"It's not enough to just hire 'a body' - customers want more, managers need more, businesses have more to do and less time to train. They want people who are able to hit the ground running, who will immediately have a positive impact on the business," says Shane McLave, director of Excel Recruitment.
Recruiting has always been a headache for hospitality businesses looking for professional and passionate people. As unemployment continues to fall, hospitality businesses are crying out for well-trained staff. Excel Recruitment, Ireland's leading hospitality recruitment agency, has been quick to respond to the recruitment needs of its clients.
Already an established, successful recruitment company, Excel branched into the permanent and temporary hospitality sector in 2013. With a senior hospitality team comprised of Director Shane McLave, Senior Permanent Consultant Laurence Rogers, Senior Hospitality and Events Account Manager Madeline Hanniffy and Hospitality Team Leader Johnathon Armstrong, the expansion has been a massive success. Excel now has over 35 staff and this year celebrated the openings of a brand new office in Cork along with its third purpose-built offices and training facility in Dublin city.
Hanniffy explained, "Every one of our 30 recruitment consultants has vast experience in both the hospitality and recruitment industry, with most of the team either former hotel management or head chefs. We all love the industry and the key to our success is our ability to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry, stay connected with clients and understand their needs fully."
New Cork Office
Explaining why the time was right to expand to an office in the city, Cork Branch Manager Richard Carey said, "With the employment and tourism markets as they are, our clients are looking for great staff quickly. Our new base in Phoenix House, in the centre of Cork city, will allow us to meet candidates on the ground in a central location at a time that suits them, speeding up the time to hire and streamlining the recruitment process for both clients and candidates. It also allows us to more seamlessly manage our events and temporary teams working at some of the biggest events and venues around Cork."
McLave added, "The new Cork office will hail the start of our nationwide branch openings with plans already in motion for an office in the west of Ireland."
Expert Chef Recruitment Team
One of the key recruitment challenges for Excel's clients is chefs. Excel is taking a number of innovative steps to find great chefs to join its clients’ teams as well as its own temporary team nationwide. While Excel has been successfully recruiting chefs of all levels since its beginning, the agency recently established a dedicated chef recruitment team, led by Senior Consultant and Client Services Manager Emma Conlon, to meet the crisis head-on.
Conlon previously spent over five years recruiting chefs and BOH hospitality staff in London. Her career began in the hospitality industry, running restaurants and events across the UK capital, where she was responsible for the beverage training of staff in a number of high-end locations and worked closely with chefs on provenance and menu design before making the move to recruitment. Additionally, she is WSET Level 3 and CIPD qualified.
McLave said, "Our new specialist chef division will allow us greater search and selection capabilities, meaning we can source great chefs quicker and more seamlessly than ever before."
Excel is also leading the way in the recruitment of Non-EEA chefs through the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation’s General Chef Permit Scheme, assisting its clients through the process of recruiting and obtaining permits for overseas chefs. Excel has effectively established talent pipelines, bringing a number of chefs to Ireland already. Excel not only fills the vacancy, but completely removes the administrative burden of the application process for its clients.
Barista School
Excel, along with sister company Futureproof Training, has established "The Irish Barista School" after hearing from clients about their difficulty finding trained baristas. Futureproof operates at the forefront of training providers, with fully accredited trainers and a variety of learning methods, including web, app and classroom based training. This blended approach to training gives staff the ability to combine training modules to suit their own schedules and learning styles, ensuring that they get the best mix of theory and practise possible.
The new barista school will offer full barista training courses, including equipment and maintenance, coffee theory, and customer service courses, and, according to Senior Trainer Eimhear Ó Dálaigh, is designed specifically with Excel’s clients in mind.
To discuss how Excel Recruitment can help you with your temporary or permanent staffing needs, or to learn more about its training or chef work permits programmes, please get in touch with Director Shane McLave at [email protected] or call 018717676.
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