Café Biz Brisbane – Topic: Employing and retaining the right staff

Who works and who doesn’t in a business is immediately clear to Ken Burgin. He ran Sydney’s successful Caffe Troppo, a busy inner-western café/brassiere during the heady 1980s and 1990s, before founding Australia’s leading online marketing and training resource for the hospitality industry, Profitable Hospitality.

Ken has a simple reason for stepping into management: “I like working out why things have gone wrong, then fixing them.” Part of fixing them has been about finding the right staff, and devising his company’s famous systems.

Ken recognises employees and businesses want to be organised, but often lack the proper time or experience. In fact, the most (ahem) profitable part of Profitable Hospitality’s training is staff management. “Lack of instruction or training breeds inefficiency and waste. Whether it’s recipe costing, cleaning rosters, bar setup procedures or social media use – we give people systems they can make their own and get everyone rowing the boat in the same direction.”

At Café Biz “I want to show people how to advertise jobs so they can get lots of good applicants and have a real choice. So many cafes do this badly because they copy everyone else. Then we will look at good interviewing and making smart decisions about who gets a job offer. Once we’ve got someone suitable, the business has to keep them engaged and productive, and I’ll also be looking at ways to ensure businesses are happy, efficient and profitable.”