5 Tips to Hiring Hospitality Staff

Most hospitality hiring problems are actually classification and verification problems that surface later. Before writing a job advertisement, three things need to be settled: which award covers the role, what the person is legally required to hold before their first shift, and what their work rights are.

This page sets out the verification sequence an employer can defend, the award classification rules that decide what the role pays, and the induction duties that attach the moment someone starts.

Five people-focused hiring checks

Our source hiring guide recommends a clear advertisement that names the work and its challenges; a conversation about the applicant's interests and fit for the role; observation of how they communicate in the interview; situational questions about service, conflict and teamwork; and an honest explanation of what the venue offers in training, support and working conditions. Someone interviewing for a bar shift need not look exactly like a candidate for a supervisory role. A properly paid trial can add evidence of how the person works with the team, but one shift does not prove every skill.

These checks should help both sides decide whether the role fits. The classification, work-rights, credential and induction requirements below must still be met before or at the relevant stage of employment.

Settle the classification before you advertise

The award that covers a venue is determined by the premises, not the job title. The same job title — bar attendant, cook, food and beverage attendant — maps to a different award and a different pay table depending on where the person works.

Four awards cover the sector, not two.

Each covers its industry to the exclusion of any other modern award, so exactly one applies to a given employer. Two boundaries catch employers out, and both are counter-intuitive:

• Clubs are not MA000009. Clause 4.4(d)(i) of the hospitality award expressly states it does not cover "clubs registered or recognised under State or Territory legislation". A club under MA000058 is one that is both registered or licensed under a liquor, gaming, associations or corporations statute and established and operating on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of members and the community. The not-for-profit limb does the work: a commercially owned venue calling itself a club is not a club for award purposes.
• Night clubs are not MA000058. A night club is commercial rather than not-for-profit, so it sits in MA000119 with restaurants and cafes.

A restaurant operating inside a hotel is covered by MA000009, because coverage follows the premises the restaurant sits in. A food-court outlet is MA000003, while the cafe two doors down with tables is MA000119 — the test is sit-down service, not the menu.

MA000009 and MA000119 both run the same classification ladder: an Introductory level plus Levels 1 to 6.

The two ladders are not identical in structure even though the minimum weekly and hourly rates at Introductory to Level 6 are the same in both. MA000009 runs its levels across five streams — food and beverage, kitchen, guest services, clerical, and casino gaming, which has its own rate table — and carries a Managerial Staff (Hotels) minimum annual salary at clause 18.2. MA000119 runs three streams — food and beverage, kitchen, and administrative and general — with no casino gaming structure and no managerial salary provision. The differences between the two awards are structural rather than rate-based, which matters when a venue moves someone between a hotel and a restaurant business in the same group.

Two features of that ladder change hiring decisions.

Introductory level is time-limited. An employee may be held at Introductory level for up to three months while undertaking appropriate training and being assessed for competency, extendable by mutual agreement for up to a further three months. Six months is the ceiling. It is not an indefinite holding classification, and rostering someone there for a year is not a pay strategy, it is an exposure.

A relevant qualification sets a floor, in three of the four awards. Under MA000009, MA000119 and MA000058, a relevant AQF Certificate III or higher used at work sets a minimum classification of Level 4. The fast food award, MA000003, has no equivalent provision.

Three differences are worth respecting, because they are what make the claim precise rather than approximate:

So the floor is not automatic on completion in a hotel, pub or restaurant: the competencies have to be used at work. A qualified applicant is not a cheaper hire who happens to hold a certificate. The qualification carries an entitlement, and a Statement of Attainment is direct evidence of it.

Level 4 is also MA000009's reference point. The standard weekly and hourly rates used to calculate apprentice percentages are the Level 4 rates, so misclassifying at that point distorts more than one person's pay. Minimum rates are re-set annually, typically operative from 1 July, and are published in the awards themselves; confirm the current figure in the instrument or through the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool rather than relying on a number copied from a web page.

The "appropriate level of training" definition, and the trap in its third limb

Several MA000009 classifications require an "appropriate level of training". MA000009 clause 2 defines that term, and gives three routes to it:

Limb (c) is a closed transitional provision anchored to 30 June 2010, not a rolling three-month test. It cannot be newly satisfied. Anyone who began that classification's work after 30 June 2010 cannot reach the appropriate level of training by length of service, however long they stay, so "three months in the job" is not an alternative to the training for any current hire. The two live routes are limb (a) and limb (b).

