As your business grows, you'll have to hire part-time and full-time staff to help you. You'll probably need a sous chef in the kitchen, an administrative assistant to help you with paperwork, and possibly a sales manager to help you sell your services. One of the keys to successful recruiting is to always be on the lookout for people who would be a good fit in your business. Whether it's meeting a bright waiter at a restaurant or finding a helpful sales associate at a department store, if you like his smile, his attitude, and his ability to think on his feet, then ask him if he'd like to work part-time as an event server.

Most event servers work on-call, meaning you call them when you need them. Call to book your best servers as far in advance as possible to make sure they're available. Many excellent serving staff work for a few different caterers or agencies, so if you find a few people who do an excellent job, offer them a higher wage than their other gigs to ensure that you'll be first on their list.

Recruiting

If you avoid union staff or staffing agencies, you'll save money and hopefully find people who are motivated to work for you by their desire to learn the business. Anyone who wants a career in events management should work in catering for a while to understand the demands of the business. New graduates or even students are good part-time hires.

Teaching food-service management at a continuing education program, culinary school, or hospitality management program will give you a steady stream of eager workers. Even volunteering to speak at career nights or being a guest speaker in a class will get you in front of many eager students. Let them know you're hiring, and give out plenty of business cards.

Here's a sample ad for catering staff that you may wish to use when advertising online or in print. Include your contact information and raise the starting hourly wage if you're located in a large urban area:

Wanted! Part-Time Help.

Do you like people and like to see others smile?

If so, join our team. We'll train you and show you that work can be fun.

We work in a fast-paced, exciting environment.

Starting salary $8/hr.

Visit our Web site at www.yourbusinessnamehere.com.

E-mail your resume or call our office.

Advertise “opportunity meetings” where you ask candidates to show up for a meeting to learn about working for you. Offer free beverages and snacks. At the beginning of the meeting, talk about how tough catering is and emphasize that only the energetic and quickthinking candidates will be able to handle the job. Discuss the challenges of working under strict timetables with few breaks. Then ask the attendees to take a five-minute break for drinks and snacks. The people who aren't afraid of hard work and who aren't looking for glamour will return, and they will most likely be good hires.

During the second part of the meeting, market your catering firm as a great place to work, where employees are paid and treated fairly. If you underpay and overwork your staff, the word will get out and it will be more difficult for you to find and train good staff.

Working with Staffing Agencies

Lots of catering firms use staffing agencies with varying results. Some caterers love them and others consider them a useful resource in a pinch. Much depends on the agency, as well as on the market for temporary staff in your area.

If you need to hire many servers for a very large event, you may have to contact several agencies. If you do use an agency, especially for the first time, to hire a number of workers, make sure a manager from the agency comes to your event to see that the staffers show up and do a good job. Also, negotiate with the agency so that they don't get their final payment until the event is completed. If their workers don't do a good job executing the event, you will have leverage when you complain to them.

Finding High-Quality Staffers

Along with a great smile, look for three main qualities in staffers:

• The ability to think quickly in tough situations

• The ability to act quickly in tough situations

• Positive attitude

Catering is all about thinking on your feet and reacting as soon as new obstacles are thrown in your path. Smart people can figure out how to react, and quick people can get the job done, resolving a problem before the client knows there ever was one. Someone who moves like molasses won't be able to keep up with the fast pace of an event.

A positive attitude is important in an industry like catering. Look for people who look at the glass as being half full. People with a “can't do” attitude will only bring down the rest of your team.

Unlike a traditional business interview where you sit down with a candidate and ask her a series of questions, an interview for a catering job should involve the candidate walking around and interacting with other people, if possible. The best way to facilitate this is to invite the candidate to your facility, offer her a beverage, introduce her to your other staff and watch how she moves, walks, talks, and interacts. Take her on a tour of your facility, and intentionally drop something on the floor to see if she'll pick it up. Inject some humor into your conversation to see how the candidate reacts.

Ask the candidate how she would respond to specific real-life catering situations, such as a delay in serving the dessert, a leak in the roof directly over the buffet table, and being understaffed when a dozen extra guests show up to an event. Her answers will show her creativity, resourcefulness, common sense, and willingness to take the initiative and solve problems.

Evaluate how pleasant, confident, energetic, and personable the candidate is. Finally, ask yourself whether you would like to work with her. If a candidate passes the interview test, give her a chance to work for you. Hire her to work an event. If she doesn't do a good job, simply don't ask her back again.

Other Ways to Recruit Staff

The best sources of staff are referrals from existing staff members. Let your regular staff know when you need additional help. Pay them a cash bounty if one of their referrals works out and stays with you for a certain period of time. Remember the “buddy system” from grade school? You can apply the same principle to catering. It's intimidating for a new staffer to show up at a catered event. Promise your existing staffers that they will be able to work with their referrals.

Caterers who pay wages that are a little bit better than the competition and treat their staff at least as well as their clients seem to have less turnover and fewer staff shortages. Those who yell at their staffers and pay less always seem to need staff.

Sharing staff with a few other professional caterers can also be a good source of extra personnel. Collaborate with other caterers you like, and they'll return the favor. Also, new caterers love to learn from the pros. You were a new caterer not long ago, so don't hesitate to ask those caterers who are just starting out to work for you. Be a mentor, and you'll get a great worker. Think creatively for other staffing sources. Consider your vendor representatives. One Florida caterer uses his U.S. Foodservice salesperson as a chef in his kitchen at larger events.