By R.V. Baugus
Paul Cramer, President & CEO of The Classic Center in Athens, GA, is an IAVM member who understands the importance of workforce development, which may never be more important as it is as events pop back up on calendars and business returns to public assembly venues. As work teams rebuild, Cramer and his venue go the extra mile to attract local candidates who otherwise might not have a window into the industry.
For that reason and many more, Cramer will lead an education session at VenueConnect in Atlanta that needs 
to be circled on your calendar to attend. Before Cramer gets before the crowd in Atlanta, we got him before all IAVM members here in an interview to discuss the topic and more.
RV: I like the word “funnel” in your session title of Workforce Development: How to Create Sustainable Hiring Funnel for Your Venue. Can you elaborate some on how “funnel” fits in describing the topic?
PC: We used the term funnel as we try to meet people in our community where they are. We live in a community with 30-plus percent poverty so we have people who have little or no education. We have a Bread For Life Program for them, we work with the area career academy allowing high school students to earn college credits with dual enrollment, we have articulation agreements with the local two-year college and four-year university. We try and attract them to the industry and show them how they can get the training they need to be successful in not only acquiring a job but showing them a career pathway. By focusing them on more than a paycheck we have had luck with attracting the right candidates to an industry that is extremely rewarding and offers unique benefits that are simply not offered in other area career pathways.
RV: Talk briefly just about your core philosophies when it comes to education at The Classic Center and then what you were able to do that you are now sharing with others in the industry.
PC: We believe in the continuum of education and meeting people where they are. We call it growing our own. We believe that we need people who have a longer term vision of growing with our industry. We focus on the pathway and encouraging all hires to look down the road and plan a career pathway. Then we assist them with a continuum of education and college scholarship program supported with an endowment which is created in our foundation to support hospitality workforce development.
RV: How did you go about getting your partnerships and how might others sitting in your session do the same at their venues?
PC: We get the community involved. We explain to our donors that this is a way of lifting people out of poverty. We train those in poverty and connect them with jobs. We invite the community to their graduations. We let the students speak out on their accomplishments. Our foundation allows people to contribute to a hospitality endowment. We have raised over 700k in a short period of time which now provides annually for $25k specifically for hospitality workforce development. We also offer unique benefits, great health care, two-for-one match on retirement program, and as a culture we encourage entrepenurial skills. Our partnerships with large affiliate companies also assist greatly. Levy for example is a partner with us and we have great success stories of entry level culinary folks rising up to executive chef positions over a short period of time.
RV: What is the importance of recruiting, retaining, and developing your staff? Do you have numbers that show your success in doing so?
PC: Yes, our Bread for Life program has a 14-year history of receiving federal funding and connecting 98% of our trainees with direct positions. Our career academy has grown from 14 students to 340 students. Our hospitality academy is a summer high school program that has helped to grow our initial two-year college program from nothing to 200 students. Our four-year degree program will now begin to work with the complex to have student interns earning full semester credit in the facility while they work – no stats yet. Fifty percent of our staff have been with us for over five years, and upper management has on average been retained for 15 years.
RV: Are there any major takeaways you would like to leave your audience as they return to their venues?
PC: Meet people where they are and provide real life training that can quickly get them where they need to be. Provide all employees with a long vision of where this industry can take them. Promote the positive aspects of the job and focus on your culture. Truly partner with all levels of education and get your community involved.
