Hospitality Staff, Apprentice Chefs See Changes

Hospitality Magazine reports staff ‘PloyMe’ and ‘introduction agency-style’ is helping restaurant/cafe owners find experienced casual staff in a tight pre-Christmas labour market AND apprentices now get to pick from a jobs smorgasbord in Brisbane.

Filling last-minute roster holes

The owner of Brisbane’s award-winning tea house and restaurant/cafe High Societea says discovering PloyMe has been great for finding staff at the last minute.

”The big problem with hospitality now is staff shortages, so I think it’s a great thing for the industry that they can at the last minute call and get staff…PloyMe has provided us with cooks, kitchen hands and wait staff—some of them now work regularly for me…It is such a quick process – from needing staff to them walking in the door.”

Students seem particularly attracted to the flexibility of PloyMe…A few of the waitresses are overseas students, and one of the chefs is very experienced and I just use him casually on the weekend because he’s doing a management course…It seems to work for them and me.”

Apprentice chefs find the world is their oyster

With staff shortages and better training cookery teacher Alison Taafe from Southbank Institute of Technology’s College of Tourism and Hospitality said her graduating students were in high demand. She has placed apprentices in top Brisbane restaurants including Alchemy, Seasalt at Armstrongs, the Hilton Hotel and Queensland restaurant of the year Restaurant Two. She says,

”I have at least 10 jobs come across my desk every day…The good ones are now in a position where they can actually choose where they want to go…

Chef Jason McCormick of Fuscia at Enoggera, in Brisbane’s northwest, said things had changed since he did his apprenticeship more than a decade ago.

”I pay above the award…and every year an apprentice chef gives to my business they get 0.25 per cent of the business in equity.”

How are you faring with jobs shortages in the hospitality industry?