AUSTRALIAN VENUE CO HIRING BLITZ TO FILL 300 JOBS
Australia’s second largest hospitality group is on the hunt for staff before the silly season kicks off.
Australian Venue Co has 300 jobs to fill as part of its hiring blitz which they’ve dubbed “the great pub casting call”.
State Manager Evan Gargaro said it’s been difficult to find staff so Australian Venue Co has been forced to get creative.
“We’ve found that having the zoom interviews for bulk employees was a little stale and mundane now.”
“So we wanted to invite people down to the pub, enjoy a free lunch after the interview and really have that personal approach where we can really gauge their attitude.”
He said they’re after dishwashers, back of house staff, function coordinators to deal with clients for special events and frontline bartenders who can serve “ice cold frothies”.
Some of those who arrived in hopes of getting an interview even managed to get in two hours of paid training right away, with some earning money for just showing up.
Food and beverage 101 was first on the agenda, with hopeful jobseekers learning how to carry multiple plates and pour drinks.
Ryan, who was training people at the pub, was giving candidates some skills to succeed.
“For most people, they’ll start next week. They’ll get their contracts immediately, we’ll get them into venues and learn the specifics of their venues,” Ryan said.
Economist Chris Richardson said the hospitality industry has recently missed out on a lot of staff that would normally come from overseas.
“They’ve missed out on the foreign students who often do a bunch, they’ve missed out as other businesses grab their employees and pay them more to do other things,” Richardson said.
Richardson said that every industry is scrambling to get more workers at the moment, while 150,000 Australians are predicted to be added to the unemployment queue next financial year.
“We have not lived in an Australia like this, basically since the early 1970s,” Richardson said.
On the day of Australian Venue Co’s great pub casting call, 50 people were hired.
“It’ll be nice to have a venue, fully stocked for summer, for that busy period that’s inevitable any minute now,” Ryan said.
