A wedding caterer runs a small core team all year and a crowd of cooks, servers and helpers on the big dates. The work is done in one evening, so the right people must arrive, on time, trained.
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Share your requirementsA wedding caterer sells one evening at a time. A booking fixes the menu, the guest count, the venue and the hour food must reach the table. A small permanent team of head cook, kitchen leaders, captains and a vehicle crew runs all year. For each function, cooks, tandoor and live counter hands, servers, dish washers and loaders are added from a known circle. Dates bunch in the auspicious months, so one week may hold six functions across two cities and the next week none. People work long hours, often past midnight, and are paid for the event. Work for hospital caterers runs on fixed daily rosters, which shows how different this trade is. The wider food and beverage hub covers what food businesses share.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Many caterers depend on one or two cooks who know the recipes and the quantities, and a rival offer can take them in the peak.
Several functions on one day force a split of the best people, and the weakest crew ends up at a client who matters.
A server who skips an evening is found only when the buffet opens, and nobody has a back-up list.
Hours, night rates and travel are settled by memory the next day, and small differences turn into lost goodwill.
Hand washing, cap and apron use and food holding are shown in the vehicle, if at all, and slip when the pressure rises.
Return journeys at two in the morning and an early start the next day push good captains to quit for office-hours jobs.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for food and beverage, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a wedding caterers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A list of cooks, servers and helpers by skill, city and last date worked, with a second name for every key slot.
What this coversHideA list of cooks, servers and helpers by skill, city and last date worked, with a second name for every key slot. The recruitment process keeps it topped up before the season.
Read dates and guest counts three months ahead and fix crew sizes per event.
What this coversHideRead dates and guest counts three months ahead and fix crew sizes per event. The workforce planning work turns bookings into hands needed.
Rates by role, night allowance, travel and meal rules set once and shared before the event.
What this coversHideRates by role, night allowance, travel and meal rules set once and shared before the event. Pay benchmarks come from compensation benchmarking.
A five-minute talk at the venue on menu, serving order, grooming and hygiene, led by the captain, with a sign-in sheet.
What this coversHideA five-minute talk at the venue on menu, serving order, grooming and hygiene, led by the captain, with a sign-in sheet.
Pair rising cooks with the head cook so recipes, quantities and counters are not held by one person.
What this coversHidePair rising cooks with the head cook so recipes, quantities and counters are not held by one person. Learning and development can shape it.
One sheet per person showing what was taught, when and by whom, kept with the event file.
What this coversHideOne sheet per person showing what was taught, when and by whom, kept with the event file.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Crew sizes planned from bookings, with a bench for the busiest dates.
Late night rosters, rest after return and leave outside the season.
Cook succession and a short hygiene routine that crews can follow.
Event rates for cooks, captains and servers set against local caterers.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in food and beverage, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Kitchen, service and outlet staff leave quickly in food and beverage. How to ask what lies behind the first answer, compare outlets and act on what you learn.
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Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
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How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
7 min readRead article
Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Pay for skill, share a clear route to a kitchen head role and give a say in menus. Also train a second cook, so you are not exposed if the offer is too good.
Keep more than you need, by role and city, and note who turns up. A list that holds two names for each slot copes with last minute absences.
Agree rates by role, night and travel before the event and write the hours on the day. Settling from a sheet, not memory, saves argument.
Yes, in short bursts. A short briefing at the venue and a captain beside them covers dress, serving order and hygiene better than a long talk.
Share the function load, give rest the day after a late return and recognise them in pay. A good captain is hard to replace.
First we would ask your head cook what only they can do, list last season's casual crew and mark your three busiest dates. A named bench and written event pay rules are a natural first piece of work, with scope agreed in writing.
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