These limbs are MA000009's own definition. Do not carry them across to MA000119, MA000058 or MA000003 without checking that award's own definitions clause — and note that clause 2 is a separate mechanism from the Certificate III classification floor above, which turns on holding and using the qualification rather than on the appropriate level of training. MA000119 has its own equivalent limb, and its transitional anchor is a different date: 31 December 2009.

Where a classification error turns into an underpayment

The regulatory material names five recurring causes of underpayment. They bite hardest on apprentices and trainees, because their rates are supposed to move during the engagement rather than sit still, but the fifth applies to any qualified hire.

1. Misclassification of the wage level - a level B rate applied where level A applies, or the reverse.
2. Failure to progress the rate - not moving a trainee on qualification conversion, or an apprentice on competency achievement.
3. Training delivery mode error - paying the full schedule rate where the approved training is delivered on the job, or partly on and partly off the job, and a 20% reduction applies.
4. Age-based rate mistakes - the wrong percentage, or the wrong age band.
5. Failure to apply the level floor - not recognising the Level 4 minimum for a Certificate III holder used in that capacity.

Above all five sits a sixth: the wrong award applied in the first place, which is why the premises test at the top of this page comes before everything else. Get that wrong and every later calculation is wrong however carefully it is done.

Underpayment can breach the modern award and the Fair Work Act. Check the classification and current rate, then use the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance to raise any discrepancy. An eligible unresolved monetary claim may use the small-claims procedure or another court process; the Fair Work Commission is not the general wage-recovery forum. Check superannuation separately. An underpayment can reduce super where it affected ordinary time earnings, but overtime and some other payments are treated differently under ATO guidance.

Check what the role legally requires before the first shift

Some hospitality roles cannot be performed at all without a specific credential already in hand. These are not induction items to be completed in week one.

Responsible Service of Alcohol is delivered nationally as a single unit, SITHFAB021, but sits under eight separate jurisdictional regimes and does not transfer cleanly.

Current regulator guidance: NSW, VIC, SA, QLD, WA, NT, ACT, TAS.

For a new Victorian RSA course, use an LCV-approved provider for the delivery mode and complete the required LCV Learning Hub surveys and sexual harassment and assault module as well as the national unit. Victorian certificate holders must complete the free RSA Refresher every three years. In Victoria, an interstate RSA certificate generally cannot be used on its own. Eligible holders can apply for the free RSA Refresher bridging course to obtain a Victorian certificate. LCV requires approved original RSA training completed within the last three years and, for an online course, residence interstate or overseas at the time. Allow about ten working days for the application. LCV lists a specific exemption for interstate liquor producers at qualifying temporary or major events. Check the Victorian eligibility and event rules before relying on a certificate. Queensland and Western Australia accept suitable national RSA training evidence from an RTO. This is subject to the correct credential: Queensland requires a Statement of Attainment for the national RSA course, and WA requires the RSA certificate rather than an interstate card alone. Check the Queensland requirements and WA requirements.

Queensland and Western Australia operate no approved-provider register for RSA, so an advertisement or a supplier claiming to be "OLGR-approved" or "DLGSC-approved" is describing a scheme that does not exist. Treat that claim as a reason to look harder at the provider, not a reason to trust them.

Food Safety Supervisor obligations come from Standard 3.2.2A of the Food Standards Code, which commenced 8 December 2023. Both category one and category two businesses must appoint one. The appointment has three parts that are easy to get half right: the supervisor must be appointed before the business engages in a prescribed activity, must hold a certificate issued within the immediately preceding five years, and must remain reasonably available — on site or easily contactable, for instance by phone. Naming someone on a wall chart who works Tuesdays while the kitchen trades seven days does not satisfy the third limb.

For New South Wales, the certificate must come from a provider approved by the NSW Food Authority under section 106H of the Food Act 2003 (NSW). We are not on that list and cannot issue a NSW Food Safety Supervisor certificate. An applicant who needs one must obtain it from an approved provider, and the NSW scheme issues two separate documents: the national Statement of Attainment and the FSS certificate. Keeping only the Statement of Attainment does not satisfy section 106G.

