The Okanagan Valley may seem like an idyllic place to work, but for one human resources manager there, making his winery the local employer of choice was no walk in the park.
"Anthony von Mandl, our visionary proprietor, is committed to creating a world-class winery with a guest experience that is second to none," says Jay Sharun of Mission Hill Family Estate Winery. "As human resources manager, I am dedicated to finding him the world-class talent and creating the employment experience that will make his dream come true. To be the employer of choice in the Okanagan, we have been challenged to think differently. Many employers with seasonal opportunities only fight to attract and retain talented people who are interested in summer jobs. At Mission Hill, we want to attract and retain talented people who are interested in careers."
Core Leadership Team
Sharun began brainstorming with the leaders in hospitality industry and came up with the concept of "a core leadership team, a group of our most talented people who would take care of all our business needs during the off-season. This concept was perfectly aligned with Anthony’s entrepreneurial values. While we are an organization of approximately 150 people, we conduct ourselves with the spirit of a small family-run business. We wanted to assemble a core leadership team that would work together to get all the jobs done and equal our owner’s sense of pride, ownership, and entrepreneurship."
As the concept began to take shape, the decision was made to replace the group of people who normally run the retail store and wine education program with a group of team leaders who would be trained in the off-season to be supervisors, but who could also handle the day-to-day operations. This meant promoting three existing wine educators who all had impressive supervisory backgrounds into year-round roles that better utilized their talents. This change had the added benefit of saving Mission Hill from needing to recruit temporary supervisors in the high season.
Year-round employment
The next focus was culinary. "We had a chef/manager last summer who ran the back end of our beautiful terrace restaurant, overlooking Okanagan Lake. Our chef was returning to Australia, and I was not excited about the prospect of recruiting for a temporary replacement for next year. Instead, we promoted our talented temporary sous chef, who relocated from Calgary to work year-round." In order to justify the cost of this new year-round salary, says Sharun, "we are sending him out to promote Mission Hill Family Estate at culinary events, and investing heavily in his training. Not only does he get to work with our critically acclaimed winery chef, but we have given him the year-round employment he desires in a very seasonal industry."
As the food and beverage side of the business continued to grow, Sharun knew that talented people would be needed to lead the expansion. "Earlier last year, I was able to convince Loic, a very experienced manager of Relais hotels, to relocate with his fiancée from Whistler to Kelowna as a temporary supervisor of our terrace restaurant. As expected, he very much impressed us this year, and we knew we needed to keep him on our team. We therefore promoted him to a position as Food and Beverage Manager. Loic is comfortable knowing he may be needed to assist in supervising events or even serving at them this off-season to get the job done, but he is classy enough to check his ego at the door and contribute in any way needed to our entrepreneurial team."
Annual not seasonal
Thinking annually instead of seasonally has pointed to new challenges. "We are moving some of the wine education programs we deliver during the high season to the off-season and have plans to build a large indoor banquet facility. Both of these changes will allow us to employ even more people year-round and, more importantly for the organization, it allows us to cover more overhead on our facility."
Throughout this process, no decision is made without a sound business reason." Employing people year-round is a nice 'warm and fuzzy' concept,"says Sharun, "but it must flow out of a well-thought-out business case. We are very proud of our success to date, but our goal is to raise the bar everyday. Like most recruiters, we sell candidates on the possibility of long-term employment beyond a seasonal opportunity. But what sets us apart is that we are willing to think differently and find ways to deliver the best opportunities for our most talented people. It is this type of thinking that will continue to position us as the employer of choice in the Okanagan."
