The Forecast Of Demand/Supply Of Labour Phase

At the moment employment is at its highest rate, yet the food industry is continually short of staff. This is meaning some restaurants are only able to open 5 days out of 7 as they don’t have enough staff to run a restaurant efficiently and effectively. According to RTE News, “more than 700 chefs from outside the European Union have been given work permits for Ireland over the past two-and-a-half years. ” This means Ireland is at crisis point with the staffing issue. Cooks Academy are struggling internally and externally. The author believes Cooks Academy are successful internally with their chef assistants.

After a year of being with Cooks Academy chef assistants go on to become chef instructors who teach cookery lessons. One thing the author examines internally in Cooks Academy is the issue with staff retention, they struggle to keep students who are working there while also doing a college course. When the students finish their college course they are likely to move on and try to gain more experience in different places. Although externally they do struggle to get people in due to the shortage of chefs in the industry. People complain about the unsociable hours and underpayment which is leading to the shortage. The author will examine three possible and effective ways of retaining staff.

1. The author believes it is essential to have a positive onboarding process and to train chefs in a professional environment from the beginning. This will mean they are fully trained from the get-go and will see the job as a possible long-term career. During the onboarding process the person will learn more about the environment and the company culture. In Cooks Academy there is one day of Onboarding where you get to meet the team, learn more about the company and test out your skills.
2. The author thinks it is important to foster teamwork. In Cooks Academy teamwork between the chef assistant and the chef instructor is crucial so that the cookery course is completed in a safe and timely manner, while also completing all of the dishes. Fostering teamwork means that there are more ideas and solutions to some dishes which wouldn’t have been the case if the chef instructor was working on their own. It would also take the chef instructor double the time without the chef assistant.
3. Another way of retaining staff within the job is by setting up a recognition and rewards system. This way people will feel appreciated for the hard work they do within the job. Ideas range of employee recognition days or even a simple email from your manager. In Cooks Academy they reward staff by bringing them out for a meal to show that they are grateful for what they do.