EMPLOYMENT
three days a week who is motivated I’m already winning. I’d rather take an excellent employee for four hours than a mediocre, not so motivated employee for eight hours. It’s then a question of combining skill sets and establishing a rota that leads you to what you need to achieve.” Neuner doesn’t see any disadvantages
of employing older workers. “I don’t understand why employers might have reservations about employing older workers,” he says. “You might want to have an honest conversation about their physical ability to do the job but we are so desperate for employees so we’d just give them the jobs they can do. In hospitality we often have to stand for a long time. There are ways of supporting that – there are such things as stand up chairs – give them tools to allow them to do their jobs. “For me age is nowhere, ever an obstacle
to anybody. If they want to do something, fantastic. Generally, with age comes reliability, which doesn’t mean the younger generation is unreliable – let’s never forget that we were young once. Older generations may have diff erent demands – they need to be home at a certain time to pick up children perhaps, employers need to understand that.”
Employees first
In the UK the shortage of labor in the foodservice sector is often blamed on Brexit. However, Neuner doesn’t think that is a blanket excuse that explains the problem. “This entire challenge on recruitment, plus onboarding, training, development, and retention has been a problem for many years,” he says. The UK has had the advantage for many years in that it was a very interesting and attractive workplace for many people from Europe, especially eastern Europe. Now that has gone the pool for recruitment has been
For more go to
fcsi.org
“In hospitality we often have to stand for a long time. There are ways of supporting that – there are such things as stand up chairs – give them tools to allow them to do their jobs”
decimated. It isn’t only Brexit as the rest of Europe has the same challenge.” Neuner explains that before the pandemic Hakkasan group had 650 employees across fi ve restaurants and its head offi ce in London. “After the pandemic we had between 500 and 520. The managers were moaning that we failed to attract more people,” he says. “I put the challenge on its head and said we need to change the way we’re working to accommodate and deliver the same level of service and food with 520 employees. We will never go back to 650, because even if you manage to recruit the cost pressures will come in, so you have to fi nd a diff erent way. It’s important not to impact the quality of product so we need to fi nd a smarter way of working.” So, as Bender stated earlier taking on older workers is not the sole solution, and Neuner urges operators to look at technology to take some of the strain or even (depending on the type of operation) buying in ready-prepared ingredients. However, the fact remains that people cannot be replaced entirely. According to Neuner: “The key word is empathy. We deliver to people; mutual understanding is needed to make anything work. It’s not rocket science. It’s treating people like human beings. I want to treat people the way I want to be treated. Employees (whatever their age) come fi rst because you can’t please the guests if you don’t please the employees. Set your priorities straight, get the culture right and then behave accordingly. For me, the winning formula lies in creating a company/ people culture that refl ects the values of a business, lived and being held accountable by all. Neuner concludes by examining
management guru Peter Drucker’s
statement: ‘Culture has strategy for breakfast’. “I think that can only be topped by ‘Culture and strategy having breakfast together’. These two factors in sync create an excellent starting point for success.”
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