Labor shortage couldn’t come at a worse time for Long Term Care and Retirement Living communities! The largest number of people is reaching retirement age than ever before and they are living longer! This is no time to be short of food serving staff. Yet with the pandemic, we’ve experienced that is exactly what communities are facing today. With the quality of life as the main focus for each of your community residents, it is imperative that you have sufficient and properly trained food servers. The problem isn’t always corrected by bigger amounts of cash in hand paychecks. It is time to be open and test new ideas.
One brilliant idea is investing in your food servers, including those who leave their desks or other duties temporarily, when your company is short-staffed and seeking new employees is a smart move. Even when actively seeking to hire new employees, training focused on the unique needs of serving older adults impresses the applicants as well as a higher wage offered.
If extending the opportunity to younger part-time help, as young as 15 years of age, having training designed to capture their attention, and improve their performance with insightful life-long skill development in place will return the investment for many years to come. Adding a scholarship fund that builds at a rate commensurate with their number of working hours will draw seriously-minded students planning their future. This will create a natural bond between student-worker and the company that is investing in their future. It would be foolish for a student to walk away from a company that believes in them.
Youth serving food to your residents carry conversant energy of promise that your residents will receive with appreciation. Would they not be considered a breath of fresh air after this long period of Covid-19 confinement? I can only imagine conversations being uplifting between young food servers and the older adults they serve with easy conversation creating a bond with the residents. Our fun, and refreshed 9-module online and on-demand Kind Dining♥ courses suit all your training needs to improve communication, team building, serving techniques, and staff camaraderie around the dining experience. Looking at this training as an investment, the company will receive a higher return for years to come from each employee demonstrating skills, gaining confidence, and knowledge of person-centered hospitality and person-directed guidelines set by State and Federal regulations. Remember that all personnel involved in serving food develop a broader perspective of their work and a greater sense of purpose. Food servers are still the company’s best asset.
It will boost your competitive edge with the other Senior Living Communities vying for that same desired employee.
B♥ Kind Tip: Meet residents’ expectations with a superbly trained food serving team!.