J.E. Agnew Food Services own 14 Tim Horton restaurants in the Kingston Area. Established in 1981, the business aims to provide fast and friendly service as well as good quality products at a great price to their customers each and every day. Since 2014, this employer has been working with ACFOMI to integrate job seekers to their team. Most of the time, these are young workers, who are having their first experience in the workplace. This year, some of the youth from the Youth Job Connection—Summer (YJCS) Program found a job in their restaurants. We spoke with Andrea Payne, Human Resources manager J.E. Agnew Food Services, who shared her impressions of the business as an employer.
“It’s a perfect job for someone that is starting,” Andrea Payne says. She has now been working 25 years for the company, but she and all her colleagues in the office started working in the restaurant at a young age before climbing the ladder and finding a role in leadership positions. “We grew up in the business.” Andrea says. She believes that professional development opportunities, support, and chances to develop leadership skills are some of the things that make J.E. Agnew Food Services a good first and long-term employer.
The business has a model that brings its employees in leadership positions; “Most of our succession planning is done internally. We will develop and teach and coach people into leadership positions. I haven’t hired outside of the company in probably 5 years possibly even 10.” She also mentions that leadership roles are not reserved only for older employees that have worked for a long time with the organization, but for a variety of employees, including several which are students.
Alexi Galarneau, William Lévesque and Klara Sulek-Popov are part of that group of young workers who participated in our YJCS and found their first job at one of J.E. Agnew Food Services’ branches. All of the indicated that they got a lot of support during their training and their first shifts on their own. “When my managers believed that I was ready to learn how to work the Drive-thru, they started me slowly with a colleague next to me, Klara says.
They pushed me a little, but not enough to be stressful and when I do something well, they tell me, which is very encouraging.”
William adds that he believes it’s a good place for a first job because it shows you how to work and requires cooperation within a team.
These bilingual youths are an asset to their team and are developing essential skills that will help them in the future. What they learn from this experience will stay with them as they continue in their career paths. The company is proud that its employees speak French. They make sure to give badges to let their clients know when an employee can serve them in both official languages. Andrea says she tries to have at least one employee who can serve customers in French in each restaurant, putting special emphasis on the Dalton Street and CFB Kingston branches due to the increased number of Francophone customers. The next time you visit one of these two locations, be sure to ask if the person serving you speaks French!
