How Employment Hero is helping El Jannah fill 500 new restaurant locations at smoking-hot speed

About El Jannah

El Jannah began as a single charcoal chicken takeaway shop in Granville, Sydney, back in 1998. It was founded by Andre and Carol; hosts at heart who insisted every guest feel like they were at the family table. 

Fast-forward to today, the brand sits in the sweet spot between QSR and casual dining:  fresh casual dining. It’s famous for its authentic flavours and a garlic sauce with legendary, near-mythic status. Growth has been brisk – roughly a restaurant has launched every two weeks in the past year, each with a 60 to 80-strong crew. 

Such a pace creates a very particular challenge for HR and operations: hire brilliantly, repeatedly and quickly, without asking restaurant managers to moonlight as talent experts.

From manual to momentum

Before Employment Hero, recruiting looked like most early-stage hospitality hiring: posting on traditional job boards, word-of-mouth, a hiring poster on the window of each new site, then a mountain of resumes to sift by hand. 

It worked… until the business started to grow. As the brand gained recognition, applications surged and managers’ free time evaporated. The team needed a way to keep pace with growth while protecting standards and freeing managers to focus on legendary guest experiences and their team.

SmartMatch-ed screening that feels made-to-order

That’s when El Jannah switched on Employment Hero’s job-matching and screening tools to turn that applicant surge into a shortlist worth interviewing. The appeal was immediate. 

“SmartMatch’s job matching is exactly what we needed,” says HR Business Partner Michael Oliverio. 

“We are early adopters of anything that automates processes and frees up administrative time so we can focus on the guest experience and employees.”

The team defined the skills that matter for leadership roles, shift leaders and assistant restaurant managers: exposure to quick-service restaurants (QSR), evidence of leading people, a growth mindset and problem-solving. 

“As applications come through, we’re able to rank candidates against this criteria,” Michael explains. 

Instead of trawling thousands of applications, managers can now identify the right people faster, driving an estimated $500k in a annual savings for the El Jannah team.

Helping great operators hire like pros

Most El Jannah restaurant leaders are trained in hospitality, not HR. They’re brilliant operators; they just haven’t been trained to write bias-aware job ads or run structured screening. Employment Hero helps bridge that gap, saving them $90,000 in recruiter fees. 

“It acts as a tool that naturally upskills them to become professional talent acquisition practitioners without actually having to do all the training,” says Michael. 

The team built out clear job descriptions and consistent screening rules in Employment Hero’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS), so even first-time hiring managers can attract a diverse talent pool and evaluate candidates against role-relevant behaviours.

The result is deceptively simple because it makes hiring feel like a guided process. Managers know what “good” looks like, and the platform does the heavy lifting.

A better candidate journey, start to finish

In quick-service restaurants, reputation is everything – on both sides of the counter. As applications surged, responding to everyone became really time-consuming. 

“With thousands of applications coming in, getting back to every candidate was almost impossible,” Michael recalls. 

The team now uses templates and stage-based messages in Employment Hero’s ATS, so every candidate receives timely updates. This safeguards the employer brand and the candidate experience.

“Automated emails linked to the manager’s Outlook go out at each stage,” he adds. “The worst thing you can do is ghost a candidate and the platform keeps us on top of it.” 

Michael’s north star is psychological safety and a sense of belonging, from that first interaction to long-term development. The hiring experience matters, especially for younger applicants coming in for their first-ever interview. Employment Hero sets the tone with quick acknowledgements, clear next steps and consistent outcomes. 

“As we move candidates through each stage, we communicate in a way that resonates and we always let them know the outcome,” he says. Simple courtesy, scaled.

Built for high-volume, repeatable hiring

Opening 20 new restaurants in a year demands industrial-strength consistency. Recruiting with Employment Hero has given El Jannah repeatable workflows that scale from site to site. Job matching narrows the field, screening rules keep standards high, and templates make communication fast. And when Michael talks about the relationship, it sounds less like software and more like a partner. 

“I would 100% recommend Employment Hero if you’re looking for a partnership. They’ve taken the time to deeply understand our business, identify opportunities and collaborate on how to move forward.”

Want to see how Employment Hero can work across your restaurants?

For a fast-growing fresh casual dining  brand, hiring can either be a bottleneck or a brand builder. El Jannah chose the latter. They’ve turned a flood of applications into a steady stream of right-fit hires, empowered managers to recruit with confidence and made candidate communication a strength. 

The payoff shows up everywhere that matters: better manager focus, a more consistent experience for applicants and room for HR to do the human work that keeps teams thriving.

Want to supercharge your hiring like El Jannah? Book a demo with our specialists today.