Is Labour Shortages Affecting Service in Your Food Service Operation?

The impact of COVID-19 has caused labour shortages in all healthcare facilities because of emotional strain, retirement of baby boomers, PTSD and other factors affecting the healthcare worker today. As a result, the service from foodservice operations is being compromised with the risk of residents/patients’ meal satisfaction rates dropping.

To maintain happy residents/patients, you may want to consider some of these out of the box ideas to maintain service with reduced staff:

• Cross Train Staff within your Department - train all staff within the department on all positions, so there is greater number of staff who are available and able to work anywhere within the operation.

• Get other Departments Including Management Involved - all hands-on deck to get the meals out during tray service or in the dining room that could assist during these rush periods.

• Keep Residents/Patients Informed by initiating a Culinary Committee-let your resident culinary representative/committee share messages to other residents about staff shortages, change of service, etc.

• Develop a Staff Shortage Procedure - if you are down by 4 staff at 3 pm, do you have a protocol in place to serve dinner or tray service? Are there some tasks that do not need to be completed this shift?

• Modify your Menu-reduce the types of entrées offered on your menu and ensure they are easy to prepare. Also, reduce the number of menu weeks on your menu for ease of ordering and less inventory on hand.

• Use Prepared/Ready to Serve Products to reduce the staff needed to prepare menu items as well as to reduce the skill level of staff required to accomplish the meal preparation.

• Work with your Distributors/Supplier Partners to source out ready-made products for your menu. The list of products and your modified menu should be planned out in advance with the anticipation of staff shortages.

• Provide Labour Flexibility - work with existing staff and schedule a shift to suit their schedule i.e., bake all products for the menu that week on one day and freeze for the entire menu week.

• Recruit Differently to Hire Staff - develop a recruitment business card for your staff to carry with them as they come across a potential recruit in the community to give out; text recruits versus calling; recruit with perks other than cash incentives i.e., flex schedule, gym membership, etc.

• Use of Technology - even though this will be an upfront investment of increased labour, in the long-run it can improve the efficiencies of your operation and reduce staff.

• Get Residents/Patients Involved in Tasks - residents are happy to help and will feel purposeful; they can assist with tasks like setting tables, wrapping cutlery, setting up trays, etc.

These are challenging times, so we need to be creative to keep our food service operations running efficiently on less staff without compromising the meal service for our residents/patients.

For further questions and comments, please reach out to Cherie at cherieconsultantrd@gmail.com.

The material provided on this website is designed for general educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician, registered dietitian, or other qualified healthcare provider with respect to any questions you may have regarding your nutritional requirements. The information presented in this site cannot be re-used without the expressed written consent of Cherie Furlan-Craievich at cherieconsultantrd@gmail.com.