Paramount Restaurants to help staff climb the career ladder

Kitchen and waiting staff at Paramount Restaurants are to be given clear guidance for the first time on how they can move up the career ladder to improve their pay.

The owner of Chez Gérard and Caffè Uno, which last week reported a pre-tax loss of £27.1m for the year to June 2008, has designed a new, straightforward 'flow chart' for employees to progress through the company labelling what pay they can expect en route.

Expected to be implemented in March, the move comes in the wake of a cost-cutting programme that has seen the group make nine redundancies out of a workforce of 2,000, with operations teams also reducing staff overtime to provide cover only where needed.

Speaking to Caterersearch sister website PersonnelToday.com, Paramount HR director Lesley Cotton said: “What we're launching is a much clearer career path so it's transparent how to move from one role to another. At the moment that's not clear.”

Paramount has a long-term strategy for growth, she added. “Redundancies were a last resort after considering how to run the business as efficiently as possible. You want to come out the other side of a recession ready to springboard into your growth plan.”

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By Daniel Thomas

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