Human resource challenges faced by managers of independent restaurants in Finland

Abstract

Finnish independent restaurants currently face numerous human resource challenges. It is well-established that the restaurant industry is high labour demands and is heavy labour-intensive, however, it has negative images of employment conditions, leading to difficulties in human resource management. This study aims to identify the human resource issues that restaurant managers encounter in daily work. Specifically, it investigates challenges in independent restaurants. In this context, an independent restaurant is specified as the business in which the human resource department is not separated. To expose the research topic, in-depth interviews were conducted with restauranteurs in six privately-owned restaurants across the Uusimaa area of Finland. The findings show several themes regarding human resource challenges in the process of recruitment, training, and retention of employees in independently owned restaurants. The practices taken by restaurant managers to overcome these challenges are discussed. These results are put forward to HR managers for better human resource issues navigation in the restaurant industry. The negative aspects could be reversed by enhancing human resource management practices. On this basis, the concept of human resource management and its practices should be taken into account when operating a people business. The thesis work would provide reliable material to those future restaurateurs.