The Real Food Cafe is More Than a Living Wage Employer
The Real Food Cafe has been an official living wage employer since 2018 and we were one of the first Living Wage employers in Stirlingshire to become one. We are very proud of it.
Our team members are crucial to our business success and they work very hard. Currently, we have 21 full-time and 4 part-time employees. Of those, 10 have been with us for over 5 years, 5 for over 3 years and one of them for an impressive 15 years. We are fortunate to have such a loyal team and we are always looking at ways to further reward their hard work and commitment.
Whilst we are demanding, we also provide the tools and personal development opportunities, to help each individual grow and succeed. We believe that investing in our team is one of the most important things we can do to build a successful business.
We know that working in hospitality is not always easy and perhaps for many, a career in hospitality is not something they’d ever consider or it would not have been their first choice. Our industry has recently been facing many challenges and the shortage of staff is at the forefront of them all.
Retaining talent in our industry has never been more important and we want to prove that a career in hospitality can be just as rewarding as in any other sector. We want every one of our employees to have a good standard of living and have access to opportunities that will enable them to continuously evolve and grow both professionally and personally.
This Living Wage Week, held this year from 14th to 20th November, Living Wage Employers from all over the UK joined their voices to speak up about the importance of paying a living wage. We were also highlighting our employee benefits and the things we do to help our team stay at the top of their game. Here's their summary.
The Real Food Cafe Employee Rewards & Staff Benefits
- At The Real Food Cafe Each of our employees is guaranteed a Living Wage and we make employer pensions contributions.
- We offer affordable staff accommodation across the road for our new employees for a limited time taking the stress out of having to find accommodation quickly.
- We offer free meals on-shift because we don’t want our staff to be hungry and because that’s what we do, we feed people. After all, our motto is #FuelledOnFishAndChips.
- We offer staff discounts on all products and our employees can benefit from our ‘In house wholesale grocery shopping scheme’ which allows them to do their grocery shopping at wholesale prices while also getting it delivered to the Cafe.
- We organise social events with our team such as staff Christmas parties and supplier outings.
- We offer advanced professional customer-service training and associated personal development modules. Our cafe is a Scottish Vocational Qualifications employer (SVQ) (providing Modern Apprenticeships) and we support our staff in completing their desired work-based qualification.
- Each of our employees has access to An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) The Employee Assistance Programme is all about our employees’ & colleagues’ wellbeing. The service we subscribe to was created specifically for the hospitality industry by Hospitality Action and offers our staff a free to access, independent, confidential, expert support and advice 24/7, 365 days a year.
- Each of our team members has access to a bespoke dashboard by Enjoy Benefits that houses all the benefits in one place making them easy to access and monitor. The platform also includes access to a national discount platform offering savings on thousands of brands, stores, experiences and activities.
We asked our Assistant Manager, Mirela, what she thought of our rewards
“The Real Food Cafe offers an attractive employee reward & benefits package. I especially appreciate the employee development programme, which has helped me progress and develop my skills and knowledge of the industry. The Cafe owners put a lot of effort into showing us that we (the team) are valued.”
Finally, we champion a listening culture where our team feels stimulated to come forth with suggestions and ideas. We also support and encourage our employees to be involved in making a contribution to the community, either through our Cafe's community work or their interests. For example, we have supported our team members who double as reserve firefighters in the past and this year we are sponsoring Killin Panto, where one of our employees, Jasmine, takes a lead role.
The Real Food Cafe is dedicated to continuing working on enhancing employee benefits further on an ongoing basis as we constantly strive to be a better employer for our hard-working and dedicated team.
