Project reference · Hospitality
Staffing a new café from two thousand miles away.
A hotel group in the Gulf opened a new speciality café and wanted two experienced baristas from Europe, within two weeks. We searched four countries, rebuilt the brief with the client when the market answered, and followed every offer through medical checks, visas and flights until the people were behind the counter. Later the hotel asked us for its restaurant and its front desk too.
4 countries searched
Reach
26 barista schools and trainers approached
Sourcing
About 30 candidate profiles, four roles
Selection
First hire at work eight weeks after the order
Speed
Offer to arrival
Five offers, followed to the arrivals hall
A signed offer is not a hire. Each offer went through the same four steps, and each step could lose the candidate. We tracked all five until two people had landed.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The first brief was short and specific: two female baristas with real coffee-bar experience, able to cover other roles in the café and in the hotel when needed, from Europe, starting in two weeks. The client would sponsor the visa, pay for the flight and provide a shared room, meals on duty and transport.
Before we advertised a single post we asked nine questions: the full package, the accommodation, who decides and how fast, which nationalities the visa allows, and whether we could name the employer to candidates. The answers came back within five days, with the signed agreement.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A profile the market barely has
Trained baristas who are young, female, fluent in English and willing to move to the Gulf are rare in any one country. After two weeks, 40 job posts on 15 sites and about 90 calls, one candidate had passed a first interview. We went back to the client with four concrete ways to widen the search.
Speed on both sides
The client interviewed by video the day after a shortlist and issued four offers within three days. Keeping candidates, interview slots and documents in step across time zones was a daily job.
The offer decides, not the search
The final offers came in below the figure in the original brief. Good candidates had alternatives, and two of them took them. We had to present the job honestly and keep a second line of candidates warm.
Medical checks, visas and flights
Every candidate had to pass the destination country’s pre-employment medical and wait for an employment visa before a ticket could be booked. One offer fell away at that stage.
New roles mid-project
As the first people arrived, the client added bartenders, junior waiters for a hotel restaurant and guest-relations staff for the front desk, each with its own advert, screening and interview round.
Reporting the client can act on
Our first status report gave the effort in numbers, the one result so far and four options to widen the brief. Later, weekly reports to the client’s HR director counted CVs screened, calls made and interviews held.
What we did
Brief, search, select, mobilise
- Week 0 · Brief and agreement. A nine-point intake and a signed recruitment agreement: a fee of one month’s salary per hire and a three-month replacement guarantee. Free of charge for candidates.
- Weeks 1–2 · Search. Market research across four countries, adverts on job sites and social media, barista schools and trainers asked for referrals, cold calls to experienced baristas.
- Weeks 3–4 · Selection. Structured CVs in a single format, video interviews scheduled and confirmed, offers explained to candidates, signed offers and documents returned to the client.
- Weeks 5–15 · Mobilisation. Medical results, visa paperwork and flights tracked until each person arrived, with an information letter for candidates on the employer, the city and daily life there.
In months five and six the client briefed us for its restaurant and front desk, and we reported weekly until it had filled the roles locally.
What we told the client
“Offered salary and benefit package will define how fast and how experienced candidates we will attract.”
Our advice before the brief was fixed, in the first week of the project.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its brands and its people are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Opening a new outlet and short of trained staff?
Tell us the role, the package and the date. Thirty minutes is usually enough to tell you how realistic the brief is, and what would make it work.
