Restaurants struggling to find good F&B staff

Restaurants in the Middle East are struggling to find good F&B staff, particularly in technical roles, said restaurateurs and recruiters.

“In some disciplines — usually the most technical disciplines like the kitchen — it can be very difficult [to find the right talent],” said Marriott International vice president sales and marketing, Middle East and Africa, Jeff Strachan.

“Take a place like Dubai where traditionally you used to have restaurants just in hotels but now you have restaurants — and good restaurants — in malls; there is huge competition for talented chefs,” he added.

A recent report by hospitality recruitment website CatererGlobal.com showed that recruitment and retention was a major issue for the region’s hospitality market, with 78% of the market shown to be experiencing recruitment difficulties.

The 2011 report surveyed more than 60 HR directors in the region and their main reasons for these difficulties were twofold: candidates have inflated pay expectations and too many have insufficient experience.

“The area where recruiters have had most problems is in the F&B department, especially restaurant management,” said Peter Willis, sales director, Catererglobal.com.

“The Asian and the Middle Eastern regions emerge top in the survey as high growth recruitment markets, where hotels are turning their attention to sourcing the right quality of candidate.

“It is worth noting that there has been a significant reduction in recruiting from Africa compared with the 2010 survey,” he added.