Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

Julie Preston, Focus Management Consultants will be attending the Hi Europe & Ni Europe Exhibition in November 2012.

We have developed strong strategic relationships with leading companies in the food ingredients industry and the successful placements we have made with them are a testament to the high quality, professional service we pride ourselves in offering.

This is a fantastic global meeting for all stakeholders in the health and natural ingredients industry to network and meet under one roof.

Will you be attending this event, invitations to meet up and any Hotel or Restaurant recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Julie Preston
Consultant
julie.preston@fmcl.co.uk

I'm more and more aware that the number of vacancies in the UK Food and Drink industry is increasing.

Indeed at a recently attended dinner so many of those munching a reasonable lamb fillet said they just couldn't recruit the numbers of staff they needed. There's a few key issues that I took in during the dinner:

• Talent - there is a limited supply
• Desire to relocate - is a significant issue and reduces numbers of suitable candidates
• The right to work in the UK - an enormous issue.

I must say we reject several hundred applicants a week as they can't work in the UK… they still send in a CV though (hint, please don't).

What is interesting to me though is that I am British and do have the right to work in the UK, but I have only just passed the British Citizen test. So many people I have tried it on have failed with equally strong credentials to be British.

Incidentally I passed the US and Australian Citizen tests with little difficulty, but do we all know the answers to these questions? (Answers at the bottom.)

Questions

1. Is the statement below TRUE or FALSE? 'In the 1980s, the largest immigrant groups were from the West Indies, Ireland, India and Pakistan"
2. Which TWO of these are names for the Church of England? A - Methodist, B - Episcopal, C - Anglican, D - Presbyterian
3. How many parliamentary constituencies are there? 464, 564, 646, 664
4. Many job applications will require a covering letter and A - a doc showing proof of identity, B - your NI number, C - a CV, D - a signed Photo

No prizes for these four simpler test questions… but did you get them right?

Answers

1. The correct answer is False. In the 1980s, the largest immigrant groups were from the United States, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand
2. The correct answers are B Episcopal and C Anglican. The Church of England is called the Anglican Church in other countries and the Episcopal Church in Scotland
3. 646
4. C a CV

What do you think about the right to work in the UK and the issues that face the UK?

Non-ambient food maybe experiencing a price hike by 20%, but in the mean time, scientists are busy proving that chocolate, a product stored at ambient temperature, is good for you!

A new piece of research seems to prove people who eat chocolate regularly tend to be thinner - although this doesn't seem to be the case looking at the Late Shop customers!) The findings come from a study of nearly 1,000 people that looked at diet, calorie intake and body mass index (BMI) - a measure of obesity. It found those who ate chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who ate it occasionally.

Even though chocolate is loaded with calories, it contains ingredients that may favour weight loss rather than fat synthesis, scientists believe. Despite boosting calorie intake, regular chocolate consumption was related to lower BMI in the study, which is published in Archives of Internal Medicine. The link remained even when other factors, like how much exercise individuals did, were taken into account.

And it appears it is how often you eat chocolate that is important, rather than how much of it you eat. The study found no link with quantity consumed. According to the researchers, there is only one chance in a hundred that their findings could be explained by chance alone. This is not the first time scientists have suggested that chocolate may be healthy for us. Other studies have claimed chocolate may be good for the heart.

Consumption of certain types of chocolate has been linked to some favourable changes in blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and cholesterol level. And chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, does contain antioxidants, which can help to mop up harmful free radicals - unstable chemicals that can damage our cells.

Dr Golomb and her team believe that antioxidant compounds, called catechins, can improve lean muscle mass and reduce weight - at least studies in rodents would suggest this might be so.

While there's no harm in allowing yourself a treat like chocolate now and again, eating too much might be harmful because it often contains a lot of sugar and fat too.

And if you are looking to change your diet, you are likely to benefit most from eating more fresh fruits and vegetables - which are, in comparison to a hot sausage roll, 20% cheaper!

In Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil, 20,000 grade school students have recently started wearing uniforms embedded with GPS chips similar to those used in pet trackers. The chips automatically send parents a text message as soon as their children enter the school grounds, or if their children are late for more than 20 minutes.

The microchip is embedded either under the school's coat of arms or in one of the sleeves. According to the city's education secretary Coriolano Moraes, the local government decided to launch the project because parents "would always be surprised when told of the number times their children skipped class."

Vitoria da Conquista's government has spent $670,000 designing and manufacturing shirts for the first 20,000 students. City officials plan to make more so that all 43,000 public school students in the city from ages 4 to 14 can use the high-tech shirts in 2013.

Do you think this should or could be put in work attire? It would be fascinating to see how employees and perhaps their representatives would respond. Maybe we should micro chip the employers first and see how it works?

I've been told it has been over 20 degrees in London again over the weekend, and heard last week that we are about to have a water shortage and its only mid March.

We will all have TO SHARE BATHS, and not WATER THE GARDENS.

Seems all a bit crazy and actually scary. But nothing seems to be following convention currently. Read the press and UK plc is in the doldrums - come to Focus Management Consultants and any of our six divisions and we have never been busier!

