CRANSTON R.I. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“We’ve always focused on and promoted a more broad approach to diversity management, but as we started to talk to people about what they wanted to see, the talent piece just kept bubbling to the top,” said MFHA president and founder Gerry Fernandez. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
MFHA has developed a new strategic plan after evaluating the results of an informal poll of 58 member companies and more than 25 industry and diversity leaders. The overwhelming response was a request for more help in finding and retaining women and minority job candidates, and help in developing them into management positions. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“Staffing and talent management is a major issue,” said Frances Wright, vice president of corporate resources and diversity for Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s International. “It’s just the talent crunch that exists in today’s world. We’re trying to be proactive and progressive about how we go about recruiting and retaining people.” —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Wright, an MFHA board member, worked on a new strategic plan proposal with a consultant and fellow board member Diana Wynne, who is a founding member of MFHA and senior vice president of corporate affairs for CBRL Corp., the Lebanon, Tenn.-based parent of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store family-dining chain. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
In the past, MFHA has focused not only on how diversity should influence human resources, but also customers, suppliers and community relations. Fernandez has often compared the strategy to four seats at a dinner table. While the organization still will assist companies in those other areas, “workforce has moved to the head of the table,” Fernandez said. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
To that end, the MFHA will present a human resources-focused conference in Chicago this August. The MFHA Multicultural Talent Summit will offer workshops, speakers and research reports about workforce diversity as well as a job fair for industry professionals. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Among the workshops at the conference will be one focused on helping white managers coach and develop minority employees, Fernandez said. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Operators are going to have to get more creative and try new approaches if they want to dramatically improve their workforce diversity, even if it means getting out of their comfort zone, Fernandez said. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“A Caucasian male or female doesn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘Let me go jump into the [black] community,’” Fernandez said. “They don’t have the cultural competence if they’ve not spent time around African Americans. We’ve been coaching and helping people make that connection.” —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Operators who can get a handle on diversity recruitment and management will be in a better position to expand as the economy rebounds, Fernandez said. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“The demographics and numbers make it quite clear,” he said. “If we do not figure out how to attract and retain the best and the brightest, we will not be able to grow. And if we don’t grow, we don’t survive.” —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Fernandez cited data from the 2007 State of Workforce report released this month by the National Restaurant Association as emphasizing the need to cultivate minority talent. The report found that 55 percent of foodservice managers are male, while 60 percent of first-line supervisors of food-preparation and service workers were likely to be female. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
In addition, the report revealed that more minorities hold hourly positions than managerial or supervisory ones. Among the findings: —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Blacks accounted for 7 percent of all foodservice managers and 14 percent of all first-line supervisors of food preparation and service workers. But they were more likely to be employed as food servers in such nonrestaurant venues as banquet halls, 17 percent, or as cooks, 15 percent. Only 5 percent were bartenders and 6 percent were servers or hosts in restaurants. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
The proportion of Hispanics who were foodservice managers was 14 percent, while 39 percent were dishwashers, 29 percent cooks and 23 percent food-preparation workers. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
One out of four individuals working in foodservice occupations is foreign-born, above the proportion for the overall workforce. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“Making it to the top is tough for anybody, whether diverse or not,” Wynne said. “But the industry has not had a longstanding diverse pool of candidates to draw from. That pipeline is not there.” —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
To help fill that pipeline, MFHA also will take a page from its own diversity development guidebook and become more involved in national ethnic groups and organizations to promote foodservice and hospitality as an industry of choice for minorities. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“We want to aggressively go out and tell minority communities about opportunities that exist in our industry—how you can go from the dish room to the boardroom,” Fernandez said. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
Fernandez also is encouraging operators not to cut back on diversity efforts in the face of challenging economic times. —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
“I urge companies to stand firm in their commitment to diversity and inclusion,” he said. “The industry’s image will continue to suffer if we don’t. The best companies use an economic downturn to get better by investing in their people.” —After 11 years of arguing the business case for diversity in the industry, the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance is changing its strategy to give more attention to the workforce needs of restaurants and hotels.
The MFHA conference is scheduled for Aug. 10-11 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago. More information is available at
