Overseas staff in pubs
Overseas staff are making an increasingly valuable contribution in pub kitchens. Andrew Burnyeat reports
The future of British pub staff looks as multi-cultural as the current face of hotels and restaurants. In London, fewer than 20% of hotel staff are British-born, according to a recent survey by the British Hospitality Association (BHA).
Pubs are following suit. Although accurate figures are difficult to find, partly because the situation is changing so fast, more companies are becoming increasingly reliant on foreign workers and appreciative of their contribution.
Rachid Noui, operations manager of 60-site Massive Pub Company, says 99% of its kitchen staff are from overseas. He bemoans the qualities and attitudes of British and French chefs.He says: "This generation has had it so easy - they haven't faced a war, they have forgotten what misery is - and they don't want to work.
"You can't do an appraisal with a French chef because if you criticise, he walks, possibly without giving notice."
By contrast, chefs from other countries - he cites India, Mexico, Poland and Bangladesh as examples to be found in Massive pubs - are loyal, flexible, hard-working and keen to progress.
He says: "If we didn't recruit from overseas we would have closed down because we would not have been able to maintain our standards. We want to do food the right way, with fresh, seasonal ingredients. We can only do this if our people have the right attitude."
The extent to which Massive believes in the overseas talent pool is reflected in the company's recruitment policies.
Massive management travel to India and other countries to find the right people. They spend up to £80,000 a year applying for visas and work permits just for commis chefs and chefs de partie.
The company provides accommodation until newly-arrived staff can find places of their own. If a chef wants to bring over a spouse, Massive will apply for the relevant permits.
"If we don't look after them, they will get homesick after a few months and our investment will be wasted," says Rachid.
Massive also spends up to two months teaching overseas chefs the basics of French and English cuisine.
Rachid says: "It's worth it because they really want to learn and once they do, they know it and appreciate the importance of seasonality to British food,"
Other operators agree. Fuller's group development manager Val Doyle says: "The advantages of employing foreign chefs far outweigh the disadvantages.
"They have a great attitude to service and regard it as a profession. They have no hang-ups about service."
She added: "Chefs are in short supply. It's a tough job, the hours are unsociable, working conditions can be hot and the pressure is always on."
Although the recruitment of overseas workers is likely to accelerate, the picture among larger operators is mixed.
Laura Bishop, a spokeswoman for Spirit Group, said: "We invite applications from all members of the public and we do not specifically or directly recruit from any country outside the UK."
At J D Wetherspoon, senior personnel manager Mandy Ferries says: "We don't recruit directly from overseas but we attract a lot of applications from such people.
"We find that people from the Continent and other parts of the world are more likely to regard working in a pub as a career move."
The company has thousands of overseas workers across at all levels. Mandy estimates 40% of the company's central London staff are from overseas.
Bob Cotton, chief executive of the BHA, has called on the Government to relax the restrictions it recently announced will apply to workers from Romania and Bulgaria.
"We don't need more immigration controls, we need less," he said.
"Pubs and other hospitality businesses need to recruit the best people they can, wherever they come from. Quite frankly, if the choice is between a 16-year-old British school-leaver and a 23-year-old skilled Polish person just out of college, it's not hard to choose."
He added: "Polish workers have a good work ethic, they are skilled and are flexible about when they work. A British school-leaver may be none of these things."
Cotton believes overseas workers are often better when it comes to customer service than their British counterparts. He said: "The overseas worker has better social skills when it comes to customer interaction. In the UK, we often get hung up about service. There is an attitude problem."
Cotton believes that the influx of international workers has been good for the pub trade. "It has done more to improve the skills level than any Government initiative in the past 10 years," he said.
"What we need to do is not to take steps to reduce the numbers of people coming in from abroad, but to improve the quality coming out of our schools," he added.
One recruitment expert believes the influx of overseas workers into pubs will have a previously unforeseen benefit.
"These people tend to work their way through the ranks quickly because they are good at what they do and approach work with an excellent attitude," said Nigel Sapsed, head of executive recruitment agency Sapsed Stevens.
He added: "They are already becoming pub managers and head chefs, even though it is currently in limited numbers.
"It's from this pool that the next generation of area managers and even operations or catering directors will be recruited.
"The industry is already having to look outside traditional sources to find new leaders, so the skills and approach that overseas workers bring to the party may help at senior recruitment level."
Geronimo Inns operations director Ed Turner agrees: "It's absolutely right. Several of our people have the right skills and approach to make it to senior roles within pub companies down the line," he says.
He added that the company already has several Eastern Europeans at deputy pub
manager and sous chef level, along with head chefs from France, Ireland, South Africa and Australia.
Turner added: "It's important to have a good mix because the customer base is mixed."
Cyrus Todiwala, proprietor and executive chef of the Café Spice Namasté restaurant group, says the UK pub trade needs as many overseas chefs as possible to come over and fill the skills shortage.
He welcomed the recent decision to appoint former CBI head Digby Jones as a new "skills envoy" but fears the move may turn out to be cosmetic unless more money is invested in education and training.
"When people in the industry get together, the skills shortage is all we talk about. It is top of the agenda."
Variety is the spice of life
Fuller's is doing everything it can to find the right staff for its pubs.
The company is taking industry-
leading steps to overcome issues associated with overseas workers - such as language issues.
Group development manager Val Doyle said: "Fuller's has begun a review of our recruitment procedures to investigate new ways to attract people directly from their own countries."
It has established a chefs academy at its Chiswick brewery and is tackling the language problem with a skills for life course allied to NVQs and a partnership with a private college to help staff
learn English.
Val points out that for legal, health and safety reasons, overseas staff must be able to communicate with others and pass on the skills and information they have to their colleagues.
Also, staff with strong promotion prospects must be able to teach and coach their colleagues and this requires a good grasp of English.
J D Wetherspoon also employs a significant number of its staff from all over the world and some of its pubs have as many as 20 nationalities represented.
Over time, the overseas employees have started to change the nature of the pubs they work in and help the company achieve one of its aims - relating to each of the communiti
