Food Safety Market Blog

Canada’s diverse workforce is home to many different languages, cultures, and ethnicities - and the foodservice and restaurant industry is no exception. 

If you operate a foodservice business in Ontario, you know how important it is to have your staff Smart Serve certified. The certificate is mandatory for any employee selling or serving alcohol in the province so all bar staff, waiters, and kitchen workers in licensed premises have to have a current license.  

With the holidays in full swing, restaurants are filling up and while that’s good news for businesses, it puts a lot of pressure on managers. 

Lockdowns may be over as pandemic measures relax, but Canada’s restaurants face an uphill battle to recovery. Two years of restrictions, a labour shortage, and a looming recession have put enormous strain on the restaurant industry, with an estimated 13,000 foodservice businesses closing their doors since March 2020.

Given the ongoing labor shortage, employee development is one of the biggest emerging workplace trends heading into 2023. Companies are realizing they need to go the extra mile to hang onto talented staff, especially in the restaurant business where job-hopping is becoming the norm.

Job vacancies in Canada’s restaurant industry have tripled since the pandemic, stalling recovery in the beleaguered sector as it grapples with rising food costs, mounting debt, and high inflation.

Restaurants can’t afford to lose talent, even in the best of times. With job-hopping becoming the norm, employers must go the extra mile to offer skilled staff more than just a pay cheque. 

It’s been a tough year for the restaurant industry and with diners expected to stay away into 2023, there’s little respite in sight. Given the bleak outlook, now’s the time to switch up your marketing to find new ways of attracting and keeping consumers.

Incentivising diners to become repeat customers can significantly grow your customer base. According to a recent survey, more than 50% of Canadians would be more likely to dine out if offered loyalty programs.

There are many food safety courses on the market, some of which offer tempting bargains and discounts, but don’t be tempted to sacrifice content for cost - this is one area where quality counts. 

Your waiter, your chef, your line manager, your supervisor - everyone working in your restaurant is an individual. So why train them the same?

When it comes to employee development, restaurants and other foodservice businesses often fall into the trap of buying a one-size-fits-all training solution. These out-of-the-box programs aren’t doing you or your staff any favours, forcing trainees to plough through monotonous modules that don’t cater to their specific abilities, career goals, or level of experience.

For some restaurant workers, serving is a summer job. But what if your new hires show promise and you want to keep them year-round? 

Enticing staff to stay isn’t just about offering them a good wage or creating a fun workplace environment. Those things do matter, of course, but equally-important is continual training and development.