Dealing With The Labour Shortage
The F&B industry has faced a revolutionary change in recent years, and recruiting staff is no longer about hiring someone who can write down orders that customers dictate. It is now an avenue for businesses to connect with their customers through an enhanced experience no longer centred around noting orders and payment. Available manpower has decreased at an alarming rate. However, this labour shortage does not need to be a major blow to F&B establishments.
Instead of considering increasing pay to attract labour, here are some steps that businesses can inculcate to cope with the manpower crunch:1. Ordering through an iPadIn order to speed up the billing process, most restaurants ask customers to pay at the counter. Companies that wish to thrive in the VUCA world today must integrate technological innovations to enhance the service experience. To stay a step ahead, F&B establishments like Fish & Co. and St. Marcs Café have introduced iPads to their customers, eliminating the need for a waiter to take orders. Customers simply place their orders through the iPad and upon confirmation, the order is immediately sent to the kitchen for preparation.The only downside to this is that technological innovations can erase the service element of the restaurant experience, so it is imminent to strike a balance between the two.
2. Kiosks
Order automation is sweeping the quick-service industry, with digital kiosks being introduced at major chains in Singapore and around the world, namely McDonalds. Gone are the days when there was an exchange of filthy cash between customers and cashiers. The future of quick service foresees a rise in kiosk demand.Customers of all ages seek digital interactions in restaurants, especially those that provide them with a faster and easier dining experience.3. Self-filled menusTrendy new cafes that cannot afford to inculcate digital innovations due to their high cost of installation and implementation now turn to paper. As evidenced by Tipo, a relatively new pasta bar in Singapore, customers are given a form containing all the elements of the menu, tick what they want, and pass the paper to the cashier.
While this cuts down on the need for manpower, it can still a time-consuming process.4. GrabJobsThey are an innovative recruitment solution for entry to mid-level jobs. They are powered by an AI Interview Chat Bot which automates the screening process of job applicants. While it allows employers and applicants to communicate effectively, the recruitment process still takes up valuable time and resources.5. FastJobsLooking for a job in Singapore? Simplify your job search and find work in Singapore at your fingertips. Act fast and browse thousands of classifieds jobs, part-time jobs, temporary jobs, contract jobs, freelance work, and holiday jobs on FastJobs. You can be a student looking for part-time work, a mum looking to work from home or just looking for a change in career, FastJobs has plenty of job opportunities available. With constantly updated job vacancies, getting employment in Singapore can be simple and direct.
6. WaitrrPartnering with Waitrr reaps its numerous benefits. Namely, it allows customers to seamlessly and securely pay in-app with the most major payment methods. Above all, restaurant managers no longer suffer from the repercussions of the manpower shortage. Through Waitrr, customers can order and pay restaurants online, and collect their food at the outlet, eliminating the need for the wait staff in the process.
By integrating online ordering and payments into their operations, Waitrr’s restaurant partners have cut down on as many as 5 staff, or nearly a whopping $10,000 a month.
The numbers speak factsThe numbers are not insignificant. The average waiter in Singapore is paid an hourly rate of $7. A full-time staff member can be paid anywhere in between $1,800 to $2,200 a month. Let us embrace this manpower crunch for what it is – an awakening for us to accept disruptive innovation. Despite Singapore having a flourishing job market home to some of the most successful companies in the world, statistics show that businesses (especially those in the F&B industry) are increasingly recruiting expensive hires to plug the labour shortage.
“The city-state has a gaping number of job vacancies estimated at around 48,800 in 2017, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Manpower, with the accommodation and food services, and administrative jobs in security and investigation registering some of the highest vacancy levels at 6.4% and 4.9% respectively.” – Singapore Business Review.