A restaurant group does not need a cook; it needs forty identical crews across forty units, selected to one standard, trained on one menu and deployed on one calendar. This page covers how that is done from the Philippines — unit crews, batch selection, consistency, shift operations and volume — and where the country rules allow it.
Multi-site F&B is a volume operation and recruits like one. We size a unit crew with you — for an illustrative casual-dining unit six kitchen staff across grill, fry, prep and dish, six front-of-house across servers, cashier and runner, and a shift lead — and select whole crews in batches, five to twenty units at a time, in one selection week in Makati. Each candidate passes the same station test to your recipe cards or service standard, so that a crew in one city performs like a crew in another.
Groups that train on the menu and the brand standard in Manila, before the visa, open units faster: recipe cards, portioning, the service script and the POS flow are taught at our facilities in the weeks between selection and departure, and tested again before the flight. Shift leads are selected on documented supervision experience and a floor-management scenario and travel in the first wave to receive their crews.
Restaurant work is split shifts, late closes and weekend peaks. Filipino crews from the Gulf and the cruise lines know this, and they stay when it is briefed and accepted in writing before selection — the rota pattern, the hours, the net pay, the housing and the commute. Operations that brief one thing in Manila and roster another lose crews in month two.
Which hospitality roles can come depends on the country, and we say so before quoting. Croatia admits the whole operative range on seasonal or standard permits after the 15-day HZZ labour-market test, waived where the occupation is on the HZZ exemption list of the county concerned — cooks and waiters in 12 counties, assistant cooks/waiters, chambermaids and cleaners in 9 counties (coastal counties, Karlovac, Zagreb City and County); receptionists and bartenders are tested; Malta admits it on the single permit with the Skills Pass and the Pre-Departure Course; the Gulf on MoHRE permits by skill level; the Czech Republic and other Central European markets within their national programmes. Germany admits hospitality staff with a two-year qualification or through training, with no route for unqualified service staff and no seasonal route for Philippine nationals; Austria admits cooks as a nationwide shortage occupation and waiters only regionally. In the Netherlands the UWV labour-market test is not passed for operative hospitality roles in practice, and Flanders' 2026 shortage list excludes low-skilled roles.
Deployment runs in waves by region or by opening schedule: shift leads first, then crews two to three weeks before each unit's start; the Gulf in six to ten weeks per wave once the operating company is accredited, Malta and Central Europe in three to five months, Croatia on its seasonal calendar for coastal units.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office for the destination, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no cook, waiter or room attendant pays for an interview, a skills test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the immigration route, labour-market rules and sector requirements of the destination country and Philippine DMW rules.
Five to twenty units — sixty to two hundred and fifty people — in one selection week, with your operations and culinary leads on site or online; larger programmes run as consecutive rounds.
Yes — recipe cards, portioning, service script and POS flow are taught and tested at our Makati facilities between selection and departure, at the employer's cost and with your trainers where you want them.
Shift leads and team leaders, yes, on documented experience and a scenario; unit managers are usually promoted locally or recruited under skill-level routes in the Gulf.
Croatia, Malta, the Gulf and Central Europe for operative crews; Austria for cooks as a shortage occupation; Germany only with a recognised qualification or through training. In the Netherlands the UWV labour-market test is not passed for operative roles in practice, and Flanders' 2026 shortage list excludes low-skilled roles.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.