|
Career Development
January 2006
Weekly Restaurant Connections Special Report, Jan. 2,
2006
Staffing Brainteaser: Aligning Emerging Trends
By Peter Langlois, co-editor Weekly Restaurant Connections
 Timing
is so important in nearly every aspect of our business. We’re great at
drilling down to measure the time between when a guest is seated to when a
server arrives at the table. We identify standard cooking times for lunch
and dinner. Our “Expos” are charged with insuring our food is picked up
and delivered to our guests before hot food cools or cold food warms. We
rightfully get right down to the nitty gritty in our operations to assure
a quality experience for our guests. Yet in our mania to concentrate on
important details, we may be missing major trends and ideas that will
impact our success in the long run, both as individual restaurateurs and
as a business segment. Here are trends, which undoubtedly will shape our
industry for the next several years.
While historically, operators have
identified food cost and labor cost as their primary concerns, today
staffing and sales have become the biggest issues, according a national
survey published in the Dec. 15, 2005 issue of “SmartBrief.”
Operators understand this is a people-driven business, and it is staff
that adds or detracts value from our brands.
What do you think will be the most significant challenge that your
business will face in 2006? (from Dec. 15, 2005 SmartBrief)
26.6% -- Recruiting and
retaining employees
18.4% -- Building and maintaining sales volume
13.2% -- Gas and energy costs
12% -- Profitability
7.4% -- The economy
6.2% -- Operational costs
6% -- Competition
5.6% --Labor costs
4.7% -- Food costs
While the National
Restaurant Association forecasts foodservice sales will be $511 billion in
2006, there are a number of key states where restaurant startups are
concentrated. According to the January 2006 issue of “Restaurant Start Up
and Growth,” California (6,970); Texas (6,538); Florida (4,837), and New
York (4,097)
combined to account for 22,442 licenses issued in the last 12 months,
about 41 percent of all licenses nationally (54,825). While we continue
to hear about the growth of restaurants in Las Vegas, Nevada ranks 26th
on the list.
Particularly California, Texas and Florida have growing Hispanic
populations (New York had long had a significant Hispanic segment), which
should represent significant staffing opportunities for foodservice.
Sometimes identified as a source for largely unskilled labor, dynamic
educational trends are emerging among Hispanics, creating “specially
acculturated Latinos—defined
as having adapted to mainstream U.S. culture while maintaining the values
of their native culture.” “Hispanic Trends,” Dec. 2005-Jan.2006
identifies this group and also these critical educational facts:
-
80 percent of
Latino college freshmen are enrolled in just seven states: California,
New York, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, and Illinois.
-
Hispanic youth
account for nearly one-third of the overall undergraduate enrollment
from 1996-2001, placing a heavier emphasis on two-year programs than the
general public.
-
From 1970 to
2,000, the share of U.S.-born Latinos aged 18-19 with a high school
diploma increased from 40 percent to 60 percent, a 50 percent increase.
Our
staffing goal should be is to converge these trends.
Recruiters should be challenged to go after this emerging labor pool,
which is becoming more attractive in not just numbers but also in
education and skill levels. Because other sources continue to shrink, the
growth of the industry may well depend upon the ability to attract and
retain “specially acculturated Latinos.”
Incidentally, this group also places greater emphasis than the general
public on a number of key aspects when choosing restaurants like good
service, variety, caters to children, and low prices, also according to
“Hispanic Trends.” In your marketing efforts, you should carefully
consider these as you re-engineer menus and develop service standards for
2006. After all, not only is this group a source of labor, but also a
growing segment of customers. These factors played heavily into our
decision improve service by publishing a Spanish version twice each month
beginning Jan. 15. Our view is to emphasize a bilingual approach.
Charles
and I will be back next week, Jan. 9, 2006, with our first issue of the New Year. We’ll be starting
up our new Career Center section with a question that seemingly is top of
mind for many executives as we begin a New Year:
“Is It Time for a Career Change?” As we start our ninth year of publication we’d like
to thank both our advertisers and our valued readers for their support and
continuing interest.
Here’s wishing you a great start to the New Year!
Peter
(and Charles), co-editors Weekly Restaurant Connections
###
Peter Langlois is founder of
www.RestaurantU.com: Tools of the Trade for Business, for School, for
Free!,co-editor of
Weekly Restaurant Connections (e-Newsletter), Culinary Instructor,
The Art Institute of Houston-Culinary, and Management, Marketing
and e-business Facilitator at The University of
Phoenix (Houston). Langlois is also a Malcolm
Baldrige 2005 Ambassador. He has a Political Science degree
from Michigan State University (Modern International Chinese Relations)
and an M.B.A from the University of Houston (Marketing and Business
Strategies). If you enjoyed this feature, you’ll probably enjoy his free
newsletter available on
www.RestaurantU.com.
Contact information: 832.860.5595 or
peter@restaurantu.com
|
