Tim Oyer, Senior Vice President of RPO Solutions, Advanced RPO
Important points:
- Food and beverage companies need a dedicated hourly workforce strategy as labor shortages and turnover are causing significant business disruption, with more than a third of companies reducing production capacity.
- Companies must compete for talent not only with other food and beverage companies, but also with all local companies offering similar salaries and requirements, especially given industry-specific challenges such as strict food safety regulations and harsh working conditions. You need to understand that there are
- Success requires a multifaceted approach. This means providing realistic job previews to reduce early turnover, developing creative benefits packages tailored to the needs of hourly workers (such as weekly pay and shift flexibility), and addressing industry-specific challenges. may offer higher wages to offset this.
Few food and beverage (F&B) companies have a successful hourly workforce strategy. That’s because most people don’t have it at all.
Why is this employee left out of strategic planning efforts? One thing is perception. Most hourly positions are poorly paid, as are the skills required for the position, leading to the perception that they provide little value to the business. However, the scale of labor shortages and hourly turnover across the food and beverage industry is causing significant business disruption and warrants some level of attention.
This disruption has some serious economic implications. According to Survey conducted by food industry executives earlier this yearjust over a third of F&B companies have had to reduce production capacity, and 40% are paying overtime to existing employees to maintain production capacity.
Attracting and retaining hourly workers is undoubtedly critical to maintaining production levels and meeting consumer demand in the competitive food and beverage industry. Here are some ways HR leaders can address specific challenges before they impact the business.
Understand your business and talent competitors
Not all hourly jobs are created equal. Shift schedules, pay, and benefits are important factors, but so are the actual job requirements and working environment. This is the difficult part for restaurants.
There will be greater scrutiny of processes and practices. For example, employees must follow many requirements to ensure that appropriate food safety and quality standards comply with regulations and documented practices. The increased responsibility may turn away applicants. Some conditions are less than ideal, such as working alone in a freezer all day or processing meat and seafood.
Not only are restaurant businesses competing with each other for hourly workers, but with all other local businesses hiring for positions with similar salaries and requirements.
Strategic solution: Be realistic about the competition, and more specifically, how your role compares to the competition. You may need to increase your salary to compensate for other nuances in your role or work environment.
Reduce turnover of disruptive new hires
Hourly labor turnover is a challenge for all employers. Aside from the time and cost of recruitment, continually filling roles and bringing new talent into the process is disruptive to your business and your employees.
Employee turnover has a negative impact on all organizations, and the food and beverage industry is no exception. The main reasons people leave their jobs are pay, work environment, and supervision. All of these are managed by the company. There are always people looking to hire hourly employees, and in today’s market it’s easy to find out if the grass is greener with another employer.
With a wealth of hourly roles available in a variety of work environments, employees can easily act on buyer conscience, find work a few miles closer to home, earn a higher hourly wage, and more. You can quit your job for a variety of reasons, including a dollar more or more flexible work hours.
To stand out in a competitive hiring environment, it’s no surprise that food and beverage companies put all their effort into job advertising. This allows someone to get in the door, but doesn’t always stay there. This is especially true if there is some disconnect between reality and what was sold to candidates regarding the working environment or job requirements.
Strategic solution: Recruiters and managers need to manage expectations. To build trust from the start, it’s important to make sure your job preview is realistic. There shouldn’t be any surprises on an employee’s first day at work.
Think strategically about pay and benefits
It happens. Recruiters can do everything right and still lose candidates at various stages of the hiring process. The nuances of the F&B industry – a highly regulated and sometimes undesirable environment – can work against you when recruiting candidates.
While higher pay rates are beneficial, compensation is only one factor. Restaurant employers can unlock hidden advantages by looking at pay and benefits holistically and getting creative with how they deliver value to their employees.
The standard full-time employee benefits package isn’t a perfect fit for everyone. Some employees require insurance, while others are enrolled in their spouse’s plan. Some employees want a strong 401K matching program, while others prioritize more immediate financial recognition, such as bonuses.
Strategic solution: Design a pay and benefits package for your hourly workforce. Research what resonates with them. For example, weekly pay or the ability to swap shifts may be more valuable than a 401K program.
The bottom line is that hourly employees are extremely important to food and beverage companies, and it would be a big mistake for employers to not think strategically about employee needs. Devising more thoughtful approaches to recruiting and managing this workforce is critical at a time of massive industry growth and innovation.
Tim Oyer is Senior Vice President of RPO Solutions. Advanced RPO. In the case of more than For 20 years, we’ve helped companies of all sizes in a variety of industries improve employment. And smarter. He focuses on meeting client demands and addressing recruitment challenges. A creative, data-driven and results-focused approach.