Food handler training is the requirement most often overstated in job advertisements. It must be completed before the person engages in a prescribed activity and must cover safe food handling, food contamination, cleaning and sanitising of premises and equipment, and personal hygiene. But it does not have to be nationally accredited, there is no mandated refresher period, and the business is not required to keep records of it. A free non-accredited course covering those four topics satisfies the law. The accredited unit SITXFSA005 buys portability and documentary proof, not permission. The five-year clock belongs to the Food Safety Supervisor certificate, not to food handler training.

The alternative to completed training, under clause 10 of the Standard, is possessing skills and knowledge commensurate with the activity. It is not "being supervised by someone who has done the training". That framing predates 3.2.2A and confuses the food handler tool with the separate Food Safety Supervisor tool.

Verify work rights, and keep verifying

Hospitality employs a high proportion of visa holders, and work-right conditions are real conditions attaching to the person, not paperwork attaching to the file. Student visas carry a work limitation under condition 8105 which is capped per fortnight while the course is in session, with the restriction easing between study periods. The cap has changed more than once in recent years, so check the current figure with the Department of Home Affairs rather than relying on a number remembered from a previous hire.

Two practical points follow. Checking work rights once at hire is not the same as checking they remain true, because visas expire and conditions change mid-employment. And the Fair Work Act maximum of 38 ordinary hours per week for a full-time employee, with additional hours only where reasonable, sits alongside the visa cap rather than replacing it. For a student employee the binding constraint is usually the visa, not the award.

Five things that actually improve the hire

1. Write the advertisement against the classification. Decide which of the four awards covers the premises, which classification the work sits in, and whether a relevant Certificate III would trigger the Level 4 floor. Then the rate and the expectations match from the first conversation.
2. Ask for evidence of credentials at interview, not on the first shift. Sight the certificate, check the issue date against the five-year window for a Food Safety Supervisor, and check which jurisdiction an RSA was issued under. An RSA that turns out to be the wrong state's on a Friday night is a compliance problem, not an inconvenience.
3. Trial on a quiet service, not a busy one. A busy trial tests composure. A quiet one tests whether the person can actually do the work, which is what you are buying. Note that a trial is still work, and work still attracts the award.
4. Take references on reliability and conduct. These are the two things that most commonly end hospitality employment and the two least visible in an interview. Note that the business-package recruitment units treat referee reports as part of the evidence a selection decision is assessed against, not an optional courtesy.
5. Have the induction ready before day one. Work health and safety law requires information, instruction, training and supervision, and it requires them at the start. Plan the induction content and format deliberately, and liaise with operational colleagues so it runs with minimum disruption to service. A documented induction is also the cheapest defence available if something later goes wrong.

What the induction has to carry

The nationally recognised unit SITXHRM010 Recruit, select and induct staff sets out the content an induction program is expected to cover, and it is a useful checklist even for employers with no interest in formal training:

• Conditions of employment, and the industrial arrangements that apply
• Payroll information, including the award and applicable pay rates, superannuation and wage payment arrangements
• Employee benefits, responsibilities and rights
• Enterprise culture, goals, objectives and vision
• Key organisational policies and procedures, and job-role-specific procedures
• Organisational charts and reporting lines
• Contact details for departments and colleagues
• Orientation: departmental locations, equipment, staff amenities, off-site operations, the whole premises
• Work health and safety information

On top of that, work health and safety law expects a general industry safety induction covering hospitality hazards before the person commences work, and a site-specific induction on day one covering emergency procedures, first aid locations, the plant and equipment in that particular kitchen, and chemical storage. Supervision must be proportionate to experience, which means young workers under 18, trainees and new starters need more of it, not the same amount.

Which Act applies depends on the state. Victoria operates under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), administered by WorkSafe Victoria. New South Wales operates under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), administered by SafeWork NSW, where the duty holder is a person conducting a business or undertaking. A multi-state operator is complying with two instruments, not one.

The process itself is an assessed competency

Two business-package units on our scope of registration describe what a recruitment and onboarding process has to contain in order to be judged competent. They are worth reading as an audit checklist for a venue's own process, because they convert most of the advice above from preference into a specified requirement.

BSBHRM415 Coordinate recruitment and onboarding applies to people in a human resources role and to those for whom recruitment and onboarding are part of broader duties, which describes most hospitality supervisors and owner-operators. Five elements: plan for recruitment; screen and interview potential candidates; assess and select candidates; manage candidate outcomes; and onboard the successful candidate. Inside them sit the specifics:

To be assessed competent a person coordinates the recruitment and onboarding of two candidates, developing selection criteria and interview questions in consultation with stakeholders, obtaining referees' reports, providing written reports of candidate assessments and selection recommendations, securing the preferred candidate's agreement and providing employment contracts.

