The Belle Étoile food court, with 1,650 square metres of restaurant space (2,500 if you count the storage and cloakroom areas), will . The project is being run by Cocottes, in partnership with Grand Café. Around a hundred employees will need to be recruited for the project, 80 of whom will work for Cocottes, which specialises in catered and jarred dishes. Owner has come up with a whole new idea of flexible working to attract these future employees.
The concept: a four-day week with continuous working hours in the catering industry
“A job in the hotel and catering industry with more free time!” The home page of the website dedicated to recruiting these profiles, jobfood.lu, sets the tone. It promises “flexible and continuous working hours over four days a week.”
This is a rare initiative in the catering sector, where employees are more accustomed to working days split into shifts. “It’s in response to a shortage of staff,” explains Jauquet. “Young people are demanding more and more comfort in their private lives. They’re not always interested in earning more.” However, “in the restaurant business, you have to be open for lunch and dinner, but in the afternoon, nothing happens.” Cocottes is therefore offering its new recruits 10-hour days, including the lunch and dinner services (but without a break during the afternoon lull), for four days in a row.
How about the employees who already work for Cocootes? “I’m introducing this concept at the food hall because we’re starting from scratch, with a new team. At Um plateau, I have people who have opted for the arduous working hours and the pay that goes with it.”
The four-day week will not be the only option at the Belle Étoile food court. Cocottes wants to offer ‘à la carte’ packages. “There could be both people on higher salaries, but who work under the classic model with breaks, and others who work full days for four days.” The latter would then have lower salaries, like those of sales staff in Cocottes shops, according to an internally-defined grid.
How much does this cost the company?
“There will be a few more people” to ensure continuity of service despite the four-day week. “This represents perhaps 10% more payroll than working in the traditional way. But salaries would have been higher. So we’ll be taking on more staff for the same budget.”
What’s in it for the company?
Cocottes received 3,220 applications between February, when the vacancies went online on jobfood.lu, and June 2023. That’s “+62% compared with previous months,” calculates recruitment manager Tiffany Gas.
The increase in applications received may also be linked to the increase in vacancies. Cocottes was unable to provide Delano’s sister publication Paperjam with the average number of CVs received per job before and after the launch of its new campaign. However, Jauquet believes that she “wouldn’t have found a job as quickly” without such an initiative.
What conclusions can we draw?
“I think the break model is dead. We no longer have a choice, we are obliged to move towards greater comfort in order to survive and have people in our teams.”
This article was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.