ladder as a driver with Uber Eats, for example, as the quick-hire model doesn’t have many related positions above it)

About 70% of Pizza Hut’s restaurant managers started as team members, as cooks or as delivery drivers. Being hired by the brand comes with a chance to grow with the brand, which may entice workers to pursue the franchising industry at large for similar opportunities.

The changing landscape of consumer demand has forced Pizza Hut to either adapt its business model or fall victim to the popularity of third-party brands in the delivery space. Pizza delivery is no longer a near-exclusive delivery option, and delivery workers everywhere have shown a preference for a streamlined hiring process through third-party delivery services.

Pizza Hut has been forced to compete. The brand now offers comprehensive delivery training in as little as five hours, and many franchise brands may soon look to take advantage of a similar system. Franchises everywhere can capitalize on a similar operation. Rapid-fire staffing may keep the most qualified employees from being hired, but it can be an otherwise ideal practice if thousands of positions need to be filled.

This quick-hire system by Pizza Hut is engineered to satisfy an instant staff shortage, but it’s a separate challenge to keep workers employed beyond an initial hiring phase. 

Many issues remain in the ongoing battle for fair labor in the restaurant industry alone, and adjusting a hiring process to be quicker is just the first step in satisfying a long-term strategy for employee retention. Restaurants across the country have been feeling the effects of labor shortages, as employee walkouts have become commonplace, and some locations have even needed to adjust working hours entirely.