Foodservice salaries must be competitive and aggressive to ensure quality workers. Employees working in your establishment represent your company and hold the key to profitability and growth. But as a business owner or manager you must also watch your bottom line. How do you strike such a careful balancing act?
The foodservice industry employs more than 13 million people, second only to government. Experts project more than $550 billion in sales in 2008. Those numbers are only expected to increase in the next decade. With so much to gain, finding and keeping good employees with competitive restaurant employee salaries remains important to running a restaurant business.
Along with training and development, salary helps retain productive employees. Several foodservice salary tools are available to help you determine a fair yet favorable foodservice salary to offer potential job candidates or retain current employees.
When using restaurant and foodservice salary tools, be sure to include your own analysis of:
1. The candidate's individual experience in the industry and previous restaurant career salary.
2. The candidate's special training or other qualifications which would raise the potential restaurant salary.
3. The candidate's personality traits which could in turn boost productivity and restaurant salary.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Utilize available online restaurant salary tools
Salaries for restaurant professionals or at least a base rate to start from can easily be found online. Researchers make available their findings and you can easily search foodservice salaries in a particular occupation and compare those rates regionally. Obviously, a line cook isn't going to reach the same salary as an executive chef.
I recommend: View individual salary reports from comparable companies at
Vault. Obtain national averages and compare results from your region at
CareerBuilder. A free salary report is available from
Salary Search.
Keep informed of foodservice salaries and changes in the industry
The foodservice and restaurant industry constantly changes. Stay up-to-date on management styles and techniques which could effect how you run your business as well as setting restaurant salaries.
I recommend: Sign up for e-mail alerts on the latest foodservice industry news from the
National Restaurant Association's SmartBrief service. Browse articles from
Restaurants & Institutions magazine.
Use foodservice salary tools to help you learn how to negotiate
Restaurant and foodservice salary tools warn that negotiations can be somewhat of a chess game. You may find seeking the candidate's limitations without pushing him or her too far can be maddening.
I recommend: Read expert tips at
PayScale on how to manage pay negotiations without ruining your chances to bank an extraordinary employee. Read this article from
Salary.com detailing specific goals to keep in mind when negotiating salary.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Job seekers can access the same restaurant salary tools. Keep that in mind when you conduct negotiations.
- Along with salary, an attractive benefits package, flexible work time and bonuses may be bargaining chips.
The official source of Restaurant and Foodservice Salary Tools is
the Restaurant and Foodservice Salary Tools page at Business.com
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