BSBHRM525 Manage recruitment and onboarding is the Diploma-level counterpart, also current on our scope, and it shifts from running the process to owning it. Three elements: develop recruitment and onboarding policies and procedures, including assessing options for technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness, obtaining stakeholder support, creating supporting forms and documents, and communicating the policies to staff with training where required; manage the recruitment process, ensuring current position descriptors are used, that advertising complies with legislation and organisational policy, that selection procedures comply with legislation, that applicants are advised of outcomes, and that job offers and contracts of employment are prepared and provided promptly; and manage staff onboarding, providing access to training and support and ensuring onboarding is implemented effectively. Its performance evidence is managing recruitment and onboarding for two different individuals, and in the course of it updating organisational policies and procedures and complying with relevant legislation throughout, demonstrated in a workplace or a simulated environment with access to workplace documentation, organisational policies and procedures, and relevant legislation, regulations and codes of practice.

The practical value for an employer is the negative list. Advertising that does not comply with legislation, a vacancy with no current position descriptor, a selection decision with no documented reasoning, unsuccessful applicants never told, and no arrangement for pay and employee record keeping on the start date would each cost a candidate their competency judgement in one of these units. They are the same failures that produce a dispute.

Where training fits the hiring plan

If an applicant is strong but under-credentialed, training is usually faster than continuing to search. For an established workforce, recognition of prior learning is the bigger lever: registered training organisations must offer it under Standard 1.6, it is raised at the pre-training review under Standard 2.2, and it is a genuine assessment against the same evidence requirements rather than a waiver. An experienced cook may already hold a substantial proportion of a cookery qualification.

We deliver nationally recognised training in venues as well as in classrooms, across 17 current qualifications and 81 current skill sets on our scope of registration. The supervision-level qualification is Certificate IV in Hospitality, which can also be run as workplace training; entry-level options include Certificate III in Hospitality and the front-of-house stream at SIT30722. The business-package recruitment units above sit alongside Certificate III in Business and Certificate IV in Leadership and Management. Compliance training sits at Food Safety Supervisor, food handling and RSA in Melbourne. For an existing employee, start with a skills assessment.

Related reading: the hiring mistakes employers make most often, what to look for in a chef, the skills hospitality employees should have, rostering and time management, working hours, rosters and public holidays, superannuation, tax and payslips and health and safety best practice. Employers new to Standard 3.2.2A should start with the food safety management tools explainer.

About us

Complete Hospitality Training (Vic) Pty Ltd is the legal name. RTO 3722, CRICOS 04242E, ABN 27 006 947 262, ACN 006 947 262. Our ABN has been active since 22 May 2000, according to ABN Lookup. Oversight transferred from the Victorian regulator, the VRQA, to the national regulator, ASQA, on 8 September 2017, and the current registration period runs 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2032, exercised under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011. Six trading names sit on the record and five are current: Victorian Bar School, Complete Hospitality Training, Ready Serve Achieve Melbourne, Coffee School by CHT and Alchemy Institute of Australia. The sixth, Complete Healthcare Training, ran from 24 October 2023 to 19 April 2025.

Level 3, 28 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, and 410 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010. Contact melbourne@cht.edu.au or +61 3 9654 1554. Course, fee and enrolment details change, so confirm current arrangements directly.

We link to the relevant course and regulatory sources in this guide. Check those sources for current requirements, and confirm course availability, delivery, fees and entry requirements with us before enrolling.

Source records and further guidance

We link the unit records and regulator guidance relevant to this page below. Check the current source before making an enrolment, licensing or employment decision.

• BSBHRM415 Coordinate recruitment and onboarding
• BSBHRM525 Manage recruitment and onboarding
• SITXFSA005 Use hygienic practices for food safety
• SITXHRM010 Recruit, select and induct staff
• SIT30722 Certificate III in Hospitality (Restaurant Front of House)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Victoria)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Queensland)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Western Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (South Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Tasmania)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Northern Territory)
• Food Safety Supervisor certificate requirements (New South Wales)
• Food Standards Code — Standards 3.2.2 and 3.2.2A (food safety practices and food safety management tools)
• Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)
• Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119)