Mapping the business transformation roadmap for Singapore’s F&B industry

The IHRP Playbook for Food Services highlights key human capital strategies and solutions adopted by companies in Singapore.
By: | January 18, 2022

Image courtesy of Ramada and Days Hotel by Wyndham Singapore


The IHRP Playbook for Food Services is specially designed to help businesses in the food and beverage (F&B) sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), address their business and HR challenges with a curated set of practical HR resources, tools, and templates. In addition to strategies and solutions, business owners can expect to find case study examples from 14 local F&B companies, who are featured in the playbook.

The F&B sector was significantly impacted during the pandemic. Mayank Parekh, CEO of the Institute for Human Resources Professionals (IHRP), said, “Many had to change their business models from dine-in to dine-out to continue to operate and survive. Also, those dependent on foreign work pass holders had to hire more locals instead. Our Playbook enables SMEs to apply HR practices to improve hiring and retention of a core pool of local workers, motivate their employees to upskill and cross-skill for greater operational efficiency and innovate to respond to evolving market demands”.

Mr Parekh added, “IHRP Playbooks aim to bridge the “last-mile” implementation challenge by offering a series of relevant HC “plays” that business owners, restaurant managers, HR practitioners and management personnel can easily adopt”, thus helping them to strengthen their competitive edge.  

The Playbook content was co-developed with HR and business leaders from the F&B industry and is made easy to understand with the use of infographics and bite-sized information, which local business owners and administrators can relate to.

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Image courtesy of Creative Eateries


For example, one of the HC Plays content packages in the Playbook explains how to build a stronger employee value proposition in response to the challenge of attracting and retaining local workers in the food services sector.

The playbook outlines a few case study examples to illustrate this HC play:

  • Ramada and Days Hotel by Wyndham Singapore shared how it translated their work culture to empower and engage its employees. “When employees feel a sense of belonging, there will be an increased positive performance result,” said Josephine Chua (IHRP-MP), Director of HR & Quality.
  • The Wok People has identified training and career progression as one of its key value propositions and developed a structured leadership programme to support their employees to achieve goals that align with the company’s objectives and future expansion plans.
  • Kentucky Fried Chicken recognises that employer branding should be distinct from its corporate branding, and spotlights its employees’ positive experiences through its employer branding and communications efforts.
  • A well-designed job can increase the efficiency and productivity of their workers. Creative Eateries has adopted technology to streamline work processes, allowing for expansion of job scope and provide workers a greater opportunities for career progression.

Click here to assess more details of the Playbook. IHRP will also be conducting Playbook workshops to help F&B business and HR leaders better understand and apply the resources, tools, and templates available. Email IHRP at [email protected] if you are interested in signing up.