‘Hello' bonus a success for London posts
A new London restaurant has succeeded in filling 50 vacancies for front of house staff by offering recruits a £200 "golden hello" bonus.
A newspaper advertisement promising "money for nothing" prompted a flood of applications for posts of waiters, waitresses and door hosts at the 90-seat Italian Kitchen, which opens in Covent Garden next week.
The company's director of operations, Steve Fish, said he got the idea for the bonus from America. "In Chicago some of the better hospitals were offering people a week's vacation in Florida or Hawaii as an enticement to join," he said.
"Getting qualified staff in London is a nightmare and with the opening of a new restaurant we wanted to start off with good people," he added. "We have run ads before with no starting bonus and didn't get enough responses to fill our requirements."
To ensure people do not just take the money and run, successful applicants are promised £100 after the first week's training course, and the £100 balance at the end of three months.
