The mercenary is here to stay

One day it's a recession and workers can't get a job for love or money; the next day there's full employment and no one can find any workers. The cry of "Gis a job" becomes "Gis some staff".

Hospitality has a staffing problem, there's no doubt, and one of the ways of meeting the shortfall in numbers is to use temporary staff. This is not a new concept - the use of casual labour has had its place in history since the word "freelance" meant a soldier who was "free" to use his lance in the service of the highest bidder.

It's different these days, of course. Freelancers, or casuals, are likely to be not labourers desperate to earn a crust but, quite often, skilled workers who have chosen to lead the life of a free-floater. They have decided, for one reason or another, not to tie themselves down.

Recent figures issued by the charity organisation Voluntary Service Overseas suggest that more and more of its applicants are aged in their mid-30s to early 50s, reflecting a growing rejection of traditional get-a-job-and-settle-down values.

And this ethos has been encouraged by the persuasion of company accountants (but not line managers), who maintain that it's cheaper to employ casual staff when they're required, rather than keep permanent staff who may sometimes be underemployed.

The problem with filling payroll holes with casual staff, however, is that continuity is often lost, and it becomes inefficient to keep saying: "This is the way we do things here." Furthermore, it takes only one bad experience with a casual for managers to tar all temps with the same "unreliable" brush. And not just temps, but also the agencies that supply them.

As a result, the use of temporary staff has become the subject of much resentment in the industry. Not only is it seen as a symptom of the skills shortage (we're not worthy) but as an area where managers see themselves being cheated (not only are we unworthy, but we're getting ripped off as well).

This is wrong. First of all, the use of temporary staff is a fix being used by many industries, not just hospitality. There's no stigma attached to it.

Second, and more importantly, the employment of temps need not be a disaster, but it has to be a systematic and controlled process.

Temps are not people grateful to be given a job and therefore willing to accept any kind of treatment. They represent a large percentage of the current and future workforce. As such, they need to be treated with the same respect as permanent staff. On their first visit, for example, they need to have processes and procedures explained in the same way that a new permanent starter would expect.

All too often, casual staff are treated casually. They're expected to "hit the deck running" when they arrive and yet, quite often, they are given no briefing about where they should be running to.

Temporary staff are a permanent phenomenon in catering. They will become an increasingly important part of the labour scene. It's time to accept this and treat them fairly.

Forbes Mutch

Editor

Caterer & Hotelkeeper