'Honestly, one of the greatest recruitment tools that we have is our team internally,' says VP of people and culture
Megan Stover, VP of people + culture at the Charcoal Group of Restaurants, is leveraging her extensive experience and HR best practices to tackle one of the industry’s most significant challenges: hiring and retaining talented workers.
Having worked her way up through various roles at the company over 22 years, she calls herself “the poster child for internal development and growth.”
"I started as a host and it's never been a dull moment… I've worked my way through the ranks and through all the restaurant positions, and then had the opportunity to start working at our HQ level when we were building out Beertown. And I think I've opened 14 restaurants now with our group, and we learn something every single time.”
Charcoal Group is a group of full-service restaurants located across southern Ontario with over 65 years in the hospitality industry. Its brands include The Charcoal Steakhouse, Martini's, Dels Italian Kitchen, Wildcraft Grill & Long Bar, The Bauer Kitchen, The Bauer Bakery & Café, Moose Winooski's, Beertown Public House, and Sociable Kitchen & Tavern
The company is set to open a Beertown in Whitby, and has hired roughly 100 new team members of all positions including management, culinary chefs, servers, line cooks, bartenders, and hosts.
Finding top talent for restaurants
Finding the right workers can vary significantly depending on the role and the individual's personal goals, according to Stover.
"There's lots of our team members that are part-time, young people, looking for a job that's going to be fun, but also make great money while they're in school," she says. "But there are others out there that are maybe culinary or hospitality students as well, that are looking to make a career out of it."
To tap into this talent pool, the company collaborates closely with local educational institutions, particularly those with hospitality and culinary management programs, says Stover.
"We can stay close to the professors and any great students that they might have, and we get connected with their co-op programs.”
In addition to traditional recruitment methods such as job boards, Indeed, LinkedIn and the company’s career page, Stover highlights the importance of internal referrals.
"Honestly, one of the greatest recruitment tools that we have is our team internally, having them refer their friends and family and other people that they maybe have worked with in the past to come and work with us," she says, adding this approach has been successful from entry-level positions to management roles.
Challenges to recruiting workers
For positions like servers, where wages are boosted by tips, the job can be quite appealing, especially as restaurant prices — and consequently tips — have increased due to inflation, says Kris Barnier, vice-president for central Canada at Restaurants Canada.
“Most provinces will have a pretty competitive minimum wage, period, but then when you add tips on top of that, it can make it very attractive,” he says.
“You might find some of the more reputable, some of the higher-end restaurants, they're doing quite well in terms of finding and attracting staff, and certainly where there is a tip component, that helps.”
More than 520,000 youth are employed in the restaurant industry, which represents one in five youth jobs, according to the group. Overall, the restaurant
industry employs nearly 1.2 million workers, representing 6% of the country’s workforce.
Where employers may find more challenges is at the back of the house versus the front of the house, says Barnier, along with rural or remote areas, where housing shortages complicate the hiring process.
“You might have a group of employees who might go together and then get a cottage or get a house or something,” Kris says, noting the difficulty in finding accommodations for seasonal workers in particular.
Safety concerns in certain neighborhoods also pose recruitment challenges, he says, highlighting issues in areas with high crime rates or those affected by controversial establishments like safe injection sites.
“We've got some really awful, scary situations in certain neighborhoods where quite little young restaurants [are] saying, ‘I'm not going to do business here anymore,” says Barnier.
Retaining top talent in food service industry
While recruiting the right talent is crucial, retaining employees is equally important, especially in an industry known for high turnover.
To that end, Stover is focused on hiring individuals who see a future with the company.
"We certainly do look to hire people that are looking to stay with us over the long term," she says. "We invest quite a bit in our training programs, and so … somebody coming on, just being with us for the summer season, two months or four months, is just too short; we’re looking for long-term hires.”
Training and professional development are central to the Charcoal Group’s retention strategy, according to Stover.
