Head chefs
If paying good money and in a central location such as Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and Perth the availability of head chefs is very good,
basically, the more central and the larger local population the better
availability.
What is good money for a head chef? This can vary from a small pub to a large
five star or 3AA Rosette Hotel and can be anything from £14 per hour for a
one-man job cooking simple food to £45,000 and
upwards.
For a standard hotel job we would suggest in the
region £35,000+ with overtime paid pro rata over 45 to 48 hours sanctioned by
management.
Bonus schemes always help and can be based on
getting a gross profit margin of over say 65 to 70% and it is always advisable
stressing in advance how often the bonus is paid and what the exact criteria
are. Other bonuses may be based on increase in sales. Keeping wages ratio down
and helping to achieve certain net profits subject to maintaining quality of
food, kitchen cleanliness and staff retention.
In more rural Scotland it is harder to get and
retain chefs and often accommodation should be offered to attract suitable
candidates.
Sous chefs
The availability of sous chefs in rural Scotland is
good if providing accommodation. Sometimes, a mature former head chef will be happy to take a step back to
work alongside head chef.
In more central Scotland, there are candidates
about if paying decent money and
offering good working conditions there is no reason why you cannot keep a good
sous chef with a stable track record.
In rural Scotland, there can be a need to think
outside of the box to retain and attract good sous chef candidates.
Wages should be (i.e. upwards of £25,000 or £12-13 per hour)
Chef de parties
Availability is very good in Glasgow, Edinburgh and
the central belt.
In rural Scotland with accommodation there are candidates
and you will get applicants if wages are decent, suggesting £10 to £12 per hour
or a salary of between £20,000 - £24,000. The more money you can pay the better
the availability of chefs is.
For chef de partie jobs it is a chef market.
Commis chefs
There are usually a few candidates available
centrally or further afield if offering accommodation.
Enclosed link to minimum wages.
www.minimum-wage.co.uk/
Pastry Chefs: this is quite a specialist position
and there are often a couple of specialised pastry chefs looking, not always
though.
We find that the availability of candidates who are currently employed to go for interviews from the second week in December until the beginning of January is slim.
Availability of Relief Chefs changes, and we can advise daily. The rates of pay are £13 to £17 per hour according to the position.
We have 49 reliefs chefs currently out working which is just slightly up on last year. Johanna is away on annual leave and I have been working on getting relief jobs out which is mostly a few days here and there. Jade has been busy progressing the large number of CVs we have been getting in which is typical for the time of year.
If you are looking to come and have a chat about any permanent or relief work, we will be available Tuesday – Thursday 11am or 2pm as of 27th November, please get in touch for our availability.
Some of the chefs we have out working at the moment include Jonny Lewis who is finishing a stint up in Wick at The Mackays Hotel. Sebastian Luzczynski who has travelled up to the Cairngorm hotel and has been there since the middle of last month. Scott Murdoch who is new to us this year is over at The Glenburn Hotel where he has been asked to stay on for longer than he was booked for. Paul Deakin is over at The Scalloway Hotel in Shetland. Scott Macintyre is up in Turiff at the Royal Hotel. Shaun Murray is at The Stotfield Hotel and Jamie Atkinson is working at the Inn on the Tay in Perthshire.
This is not including all the other great relief chefs we have out working with us.
Relief work will be patchy in November but will pick up in the lead up to the festive period.
Thanks for all your continued support 😊
Employers have to provide a workplace pension scheme for eligible staff as soon as your first member of staff starts working for you.
Who you must enrol
You must enrol and make an employer’s contribution for all staff who:
• are aged between 22 and the State Pension age
• earn at least £10,000 a year
• normally work in the UK.
If staff become eligible because of a change in their age or earnings, you must put them into your pension scheme and write to them within 6 weeks of the day they meet the criteria.
How much you must pay
You must pay at least 2% of your employee’s ‘qualifying earnings’ into your staff’s pension scheme. This will rise to 3% in April 2019.
Check the pension scheme you’re using to find out what counts as ‘qualifying earnings’.
Under most schemes, it’s the employee’s total earnings between £6,032 and £46,350 a year before tax. Total earnings include:
• salary or wages
• bonuses and commission
• overtime
• statutory sick pay
• statutory maternity, paternity or adoption pay
Paying contributions
You must deduct contributions from your staff’s pay each month.
You may be fined if you pay late or do not pay the minimum contribution for each member of staff.
Manage your workplace pension scheme
When you’ve set up a workplace pension scheme, you must:
• check if and when staff should be re-enrolled
• manage requests to join and leave your pension scheme
• keep records about how you’ve met your legal duties
• check if existing staff should be added to your pension scheme, for example when they earn a certain amount
Requests to join or leave your pension scheme
All staff can request to join your pension scheme if they want to. You must check they are eligible and put them into the scheme within 1 month of getting their request.
Staff can leave your pension scheme whenever they want. You must take them out of the scheme within one month of getting their request.
If staff ask to leave your pension scheme within 1 month of joining (known as the ‘opt-out window’), you will have to refund their contributions within 1 month. If they ask to leave after the opt-out window, their contributions will be kept in their pension until they retire.
Keep records
You must keep records of how you’ve met your legal duties for maintaining your pension scheme, including:
• the names and addresses of staff enrolled
• when contributions are paid in
• all requests to join or leave your pension scheme
• your pension scheme reference or registry number (PSR)
You must keep these records for 6 years except for requests to leave your pension scheme which must be kept for 4 years. You must also keep track of the ages and earnings of staff so you can enrol them when they become eligible.
We have 54 relief chefs out working this is 7 more chefs out than last year which is brilliant. We have 9 relief jobs confirmed so far for the week with another couple jobs to work on.
I will be on annual leave for 2 weeks from end of play today, I am going on my annual trip to Benidorm for 5 nights which I am really looking forward to.
Jessica will be doing relief chef recruitment while I am away.
Jade will continue to do junior chef recruitment and Jessica will carry on with permanent Sous and Head Chef positions.
Here are a few chef we have confirmed in October
Dale Paton at Mackays Hotel working with Jonny Lewis.
Tom Smyth at The Formartines
Stuart Agnew at Holborn Hotel
Steve Nye at Oban Bay Hotel
Philippe Alamichel at Balcary Bay Hotel
David Thompson and David Maxwell at Nethy Bridge Hotel
Martin Hamilton at Scalloway Hotel
Karim Nasri at Loch Nell Hotel
Glen Richards at The Old Manor Hotel
Tony Philip at Ardlui Hotel
Leon Edgson at Mustard Seed Restaurant
Stuart Gibson at Kastille Venue
Pawel Cimek at Ballachulish Hotel
Michael Njoroge at the White Goose
Dale Paton and Tom Williams at The Lovat Loch Ness
Daniel Haig and Stephen Flindall at Banff Springs Hotel
Phil Smith at Loch Nell Hotel
Thanks you all for your hard work and continues support. 😊
We have 64 relief chefs out working this us by 13 from last year, we have 17 chefs confirmed this week so far with a few more jobs to work on.
Jessica will be back to work on Monday after being on annual leave. We will all be in the office next week.
If you are looking to come and have a chat about any permanent or relief work we will be available Tuesday – Thursday 11am or 2pm, please get in touch for our availability.
All relief chefs can you please let me know if you are happy to work Christmas and New year, we have had some chefs getting in touch so if you have already no need to get in touch again.
Relief work will be patchy now until the lead up to the festive period.
Thanks for all your continued support 😊
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