How to build – and keep – a better workforce

Finding and retaining employees is a tough job in the current food and beverage sector environment. The new landscape brings with it the need for a different approach to employee engagement and retention.

According to experts in the sector, strategies such as acknowledging the skills required to perform traditionally undervalued tasks, aligning practices with employee values and being more flexible can help businesses thrive in a highly competitive and tumultuous environment.

Acknowledge employee skills

Dana McCauley, Chief Experience Officer for the Canadian Food Innovation Network, challenges food and beverage processors to change their thinking and terminology from labour to talent.

“I think the word labour is too broad, and when used exclusively, it creates a false impression that our food industry staffing issues are purely about matching bodies to vacancies,” McCauley says.

“We have members who work in technology companies who can't find staff with the skill sets they need. On the foodservice side, many fine dining chefs say they can't find skilled cooks.”

Fundamentally, opting to use more accurate terms in place of labour is part of a necessary mindset change. In the current environment, older perspectives are increasingly holding back innovation.

“Food manufacturers, restaurants and grocers do need unskilled labour, but to grow and thrive, they need talent,” McCauley says.

Mike Mikulak, Executive Director for Food & Beverage Manitoba, agrees. Focusing on talent rather than bodies performing tasks is a crucial part of changing what have been poor optics for food processing jobs.

“It’s an image thing,” Mikulak says. “There’s a sort of disconnect between what people think about the industry and what it is... Read More