"Once they're in the business with us, it's definitely about training them really well and setting them up for success, so that they feel confident in what they do," she says, which means focused, professional management to team members in every position. "We provide them with proper preparation, we give them support for success, and then also a great sense of belonging, so that they know that we want them here."
Employee retention is a critical issue for the restaurant industry, says Barnier. With a workforce heavily comprised of students and young people, turnover rates are naturally high, so a solid job is important.
“People want the predictability, they want sound leadership, good compensation [and], where possible, benefits,” he says.
Yet, many restaurants operate on tight margins, making it challenging to offer competitive benefits, says Barnier.
“Pre-pandemic, we would have had maybe 12% of restaurants at any given time would have told you that they're barely breaking even or not profitable. Today... it's more like seven per cent.”
Strong culture supports employees
Stover is also mindful of the mental health and well-being of her employees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company introduced an employee assistance program (EAP) for people who may need extra support, along with offering coaching aspects.
“We have had some of our leaders that want to work with an independent third party to develop their skills and abilities, to grow their careers as well, which has really been a wonderful feature,” she says.
Maintaining a positive and supportive team culture is also key, and Stover says she believes that the nature of the restaurant industry — where employees work closely together and interact directly with guests — naturally fosters a strong sense of community.
"Working in restaurants and hospitality, it is very much a people business. You have to interact face to face with the guests, you're working very closely with a team of people in the business," she says.
Stover encourages team members to support each other and to step in when someone is struggling, reinforcing a commitment to a respectful and inclusive workplace.
“When we encounter those situations, because we certainly do, we don't always have all the answers, but we've got resources that we can use to help try to support the individual and what it is that they need. And that's really the kind of environment… that we promote in the business.”
Creating a supportive and inclusive workplace environment is important in the restaurant sector, says Barnier.
“Employees [want to] feel like they're part of the team, and feel that it's a pleasant work environment,” feel supported by their bosses, and feel that they’re empowered to succeed,” he says, adding that’s especially true in the “very stressful” restaurant industry.
But it’s also a great first job, says Barnier.
“You learn so much about the about customer relations, about teamwork, about managing your time, and the important soft skills.”
Empowering frontline managers is key to achieving this, as they set the tone and manage day-to-day interactions.
“That is one of the toughest positions to hire for, and that’s where a lot of the restaurant owners will tell you that they’re really struggling to find people…. They play a very important role in setting what the environment is, in the temperament and how people interact with one another,” says Barnier.
Progressing at the Charcoal Group
The people who have been most successful at the Charcoal Group are those who want to grow, and are constantly driving themselves forward, to grow personally and professionally, says Stover.
“With the growth that we have, we're constantly communicating with our team about the opportunities that are available in leadership positions,” she says.
“We've got a great job board and we post there to constantly share with our team internally about leadership opportunities that we have available today, ones that might be coming up down the road as we open more locations. And so that's really been a huge asset.”
Anyone who indicates they want to progress within the company works with their reporting manager on a personal development plan that is updated on a quarterly basis, says Stover.
“They'll have regular one-on-one check-ins to talk about their progress… their goals for getting to the next level, or what they might want to achieve in their department if they already are a manager.”
HR tech supports restaurant team members
Also important to boosting the employee experience is newer tech. Having grown “quite dramatically” over the last few years, the company now has roughly 1,400 employees across southwestern Ontario and, last year, it made some “significant investments” in HR-based systems, says Stover.
“We were having some internal strains and pains, if you will, on some of the systems,” she says, so they hired Push Operations to meld three different systems into one: payroll management, communications and information storing.
“It has been very, very successful,” says Stover,
In addition, the company also Axonify to take advantage of its learning management system.
“It has been an absolute game-changer with respect to training our team members… moving from paper to a digital training world has really created much more specific training for our team. They have daily reinforced questions that are specific to what they need. They provide an answer, and then they provide a confidence rating every time they answer a question.
“And the system remembers everything that maybe they don't answer correctly, or they don't answer with confidence, and then it… cycles that information back to them again and again, so that it helps them to reinforce and actually truly remember the proper answer to whatever question it might be.”
