Hiring and Managing Catering Business Employees

The role of a caterer is diverse. It includes jobs like sourcing ingredients and supplies, preparing food, preparing linens and decorations, transporting food and equipment to events, setting up at events, serving food and beverages to guests and cleaning up after events. There is also the business side of catering which includes administration and marketing. 

While it is possible to handle everything alone you will find that for events with any more than around twelve people, having assistance from staff is essential. 

The catering business, like all service businesses is all about providing great service and keeping the customer happy.  Staff play a key part in this, particularly your serving staff who are dealing with guests directly. They will be a major factor in determining the success or failure of an event.

With catering your staffing needs will change from month to month as every event will have different requirements and your booking will fluctuate. Larger caterers usually have a core team that handle the day to day business and then depending on their schedule they hire contractors or part timers.

Let’s discuss how you can go about hiring and managing catering business employees effectively.

Meeting and Hiring Staff

Businesses in the food service and hospitality industry have notoriously high staff turnover rates. Catering is definitely no exception. You have to set out a plan for interviewing and hiring staff in order to get staff that are capable and reliable. You also need staff that will stay with you for a while once you have trained them.

You could run advertising to look for employees. A better way once you know what you are doing is to look for good potential hires while you are out and about. If you have a great waitress serve you in a restaurant give her your card and let her know that you could offer her some extra work from time to time.

Give some thought to how you will interview prospective staff members. Be sure to conduct interviews in an area that will allow the applicant to relax. Prepare for the interview by reading thoroughly over their resume.  During an interview you must examine the applicant carefully. Take note of their grooming and study their personality to see if they will be a good fit with your company.

Think of sensible questions to ask to try and determine their attitude towards work, customers and former employers. Try to find out why they left their last place of employment.

Never hire somebody on the spot but rather take the time to reflect on the interview. Contact the references listed on their resume to reinforce you hiring decisions.

Set Clear Policies

In order to get staff to stay with your catering business for a while you really have to show them that you care about their interests.

Set up a working environment designed to avoid conflict. By setting clear policies that are fair to staff as well as looking after your interests as the business owner they will know where they stand and what is expected of them. Set out a printed document that includes your policies on punctuality, hygiene and things that are forbidden such as chewing gum or using mobile phones to make calls during an event. You also need to set out policies for how employees should treat each other and forbid harassment and abuse.

Some of your catering staff will earn tips and you should consider setting a policy that enables all tips to be shared among all staff at the end of the event.

Training Catering Employees

Serving staff will not always be familiar with the etiquette of food service, especially if they are new to the industry. Organize some practical training sessions for them and have some of your senior staff teach them about the right way to serve customers. 

While serving staff are obviously the most important when it comes to making a positive impression with clients, all team members should learn the importance of their role in an event. It is important that everyone knows how to communicate with other staff members and to work as a team.

Tips for Employee Presentation and Management

1) Have your employees wear white uniforms, or at least white shirts or blouses. White is one of the traditional colors of serving staff as it suggests cleanliness. 

2) You should ensure that your employees are well groomed, well spoken, polite and respectful to the guests.

3) Always make sure that your staff members are able to answer all the questions that they will get at a typical event. Teach them beforehand so they know such things as which dishes are suitable for vegetarians or where the bathrooms are located.

4) Cross-train your catering business employees so that they are all able to work in a variety of roles during an event. This gives you some flexibility if you are short staffed in certain areas. It also makes for a more interesting work environment for your employees.

To take your business to the ‘six figure’ level you must become good at hiring and organizing your catering business employees. Good employees can really make or break a business and catering is no exception.