Where King’s Day is normally also a – lucrative – party for cafes, this year it causes a lot of headaches for many entrepreneurs. Cause? The lack of employees. “These young girls want to go out again after two years.”
At Eetcafé City in Waalwijk they have been busy for some time. “To get things done, we had to close for a day and two evenings recently,” says owner Jermain Van Cromvoirt. “Many employees have found another job during the pandemic. Now the catering industry is great fun, but you always have to work when others are free.”
And so now they stay away. “Those boys and girls have now seen that things can be done differently and that it is nice to have a day off. Then it does not motivate to come back.”
“Those young girls also want to go out again.”
What doesn’t exactly help with King’s Day just around the corner is that some of the remaining employees also feel like a good party, explains Jermain. “Those young girls want to go out again. Logical, they have not been able to do anything in the past two years. But because of that, we now have a really big problem.”
However, the malaise is not so great everywhere. At Eetcafé De Tijd in Oisterwijk, the services are still easy to fill. The secret? “We are constantly working on our staff”, says owner Mirjan Theuns. “Think of conversations with feedback, in which we also look at talents and growth opportunities.”
According to Theuns, this does not even have to be catering related. “For example, we have some creative people who make a magazine four times a year. This keeps the work fun for those boys and girls, who often come here very young.”
A good example of this is Willem Verkooijen. He entered the company nine years ago as an intern for an MBO course in Horeca Management. “I grew from there to work in the ministry and now I even have some managerial tasks.”
“You notice that you are being pulled by other things.”
Sufficient challenge to linger. “You notice that due to the staff shortage, you are quite drawn to other things. But I have no reason to leave. I like it very much here.”
