Sydney hospitality venues take drastic steps to plug staff shortages ahead of peak season

Hospitality venues are scrambling to fill hundreds of job vacancies ahead of the festive season – with some even turning to technology to help serve customers. See what it could mean when dining out this summer.

Hospitality groups and venues across Sydney are scrambling to fill hundreds of job vacancies ahead of the major events and festive season.

Baristas, front of house, chef and management roles are just some of the jobs currently on offer as venues prepare for an influx of customers in the coming months.

Some venues have taken drastic steps to address the shortages including taking out highway billboards to advertise vacancies – while one venue has even deployed an electronic robot to serve its customers.

Norths Collective, which operates major venues including Norths Cammeray and The Greens in North Sydney, has been on a recruitment drive for months and is currently offering staff $1000 in referral bonuses as well as annual leave perks as part of a staff retention strategy.

Tony Williams – general manager of The Greens, the Glasshouse in Artarmon, The Verandah and Molly’s Pavilion – is expecting large crowds to flock through the doors in coming months after three years of Covid-19 related impacts

Norths Collective – which operates major venues on the north shore – is preparing for an influx of customers.

“We’ve been recruiting for the last few months but our first step has been putting in strategies for staff retention because post-Covid a lot of professionals were leaving our industry due to the uncertainty of hospitality,” he said.

“This time of year has traditionally been reliant on backpackers and international students and we still aren’t seeing the same numbers come through.

The Greens North Sydney is among venues in hot demand over the summer months.

“It’s going to take time to recover. Filling vacancies is an industry wide issue and everyone’s fishing from the same pond when looking for staff.

“We’ve had a huge surge of corporate functions over the Christmas period – at The Greens in particular we have more than 400 bookings a day and we’ll be looking at using agency staff so we’re not relying too heavily on our existing employees.

“I’ve seen a couple of venues communicating with customers to be patient and that’s a good message leading up to the summer period. The whole industry needs a bit of understanding just to be patient.”

Some venues have taken bold steps to fill vacancy including Bay Ten Espresso cafe in Kirribilli which earlier this year took out a billboard on the M2 Lane Cove Tunnel advertising for a head chef position.

Bay Ten Espresso used a billboard to help find staff

“It was an extreme measure for an extreme situation and even after taking out the billboard we only received four applications – luckily one of them turned out to be the candidate we were looking for,” operations manager Kristy Bannister said.

“We’ve been more successful finding roles such as kitchen hands, but the challenge has been finding staff with the level of experience to put together menus and lead a team – that’s where the pressure has been.

“During Covid a lot of experienced chefs lost their jobs and when the recovery started they didn’t have enough support around them and decided to leave the industry.

Kazzi Beach Greek owner Peter Papas said inflation is a key challenge for the industry.

“At the moment we’re building a buffer of staff and if people are available we just hire them on the spot and that’s given us time to make sure they’re trained for the peak season.”

Peter Papas, owner of Kazzi Beach Greek in Balmoral, said cost of labour and produce was another key challenge for venues, with many now having to pass increases on to customers.

“We’ve done our best to hold pricing for as long as we can and continue to absorb most of it but recently we’ve had to pass small increases on,” he said.

“The main cost is fresh produce – tomatoes are up 80 per cent, greens are up, and meat prices are also on the increase by about 15 per cent. It’s a challenge across the whole industry.”

The Matterhorn owner Liarne Schai pictured alongside the robot waiter.

Liarne Schai, owner of Turramurra restaurant Matterhorn, has meanwhile turned to technology to fill staff shortages by hiring a robotic waiter to serve customers at the fine dining venue.

The restaurant is also growing its own herbs and vegetables to reduce overheads in the face of rising inflationary pressure.

“We’re planning our menus three months out, and focusing more on what’s in season which means we don’t have to cut costs in other areas or pass on price increases,” she said.

“A lot of the commentary has blamed Covid for the staff shortages the industry is facing but it wasn’t the whole problem – the key issue is that hospitality isn’t an industry that’s traditionally been viewed as a career in Australia, but something you do as an in between job or to earn some extra money while you’re at uni.

“As an industry we haven’t cultivated a skill set and we were particularly bad at leaning on itinerant workers. Personally, I don’t see the challenges being fully addressed without looking at the core issue which is the value we place on hospitality.”

Figures released by Clubs Australia this month show there has been a 252.4 per cent increase in job vacancies in the hospitality industry compared to pre-Covid levels and a 184.4 per cent increase in online job advertisements for hospitality workers.

Industry jobs platform Barcats Australia has appealed to students just finishing year 12, university students and retirees to enter the industry to help address the shortages.