Day off today. Tomorrow and the next day, too!
Day off today.
Tomorrow and the next day, too!
More than two years into the pandemic, the hospitality industry finds itself battling severe staff shortages. After a steady increase in the number of employees subject to social insurance contributions in the hospitality industry until 2019, a slump in employee figures was recorded for the first time in 2020 and 2021. As a result of lockdown and reduced working hours, swathes of the workforce left the hospitality industry, leaving it with 350,000 fewer employees. According to a survey by the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA), more than 60% of companies in the sector are urgently looking for staff.
The number of employees in the food service industry dropped by 23.4%, a decrease of nearly a quarter compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019. At 44.7%, bars were hit even harder. Source: Federal Statistical Office of Germany |
The coronavirus-related closure of most restaurants forced staff in the food service industry to look elsewhere for work. By the end of the second wave of the pandemic, low-cost temporary workers like school pupils and students also began to look for new jobs. The result is a huge and distressing shortage of staff never experienced in the industry before.
The loss of qualified specialist staff is particularly serious. For many chefs and waiters with several years of professional experience, the crisis has even caused them to look for work in other industries. As a result, the current labour market for qualified food service staff is virtually empty. Filling vacancies with junior staff is equally tricky since training in the food service industry is not an attractive option for many school leavers. Even before the pandemic, half of restaurant and chefs apprentices left before completing their training.
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Solution in sight?
There are many approaches that can make a positive contribution to this precarious situation. According to a DEHOGA survey, businesses respond to a lack of staff by adapting their menus (56.1%), increasing pay rates (54.1%), adding more days off (51.9%), employing more unskilled and semi-skilled staff (43.7%) and modifying working time models (37.8%) and organisational structures (34.1%).
Help through digitisation
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the subject of digitisation to the forefront of media discussions. Digital tools have also made workflows easier in the food service industry, thus saving valuable time.
Online reservation systems reduce workloads for staff. Acceptance of online bookings is automated via the Internet, meaning that such reservations no longer need to be entered manually. If diners do call or turn up spontaneously, staff will immediately receive table suggestions for the group size and can thus optimise the use of available seating in the restaurant.
Although the online reservation system has now become unavoidable, the telephone remains an important tool in the process for the time being – but it has to be attended to by staff. Just answering telephone reservation enquiries takes up a lot of time that restaurant employees simply don't have. A "smart telephone assistant" offers welcome relief here. The telephone butler automatically answers calls and takes reservations, which are then automatically added to the digital reservations book.
The self-ordering function via QR codes also means less running around for staff, faster service and more time for other tasks. Diners simply order and pay contactlessly via smartphone, without having to move from their table.
The automation of standardised processes can also present huge time savings for staff. One example of this is an automatic beer dispenser which is now in use at a beer garden in Stuttgart's Schlossgarten. All guests have to do is press a button and six glasses are positioned and automatically tipped as the beer is poured. A few seconds later, the guests can take their beer. Another innovation that can free up valuable time for other tasks is the automatic dishwashing line, which not only washes and dries dishes and cutlery, but also sorts and stores them.
Attractive remuneration
During lockdown, pay was the deciding factor that forced many employees to switch to other industries. Reduced-hours compensation and state benefit replacement rates only apply to the basic salary. Tips – which represent a significant portion of income for service and kitchen staff – completely disappeared during the lockdowns. Workers were then often left with insufficient funds to live on. In Berlin, for example, a chef would only earn EUR 900 – which is often not even enough to cover rent.
A fair wages is often a crucial factor. While the average gross salary in the service industry is EUR 22 per hour, it drops to just EUR 14 for hotel and restaurant staff. In addition to the poor rates of pay, regular night and weekend shifts put off many prospective employees.
Now is the time to attract specialist staff and service personnel with good conditions. In order to achieve this, employees must be tempted back from other industries. This costs money! Increased personnel costs are a real challenge for some companies. These costs also have to be passed on; diners would also have to be prepared to pay more for good food and service.
Attractive working hour models
At many companies, the working hour model is a fixed part of the employment contract. However, meeting staff requests for flexible hours in order to reconcile work and family life and arrive at a compromise between employer and employee is particularly difficult in the food service industry.
The following measures can help to accommodate both parties:
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An annual working hours account enables employees to work more or fewer hours depending on workload and demand.
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Prompt creation of rosters. This gives staff more planning reliability and creates room for a more flexible response to special requests, which, in turn, leads to a decrease in spontaneous requests to change shifts because private circumstances have already been taken into account when planning staff schedules.
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Staggered start and finish times. The first employee starts at 9 a.m. and their colleague an hour later at 10 a.m. This means that employees also get the opportunity to enjoy a lie-in or go home earlier.
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Enable flexible shift swaps between team members. This gives staff more independence as well as organisational responsibility.
Easier immigration regulations
The German Hotel and Catering Trade Association (DEHOGA) promotes simpler immigration regulations for workers coming from abroad. In addition to simpler immigration regulations, the improved integration of refugees into the labour market will help to relieve the staff crisis in the food service industry. Companies must be supported in the recruitment of staff from third countries, too. To enable this, the procedures must be simplified in order to accelerate visa approval and create new legal options for targeted employment-based immigration.
What the future holds
The problem of staff shortages in the food service industry will not resolve itself. A number of things must be done that will also have a long-term effect. What the branch undoubtedly needs is a reform of existing framework conditions, better working conditions, political action and a change in thinking among both food service providers and diners.
