Labour Market for Waiters 1

Labour market for waiters 1

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1. This report forms part of the analysis of results of the Department of Employment’s research into entry level labour markets. The main report is at: www.employment.gov.au/entry-level-labour-markets.

Key points

· Most vacancies were filled and competition between job seekers for vacancies was relatively strong. That said, this occupation recorded the lowest number of suitable applicants (an average of four per vacancy).

· Waiter positions are one of the more difficult entry level roles for young or inexperienced job seekers to break into.

· Notably, more than 80% of the surveyed vacancies required service of alcohol, which necessitates staff being aged 18 or older and to hold a Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) ticket.

· Relatively few employers are willing to hire job seekers with no experience (22%).

· Oddly, employers who were willing to recruit an applicant without experience, were more likely to have unfilled vacancies.

· Employers generally did not require formal training, other than the RSA.

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Opportunities

· While competition for waiter vacancies is high, these vacancies attracted the lowest number of suitable applicants of any surveyed occupation.

· Most employers do not require applicants who have undertaken formal vocational training.

· While 80% of employers are seeking waiters with an RSA ticket, this is very easily obtained.

· One of the key barriers, poor personal presentation, can generally be readily addressed.

· The research suggests that applicants who apply early enhance their prospects. Some employers take on the first applicant who meets their criteria.

Barriers

· Many positions are not open to job seekers aged under 18 years due to the requirement to serve alcohol.

· Only around 5% of the surveyed waiter vacancies were open to first time job seekers aged under 18 years.

· One third of employers indicated that candidates who have poor personal presentation are immediately discounted from the selection process.

· In addition, candidates face difficulty securing employment as a waiter if they do not demonstrate the following soft skills

o strong communication

o customer service

o reliability, punctuality and responsibility

o a strong work ethic

o a good attitude.

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Survey results

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Recruitment outcomes

· Employers readily fill vacancies for waiters and there are large numbers of applicants competing for these positions.

· Employers, though, had more difficulty filling positions for waiters than for most of the assessed entry level occupations.

· Relatively few employers recruiting for waiters stated that the successful candidate exceeded or met their expectations (61%, compared with the average of 74% across the other occupations)

Results at a glance

/ % of vacancies filled / Average no. of applicants per vacancy / Average no. of suitable applicants per vacancy /
Waiter / 86 / 25 / 4
All other occupations / 89 / 47 / 8

By location

· There was little difference between employers’ success in filling vacancies in regional areas compared with metropolitan areas.

Results by region

/ % of vacancies filled / Average no. of applicants per vacancy / Average no. of suitable applicants per vacancy /
Metro / 86 / 24 / 3
Non-metro / 84 / 27 / 10[1]

· Employers recruiting in Western Australia and South Australia filled the highest proportion of vacancies (94% and 92% respectively), while employers in NewSouth Wales and Queensland filled the lowest (both 79%).

Results by state*

* Results for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have been excluded due to the small sample size in these locations.

Experience and skill requirements

· Only 22% of vacancies were open to candidates without experience, well below the average across the other surveyed entry level occupations.

· Notably, around half of employers mentioned lack of experience as a reason for candidate unsuitability. This highlights the competition that inexperienced job seekers face from more experienced waiter candidates.

Proportion of employers who would take on applicants without experience

Level of experience sought (%ofemployers)

· Interestingly, employers with vacancies that did not require experience filled a lower percentage of their vacancies than the average for employers recruiting for experienced staff.

o This may reflect employers being very selective before deciding to invest in training of applicants with no experience.

Proportion of vacancies filled by experience level required

Personal qualities or attributes sought

· Regardless of the level of experience sought, surveyed employers stressed the importance of the personal qualities of potential waiters.

· Employer place a lot of weight on applicants’ presentation when assessing them. More than one third of employers stated that they would immediately reject an applicant if they were not suitably dressed.

o Slightly more than 10% of employers mentioned the issue of piercings, tattoos and strong hair colours (the highest of any of the surveyed occupations). While some employers preferred applicants without these, some stated that they were not an issue as long as the piercings were “tidy” and the tattoos were not offensive.

· The most common personal traits sought included

o communication skills

o effective customer service skills

o a positive attitude

o reliability and punctuality

o being a people person (includes attributes like being friendly and outgoing).

Personal qualities or attributes employers consider necessary (% of employers, multipleresponses allowed)

Training, tickets and licences

· More than 80% of employers were seeking candidates with a RSA ticket.

· There were very few other requirements for training, tickets or licences.

· A very small minority of employers mentioned

o barista or coffee related training (2%)

o a vocational qualification (2%).

· While almost all employers stated that they provided training for new starters, it was largely limited to on-the-job training and inductions.

· Employers were asked if they expected candidates to have done some research into their business.

o More than 40% of those recruiting waiters stated that they did, while a further 15% mentioned it was advantageous to the candidate. This compares with 32% and 8%, respectively, on average for all other assessed occupations.

Reasons for unsuitability

· Half of the surveyed employers mentioned lack of experience as a reason for applicants being considered unsuitable.

· This was followed by

o limited availability for shifts

o not having full working rights in Australia

o the applicant’s personality not being a good fit for the business

o living too far away from the work premises

o poor communication skills.

Key reasons applicants were considered to be unsuitable (% of employers, multiple responses allowed)

School leavers

· A high proportion of employers stated that they would be willing to take on a school leaver or school age applicant without the desired experience (52%, well about the average of 43% across all other occupations).

· In practice, the research suggests that experienced and older workers are more readily employed due to the competitive nature of the labour market and the requirement in many positions for the service of alcohol.

Methods of recruitment

· The vast majority of surveyed employers advertised their vacancies online.

o Slightly more than 20% of surveyed employers, however, advertised in local and national newspapers and 16% indicated that they recruited through word-of-mouth.

· Employers recruiting for waiters were the most likely to use other Internet sites to advertise for workers (58% compared with the average of 37% across all occupations).

· This occupation also had the highest incidence of being approached by applicants as a recruitment method.

Recruitment methods (%of employers, multipleresponses allowed)*

*Other internet sites’ includes free websites which offer a range of advertising services.

· Work trials are the most common way of assessing the suitability of waiter candidates, with around half of employers mentioning they use short trials or probation periods.

· Businesses hiring waiters were more likely to receive unsolicited job applications than those recruiting for some other occupations.

Approached directly by applicants over the past year (% of employers)

Employment arrangements

· Almost all waiter vacancies required work on weekends or outside usual business hours (97%).

· Similar proportions of employers were seeking permanent employees (45%) and casual workers (41%). A small proportion of vacancies were temporary or contract positions (5%).

· Almost 60% of employers were advertising for full-time waiters, followed by part-time (17%), or for variable hours (15%).

Employment status (% of employers)

Employment status / % share
Permanent employee / 45
Casual employee / 41
Temporary or contract employee / 5
Not stated / 9

Hours of work (% of employers)

Weekly working hours / % share
Full-time hours / 59
Part-time hours / 17
Variable hours / 15
Not stated / 9

Data above are from an audit of vacancies.

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Analysis of waiter job advertisements

In addition to the telephone survey, an audit was conducted of waiter job advertisements. Vacancies for waiters were gathered over the period of a month from a single major recruitment site.

A typical waiter advertisement (based on composite data) is below and analysis of the employment arrangements offered is above.

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[1] This result was affected by one recruitment exercise that attracted an extremely large number of applicants and suitable applicants.