Hospitality entrepreneurs are pulling out all the stops to prevent having to close their establishments due to a lack of staff. They entice employees with housing, a scooter, or let them choose their own salary.
Gym membership
Owner Hans Vugts of Hotel Casa bought a house 2.5 years ago to accommodate interns and new employees. Those eight rooms are a drop in the ocean. "I employ 140 people and have to seize every opportunity to find staff." He contributes to gym memberships and gives a 100 euro bonus to employees who refer a new colleague.
In the hospitality sector, there are as many as 37,000 vacancies, nearly two-thirds of which remain open for more than three months. There is a particularly acute shortage of chefs. Hospitality entrepreneurs are anxiously awaiting the first rays of spring sunshine. As soon as the beach bars and terraces open, chefs and waitresses will be even harder to find. Already, there are restaurants that are forced to close floors or cancel lunch because they can't complete their schedules, says chairman Robèr Willemsen of KHN. "It's a battle. The situation forces entrepreneurs to be creative."
The cause is not only the significant growth in the number of jobs due to the success in the hospitality sector. The industry also struggles with a negative image as an employer. Staff turnover is high. Annually, the industry seeks 90,000 new employees, while only 11,000 young people obtain an MBO hospitality diploma.
Ron Blaauw
Even top chefs are struggling to fill their vacancies. Star chef Ron Blaauw sought staff last autumn with the message 'house, job, scooter'. His offer of a job including housing and scooter lease attracted 280 applications. He employed sixteen for his Gastrobar. "We need to get rid of the image that you have to work very hard in hospitality and earn little," he explains. With overtime, employees of his Gastrobar can also save for things like a knife set or a weekend in London.
In Brabant, many hospitality entrepreneurs are also at their wits' end. At Dick van Ostaden's restaurant Boshuys Hermitage in Oisterwijk, the situation was so dire last year that he had to place 'reserved' signs on tables because the kitchen couldn't cope. "When I placed an expensive advert, I only got responses from 61-year-olds with a job application requirement or people who want to work from nine to five. That, of course, is not possible in our industry."
Chefs from Spain
Through a contact, he recruited chefs from Spain. Now, four Spaniards are working in his kitchen. His phone is now constantly ringing; colleagues from all over the country are calling to ask if he can also provide them with a Spanish chef. "Yesterday, I received nineteen requests, from a Michelin-starred restaurant to a beach bar." Through the network he set up with his Spanish chef, he has now brought in 'several dozen' chefs from Spain.
The Eindhoven hospitality entrepreneur Albert Pronk lets his employees choose their own salary scale. Surprisingly, most do not choose the highest, but the middle one. "Many people are modest. They don't want to create too high expectations. Apparently, a high salary is not the most important thing."
No experience required
The Groningen Steakhouse André Dokter took a different approach. When two years ago, staff with extensive hospitality experience were sought for a new location, more than a hundred people applied. Last year, a vacancy yielded only a single response. "Then we turned it around. We now explicitly ask for young people without experience and train them ourselves," says manager Peter Havinga. "In six days, they go through all the components: from how a cow is put together to how to make a good cappuccino. We test that with an exam."
There is also a growing number of lunchrooms that consciously seek people with intellectual disabilities, asylum seekers, or people distanced from the labour market for service roles, notes industry organisation KHN. "Think of Brownies & Downies and Tosti van Josti."
Many hospitality entrepreneurs complain about the mentality of young people, who are no longer interested in long, hard-working days in hospitality. The Eindhoven hospitality entrepreneur Albert Pronk has given up the ambition to find only hospitality pros. "Many students are just looking for a part-time job. They have other passions than hospitality. That's just how it is." To bind and retain those students, he offers them courses that have nothing to do with hospitality. Ranging from Spanish to guitar lessons. "They appreciate that tremendously. Young people want flexibility. That's why they can decide for themselves when they work with us. And if they want to backpack in Asia for three months, we guarantee them a job upon return."
To make the work more enjoyable, Pronk has outsourced the cleaning of his businesses Usine and De Vooruitgang. Night shifts earn the staff a bonus. With success. "Last year, we regularly had to keep entire floors closed due to staff shortages. Now, there is hardly any turnover."
Hospitality: hard work for little?
Should hospitality entrepreneurs simply pay more to find staff? Since this month, the industry finally has a CLA again, after entrepreneurs and trade unions could not agree on employment conditions for four years. In the new salary scales, the hourly salary for those over 21 ranges between 9.59 and 14.87 euros.
A joke, says manager Peter Havinga of the Groningen Steakhouse André Dokter, which pays its employees more. "In hospitality, you earn less than at a call centre, while you often work late into the evening and on weekends. Hospitality staff are undervalued in the Netherlands. In France, where many waiters are older men in suits, it's very different."
The enormous demand for staff has resulted in more and more chefs working as self-employed (freelancer). As freelancers, they can demand higher hourly rates and have more control over their schedules. Agencies for freelance chefs are mushrooming. Hospitality entrepreneurs view this Your career with dismay. "They sometimes demand bizarre rates and have many demands. But if you're really in a bind, you sometimes have to go along with it," says Hans Vugts of Hotel Casa. He is now considering paying his employees more on Saturday evenings and public holidays. "But there's a limit to that. If you spend too much on salaries, you price yourself out of the market and lose customers."
In addition to good pay, hospitality entrepreneurs must also offer their staff training and flexible working hours, says chairman Robèr Willemsen of Koninklijke hospitality Nederland. "We've all let it happen that the hospitality sector has gained a negative image. Now we must ensure that the industry becomes attractive to work in again. If you're not willing to take good care of your people, you deserve to be without staff."
Source: Algemeen Dagblad