Ground control

Recruiting catering staff is tough in many sectors, but rarely more so than at airports. To attract enough people, airport restaurants are offering premium wage rates, taxi services and free accommodation - and even recruiting from as far afield as Spain.

Compared with high street sites, airport locations pose a number of special challenges. Many are several miles from centres of population, and public transport is often geared more to the needs of the travelling public than to those of chefs and waiters starting work at 5.30am.

Some of the biggest airports are in areas of low unemployment, with London's airports at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted having rates of just 1.7%, 1.2% and 1% respectively, compared with the national average of 4%. And there is brisk competition for employees within airports such as Heathrow, which has more than 60 restaurants, cafés and bars.

Expensive staff

Few people are more aware of these challenges than Hugh Fenn, airports operations director for Granada Retail Catering, which operates restaurants and bars at seven airports, with brands ranging from franchises such as Burger King, KFC and Sbarro to its own operations such as Harry Ramsden's, Franklin's of Boston, Brioche Dorée and Village Grill. "For some staff, your costs can double compared with the high street," Fenn says.

He explains that being part of a big organisation makes staffing easier because, although some brands require dedicated teams, others can share staff. "People have to be cross-trained," he says. "Otherwise, we wouldn't cope with the peaks and troughs of the business."

Granada's size also proved invaluable following the Korean Airlines crash near Stansted in December. To cope with the crisis, extra staff were brought in for three days from Granada outlets at a shopping centre in Watford, nearly 50 miles away. Richard Warrender, Granada's general manager for Stansted, adds that, in emergencies, he can also call for help from Heathrow and Birmingham airports and from the South Mimms services on the M25.

Fenn says that part-timers are not generally the answer to covering uneven patterns of trading, often over a 24-hour period. "It's not worth driving miles to an airport like Stansted or Gatwick for a part-time job," he explains.

Instead, imaginative techniques are used to supplement conventional recruiting. Some staff are sourced from northern Spain through an agency. "We look for people who speak English and are up to college standard," says Fenn. "We bring out groups of four or six so they are with people they know, and accommodate them in company houses. We also pay for their flights."

Granada also recruits students for the summer season, advertising at five universities and again offering free accommodation. Students work at Stansted, where there are four company houses, and Bristol, where there are two houses. Fenn is also considering using the same approach at Gatwick.

In addition, staff are recruited from a much wider local area than they are for high street outlets. Fenn says that people travel as much as 40 miles to work at Stansted, 35 miles to Bristol and 25 miles to Belfast. Inevitably, employment costs are higher at airports, with Granada's airport wages pitched at least 10% higher than elsewhere.

Transport adds to the bill. Although some airports provide discounted bus and rail transport for workers, it is often only possible to travel by car, particularly at night. At Edinburgh, Granada operates its own people carrier, and elsewhere taxis are used from 11pm to 6am. For staff with their own cars, parking is provided - which is otherwise particularly expensive for temporary agency staff, who are not allowed to use airport staff car parks.

Security is an extra complication because staff require passes to go airside - the area beyond passport control and where most restaurants are located. Warrender explains that the company can issue a limited number of temporary passes, but temporary pass-holders must always be accompanied by permanent pass-holders. Obtaining permanent passes from the British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs most of the major airports, involves checking people's work history and references.

In addition, all airport staff have to undergo fire training. Granada, though, has trained some of its own staff to be fire trainers, so giving it more flexibility. Fenn says that training on airport sites costs 20-25% extra.

Pràt à Manger's only airport outlets are at Heathrow, and the fact that they are airside can cause difficulties when recruiting, according to Bruce Robertson, head of human resources. "We can't take people airside unless they've got a pass," he explains. "Usually, we tend to take new people to see our Hammersmith branch - which is the nearest to the airport - rather than to get passes and potentially lose candidates in the process."

He adds that, once someone has been hired, it takes as long as four weeks to get them a permanent pass. As a result, the company is thinking of introducing a longer notice period at Heathrow - a month instead of the usual week.

Many Pràt à Manger staff elsewhere are visitors from continental Europe who like working for high street outlets that shut around 3.00-3.30pm, leaving them the rest of the day free. But at Heathrow the operating hours are less appealing - 5.30am until 11pm. To compensate, the company offers higher pay, with a starting rate of £5.50 an hour, compared with £4.50 at other sites.

Restair, part of the Belgian Carestel Group, took over several catering outlets in December at the London City Airport - the Meridian Line restaurant, Yeagers bar-café, the Trattoria pasta and seafood bar, and a Marché Frais foodcart.

Underprivileged

Managing director Michael Gottlieb says that recruitment was particularly difficult because the airport is in the city's East End. "This part of London is notably underprivileged," he says, "and, as a result, we probably had to go through three times the number of people to get one good person as we would in the West End. We have recruited from the local community quite successfully - but it's a lot harder work to find the golden nugget."

Two open days attracted 260 people, but many were just "going through the motions", says Gottlieb. Working with the local JobCentre also brought poor results. Most staff were recruited through advertising and by using recruitment companies.

Compared with high street sites, airport staff have to be more flexible, Gottlieb adds. "We have a range of different concepts," he says, "so we look for people with transferable skills. It's difficult to find someone who has had only retail skills and put him into a full table service operation."

Gottlieb's next challenge is training because, so far, only off-site training has been possible. Restair has invested £1.25m in its outlets, but because they are in the airport they have had to continue trading throughout the building works, making on-site training difficult.

Nigel Doughty, Costa's operations manager for the City, the South-east of England and Anglia, has two coffee bars at Stansted in his territory, and Costa also has outlets at Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham airports.

He points out that airport work is fast-paced. "Some of the businesses are doing three or four times the volume of high street sites," he says. "You need a certain type of person, someone who is more flexible, so the rewards are good and the pay is better."

Costa operates various bonus schemes - in particular, a shift bonus at Gatwick and Heathrow aims to ensure that staff are well presented and on time. "If you're two or three people short at an airport," he says, "the business doesn't work properly."

Doughty says that the basic starting rate is £4.75 per hour, and someone doing wash, clean and service can expect to earn £12,000-£13,000 a year for a 40-hour week. But he stresses that finding and keeping staff is not just about pay. Other incentives include opportunities for personal development, being taken out for drinks or meals as a thank-you, and a discount card from parent company Whitbread.

The pace of airport work means that there is a higher fall-out rate of new employees in the first few weeks, Doughty says. "Once people are in the airport they tend to stay, but change employers. All the brands are at airports and people do get poached."

Next Week: catering at ground level