The advisory panel for Caterer's Food & Business Conference. [L-R] Markus Thesleff, Cyrille Troesch, Duncan Fraser-Smith, Russell Impiazzi, and Naim Maadad. The advisory panel for Caterer's Food & Business Conference. [L-R] Markus Thesleff, Cyrille Troesch, Duncan Fraser-Smith, Russell Impiazzi, and Naim Maadad.

It’s still the big R
Labour retention and the dirty little secret of poaching was tackled. “Poaching has got to stop in this industry, it is rampant,” said Fraser-Smith. The experts then discussed labour contracts and how to protect themselves from this practice.

“What are we doing as an industry to pick the industry up, to make it a better destination for residents and tourists?” asked Thesleff. He pointed out that poaching brings the overall average quality down. How do companies secure labour force and foster loyalty?

Quality was a major point. “The level of service is a big problem in Dubai wherever you go, and the level of training and staff is poor compared to the food quality,” said Troesch.

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There are also high levels of turnover in the high-end market. Troesch said that companies need to wise up and realise that they can either lose their staff, or keep them with value-added incentives like training programmes and other kinds of rewards.

One of the methods used to keep labour forces is promoting before people are qualified to move up the career ladder. Restaurants are promoting internally without ensuring proper experience and qualification which leads to high turnover and low standards across the industry.

“Someone resigns and you react rather than offering a training course. You give people the next best position purely by default rather than if they deserve it,” said Maadad.

Impiazzi agreed and said this practice was not conducive to the industry. “People are moving up too quickly and within no time a commis chef becomes a sous chef,” said Impiazzi.

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