Finding the best people and the right people to join your team can be difficult. In last year's survey, the majority of ICA members noted that staffing and training were the biggest business challenges they faced.
If you're one of these caterers, we completely understand how tough it can be to figure out how to find the best staff for your company. We spoke to ICA members Low Country Quisine in Dallas, Texas and The JDK Group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania about how they find, train, and retain exceptional staff members. See their tips below and discover which might work best for your business.
Finding the best staff
Tip: Use a variety of sources
Figuring out from where to recruit employees can be one of the most intimidating elements of staffing. We spoke with Steve Sanchez, chief marketing officer and VP of sales for The JDK Group, to see what his approach is. "We attend and host in-house job fairs, network with local colleges and universities, and invest in online listing," Sanchez said. While your business might not be large enough to utilize all of these methods, one of them might work well.
Tip: Trust your employees' judgment
Another option is to rely on the expertise of your trusted staff. Enjolik Oree-Bailey, executive chef and owner of Low Country Quisine, said that they "prefer to recruit serving staff through our current team members." If you have a solid team already and don't need a large number of event staff, utilizing their connections can be helpful.
Training your team
Tip: Training for employees new and old
Although securing excellent staff members is important, training can be just as essential. For new employees, Sanchez conducts an orientation, as well as a "series of trainings based on the necessary skills to execute a JDK event, which are broken down into 101,102, and 103." These sessions are for new recruits, but he also hosts "two large trainings a year on the common issues we feel that the entire company needs reviewed."
Tip: Conduct event-specific training
Each event has different needs and thus a different team, so Oree-Bailey prepares her team by taking "at least 30 minutes prior to each event to go over the major details for the evening, including the menu." Additionally, she makes sure to "pair newer or seasonal staff with our seasoned team members to make sure they learn the way we execute events."
With these tips in mind, we encourage you to go forth and recruit some amazing team members. We can't wait to see what it does for your business.