Keeping People in this Noble Profession

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The restaurant industry has made tremendous gains over the last three decades – the proliferation of locations; the significant improvements in food quality and service standards; and the positive impact of technology have all shaped the industry. An area we still need to improve is our ability to attract and keep high calibre people in our leadership ranks. A hospitality career is more highly regarded than say, 30 years ago, but we still lag behind other traditional careers.

I have been fortunate to be on the Advisory Councils of two of the top university hospitality programs in Ontario and I have spoken to numerous students over the last few years. If they all joined the foodservice and hospitality ranks we would be in great shape but instead a lot of them go to work in financial institutions or other industries. Within the restaurants, the story is not much different. We have bright young people with relevant experience looking elsewhere.

When you explore the reasons for the migration away from hospitality there are several practical considerations around our typical hours of operation. But I believe that if we did a better job communicating our benefits we could attract and keep more managers. We need to promote the fact that we teach people how to run a business and in the case of a restaurant, it is both a retail business and a production operation. If they join our management ranks they will learn financial management; training skills; customer relations; promotion; problem-solving and cost management. The good candidates will enjoy upward mobility in a relatively short timeframe. Teaching them how to run a business is our competitive edge.

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Corey Dalton began his career in well known concepts such as The Keg and Kelsey’s, and was appointed Chief Operating Officer of SIR Corp. in May 2004, subsequently becoming president in 2007. After leaving SIR, he worked at Williams Fresh Café as CEO and in the fall of 2012 took over as COO with the Tortoise Group, which owns and operates Turtle Jack’s and Fraticelli’s Italian Grill and Bar. Corey has recently started his own private practice consulting with service-oriented companies on building Culture and Systems.

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