There is a crying shortage of catering staff and they also notice this at beach pavilion Nautilus in Egmond aan Zee. Every effort is made to find new colleagues. For example, a free dinner is served where potential candidates themselves. “In this way we hope to make them enthusiastic about the profession.”
With the patio season just around the corner, finding new staff is desperately needed. At beach pavilion Nautilus they are looking for thirty on-call workers. According to Stephan van der Eng of Nautilus, during the corona crisis, it was possible to keep the permanent employees in service. However, the on-call workers started looking for other work.
“Due to the lockdowns, we were closed for a long time and we had nothing to offer,” Van der Eng tells NH Nieuws. “Then people look for other work, also at the GGD, for example, where there was a lot of work. For example, I met a former colleague when I had myself vaccinated.”
Royal Horeca Netherlands
There is an urgent need for catering staff not only in Egmond aan Zee, the problem is occurring throughout the Netherlands. Koninklijke Horeca Nederland even started a campaign to solve the shortage. According to the trade union, there was already a shortage of 40,000 people before the corona crisis.
“Some of the employees had to wait a long time before they could go back to work. Many people have also moved to other sectors, which you will not get back so quickly. KHN thinks the prospects for catering staff will be good again after the corona crisis. After all, the demand from our guests has not gone away, but due to the corona crisis, many catering entrepreneurs have had to say goodbye to their staff.”
Dinner
And so new staff must be sought in creative ways. For example, a few years ago a cooking training opened in which students are prepared for a job in the hospitality industry in a year. Flex housing was even built for the students.
At beach pavilion Nautilus aan Zee they take a different approach. There they offer future colleagues a dinner. “The condition is that they get to work themselves. In this way we immediately teach them what it is like to work in a restaurant and we hope that they get a taste for it.”
To recruit new staff, flyers were handed out today at OSG Willem Blaeu in Alkmaar (text continues below the video)
After the beautiful weather of the past few weeks, it is already a lot of work for the staff. “In the summer there will be an extra terrace in front of the pavilion, then I really need those extra hands. Days between ten and fourteen hours are broken. We want people to work shorter days and that we can work several shifts. have.”
Setting sun
But shouldn’t wages just go up? “You can already see that wages are going up,” says Van der Eng. “If it compares with a job behind the supermarket, it really makes no difference at all. It also has to come from somewhere, we can’t ask for 40 euros for a steak.”
Moreover, according to Van der Eng, working in the hospitality industry is much more fun. “You meet all kinds of people and if you learn to deal with them, you learn important lessons for the rest of your life. Moreover, you work on the beach with the sun setting every day, which is much better than under fluorescent lighting at the back working a cash register.”