Foreign languages becoming more common at Helsinki restaurants

Tourism and shortage of labour bring foreign waiting staff to Helsinki restaurants

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By Elina Kervinen
     
      Would you like to see the menu? Or maybe a drink to start with?
      This is how a dinner out at more and more restaurants in Helsinki will soon start, as the number of foreign waiters and bartenders is clearly on the increase.
      The internationalisation of restaurant services is attributable to a shortage of labour in the branch as well as to the entrepreneurs’ wish to serve tourists better and better.
      Almost all the largest restaurant chains in Helsinki report that proficiency in speaking Finnish is no longer an absolute precondition for employees working in customer services.
     
At the moment, most of the foreign employees working at restaurants in Helsinki do busboy jobs, in other words washing the dishes or clearing tables.
      According to Timo Lappi, the Managing Director of the Finnish Tourism and Restaurant Industries Federation (MaRa), the number of foreign staff working directly in customer services is likely to grow as soon as the recession is over and the shortage of labour in the branch gets worse.
      When tourists return to Helsinki, there will be a shortage of Russian-speaking waiting staff, Lappi believes.
      ”There are only few Finns with Russian skills, which is why native speakers will be hired instead”, Lappi adds.
      Jouko Heinonen, the Vice President of Restaurant Operations at HOK-Elanto, a part of the S-Group, agrees, saying that when it comes to language skills, the criteria for recruitment are likely to become less rigid.
      Heinonen pulls the strings at 107 restaurants in the Greater Helsinki area.
     
Keeping tourism in mind, the Helsinki-based Palace Kämp Group has already for some time been looking for foreign employees for its restaurants.
      The chain is running a number of restaurants, including the ones contained in the luxurious Hotel Kämp itself as well as restaurants Yume and Fishmarket, which are all popular among those who travel on business.
      ”Our foreign customers regard it as a positive that the waiter or waitress is a native English speaker, and the customer can then discuss the restaurant’s services freely without constantly having to worry about being understood or having to use elementary school English", says Managing Director Mikko Linna.
      A few dozen of the roughly 400 employees of Palace Kämp are foreign. Some waiters and maitre d's do not speak Finnish at all.
      Linna believes that the number of foreign customer service staff in the restaurant sector will increase as a result of the shortage of labour in the next few years.
     
The staff of the largest restaurant chain in the Finnish capital, Royal Ravintolat, represent 20 different nationalities.
      Ten years ago, the number of different nationalities was only three, says Managing Director Kasperi Saari, a veteran in the restaurant business.
      ”In the old days, new employees were tested for foreign language skills, while today it is important to speak some Finnish”, Saari notes.
      At the restaurants belonging to the Royal Ravintolat chain, those employees who do not speak Finnish are ordinarily assisting the waiting staff, but it is also possible to get service in a foreign language.
      ”Customers often begin to speak English when they notice that the employee’s native language is not Finnish”, Saari says.
      Another major restaurant chain in downtown Helsinki, Center-Inn Ravintolat, is already hiring persons who speak only their own native language, even for customer service positions.
      ”It feels natural as in the city centre people can speak many languages”, says Managing Director Mikko Paukkonen.
     
According to restaurateurs, feedback relating to the waiting staff’s languge skills is received as often as that relating to other services.
      Elderly customers who have weaker language skills on average than younger clients often expect the waiter or waitress to speak Finnish.
      Young people seldom mind speaking a foreign language.
      For example, at Teatteri, a restaurant belonging to the Royal Ravintolat chain, attempts have been made to eliminate difficult situations by organising the shifts so that a foreign bartender seldom has to work alone during his or her shift.
     
”I always try to listen to the key words, including kahvi (”coffee”), päivän keitto (”the soup of the day”), or salaatti (”salad”). Then I know what the customer wants to have”, explains waiter Martin Pérez Fanaci in English, standing behind the counter at the Enjoy It café in Helsinki.
      Pérez Fanaci, who has been in Finland for three monrths and working at Enjoy It for a month, adds that people are unbelievably friendly, even though he does not speak more than a few words of Finnish as yet.
      Customer Hanna Pölkki, sitting on a sofa and sipping coffee, says that even though she was surprised at getting English service at first, it did not bother her.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.11.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Immigrants in Helsinki learning Finnish and finding work more easily (26.5.2006)
  Who are the newcomers that Finland wants? (13.12.2005)
  Immigrants´ level of education lower and unemployment higher than OECD average (21.2.2008)
  Illiterate immigrants learn Finnish in order to train for further education (27.11.2007)
  Polish journalist tests employment opportunities in Helsinki - and finds them wanting (20.6.2006)

Links:
  Eat.fi Restaurant Guide

ELINA KERVINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
elina.kervinen@hs.fi