In fact we have just recruited three more members of staff to cope with the increases in demand we are experiencing. This is not a sudden deluge (see what I did there?); we have been flooded (OK, stopping now) with briefs over the last 18 months.

And what seems to be a recurring theme is SME's in Britain seem to be saying the same thing, let alone the Food industry - both of which are cautiously optimistic, I believe, for the next twelve months.

So far from packing it in and having an early bath, we are gearing up for a rapid growth and progression in 2012 and 13!

If you are thinking about entering the job market again after hunkering down during the challenging few years -we are confident we have the broadest range of vacancies that will allow your career to accelerate again!

Bros used to live near me I recounted last week when I was with a colleague leaving our flat in London - it was 24 years ago. A shocking thought that it's that long since I heard girls screaming and smelt hair spray and fake tan from 100 yards.

When visiting a client it was also shocking that our previous meeting to agree a plan had been three months earlier… three months - where had that gone?

It seems the months and years are flying by far too quickly for anyone's good. Slade will be paying again all too soon, let alone Bros. So if you want to move on - progress more rapidly and become famous - as the boys of Bros said - you better get on with it before another year passes us all by.

Thinking about a career or role change? Contact Focus Management today to see how we can help.

I'm visiting Denmark again this week to meet a number of food manufacturing clients - I will no doubt marvel at the quality of the Danish cuisine and the spectacular uniqueness they bring to their food.

The fastest growing sales within in the food sector are Scandinavian products, and the food critics fawn over Noma and others as often as they can.

But apart from Lurpak, bacon from various manufacturers and the ubiquitous Pastry, can anyone tell me a definitive Danish brand that is a household name in the UK?

I've booked my reservation at Noma, and I'll let you know what I have to eat - looking forward to it already!

A day in our London office makes me wonder why more and more often when travelling across the country - as I do most weeks - you come across so many locations where it's impossible to get a decent sandwich.

The choice in the local vicinity of our London office is spectacular - and not much more expensive than our northern home base of Bollington, Cheshire. Be it Italian, Spanish or British inspired, the choice is wide and the quality great.

I guess it's a bit like the confusion that comes across our French IFR-A partners faces when they travel 12 miles across the channel and can't get a decent croissant in any bakery.

Allow me to set the scene: You get off the train or out of the car after a long journey and embark on a quest to find yourself a good sandwich for lunch. You find a local sandwich shop or bakery and are offered pappy white bread with curling ham slices and a bit of onion. If you're lucky, you'll get a slice of dehydrating tomato, all prepared by a lady who washed her hands on Tuesday… or was it December? The alternative is you visit the "local store", run by people who may be good with food, but obviously not refrigeration - and resort to buying a sandwich that has been chilled to just above freezing point, and therefore has no taste and is simply wasted calories.

It's not that these places don't have catchment - it is villages and towns far and wide that have this problem - whether the populous is 50 people or 5,000 people.

Somehow the culture of food being nice and good to eat seems to have left several areas across the UK!

Any ideas why?

I've just read Starbucks are going to ask you your name when you order your coffee and then rather than calling you "latte", the barista will call out "Stephen your Americano is ready" or just "Stephen".

Not that I frequent Starbucks too often - although I do recognise you can get free WiFi there, whilst drinking hot water - I think it will be interesting to see how many people actually give their real name, or indeed still prefer to be called "Espresso".

Would you give your name if the barrista in Starbucks asked for it?

This got me wondering if I could give a name that represented each "coffee".

• Caffè Americano = Zak
• Flat White = Ed
• Caffè Latte = Isabella
• Caffè Mocha = Winston
• Cappuccino = Roberto
• Caramel Macchiato = Eduardo
• Espresso = Zane
• Espresso Con Panna = Zany
• Espresso Macchiato = Georgina
• Flavoured Latte = Jeremy
• Skinny Flavoured Latte = Tim - feels like it should be one syllable
• White Chocolate Mocha = Debbie

I don't know why but the names seem to fit. Perhaps Starbucks should implement this and rename all their coffees to have a real name?

"I'd like a tall Georgina with a caramel shot please"

Something tells me it won't take off... but if it does, you read it here first!

What's your coffee name? I'm Zak from now on.

A day in Amsterdam with our IFR-A partners certainly makes you realise what the international the food and drink recruitment industry is like.

Flying out, I met the CEO of a household food brand that I have known since he was first appointed as MD. He lives in Britain, and works in the UK and Holland and is Scandinavian. In Holland I had meetings with five businesses from 4 countries. All the meetings were in English obviously - I have accepted the embarrassment after a number of years trying my pigeon French or German - although ironically the business centre manager who looked after us in Holland didn't speak Dutch!

Flying back yesterday in less time than it takes me to get to almost every client, it reinforced the reality that we are in a very small world and international opportunities offer huge scope for development.

This week I have discussed new roles in Dubai, New York, Bangalore, New Delhi, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Paris and Frankfurt and today we are discussing positions in Denmark. Focus International certainly has a wealth of opportunities to fill over the next few months, and with the world getting smaller with advancements in travel - you're not that far from Blighty should you wish to come home for a break.