Manage expectations

“Finding skilled bakers is like finding a unicorn,” according to Tim Goodwin, owner of The Street Bakeshop. Instead, he chose to hire someone who had experience as a chef and another who was selling vintage clothes online and train them up. Both employees are still with the business today.

Having expanded from a team of nine upon opening the bakery in 2020 (including the two employees mentioned above) to around 40 today, Goodwin has a fair amount of recruitment experience under his belt although he admits starting a bakery amid the pandemic meant he had access to people, especially for front of house roles, he wouldn’t normally have had.

Herefordshire-based bakery Peter Cooks Bread has recently hired a new pastry chef and baker.

Bakery director Mavis Doughty-Cook believes being “completely transparent” about what the position involves and what you are looking for in the person who fulfils it can help.