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Labour shortages loom
By Larry Russell
August 17, 2011
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Although the recent recession provided temporary relief from labour shortages in the Canadian food and beverage industry, shortfalls in labour supply are projected to return as the economy recovers. Shortages are expected to be felt in Canada by 2012, with 5,700 full-year jobs unfilled. These shortfalls increase to over 142,000 unfilled food and beverage jobs by 2025.
Competition for foodservice employees will be fierce, and good human resource practices could be the difference between a successful business with a dedicated workforce, and a business struggling to maintain adequate staffing levels just to survive. Here are a few tools to help you win the battle:
Plan and implement your HR strategy
- A free HR self-assessment tool is available at www.employersofchoice.ca to help evaluate your HR plan, how you attract and retain employees, health and safety practices, and more.
- To maintain, improve or develop human resource strategies, the HR Toolkit from www.emerit.ca includes dozens of templates and tools for effectively managing your workforce, covering job descriptions, interview checklists, training plans and employee manuals.
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Train your Employees
- Based on National Occupational Standards developed by industry professionals across Canada, training is available at www.emerit.ca for many foodservice occupations, including food and beverage server, line cook and kitchen helper.
Training can be done using workbooks or online learning, and employees can complete the training on their own time, without affecting staffing levels of the business. Online training is broken into modules, allowing learners to focus on the areas where they need improvement. The flexibility of these products makes them both time and cost effective and allows you to customize training to the unique needs of your business.
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Quantify your ROI
- To quantify the costs and value of training, free tools are available at www.employersofchoice.ca. With constant demands on your time and money, it’s a challenge to invest in formal employee training, but the pay-off can be huge: higher productivity, reduced absenteeism, better customer service, higher sales, and less employee turnover.
Employee turnover is far more harmful than many operators realize: it increases the workload of remaining staff, lowers overall morale, and leads to a near constant hiring process that costs time and money. By investing in training, you show employees that they are valued, increasing their loyalty and commitment to the success of the business.
With the return of Canadian labour shortages imminent, this is the time to improve your HR practices and bolster your employee training. Finding, keeping, and training valuable employees now will lessen the effects of a shrinking labour supply on your bottom line.
About the author
Larry Russell, is Project Manager, Communications for the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC), a national organization that addresses labour market issues and promotes professionalism in the Canadian tourism sector. For information on any of the programs, services or products offered by the CTHRC, email info@cthrc.ca, call 613.231.6949 or visit www.cthrc.ca.
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