Forte Belanger puts Michigan’s Underemployed Professionals to work at Catered Events

Forte Belanger, Michigan’s leading special event design and catering firm, has earned a reputation in Michigan for delivering precision service to many of the areas top companies and venues. With a recent increase in revenue, Forte Belanger has looked to a largely untapped area within the workforce to build its service team; underemployed professionals.

According to Forte Belanger’s General Manager Nick Forte, underemployed professionals are a natural fit for the type of high-level service the company provides at the events it caters. To date, 30% of Forte Belanger’s on-call Service Team are underemployed teachers, designers, administrative staff, retailers, accountants and other professionals who need to earn some extra income due to the tough economy in Michigan.

“We currently have a number of business professionals who either have taken a lower paying job to stay in the area, or have been downsized from a corporation and need a way to make additional money,” Forte said. “At Forte Belanger, we focus on a high level of service for our events, and we find that these professionals are trained in customer service, reliable, dedicated and excellent at providing the type of service our clients want.”

Forte said the on-call service staff positions pay ranges from $12.50 per hour and ranges up to $17.50 per hour, and that the company has a detailed training program to prepare new staff members to provide the type of service Forte Belanger is known for.

He said that as the economy has improved slightly in the past few months, Forte Belanger is noticing an increase in companies and organizations booking event services, and having these underemployed professionals as part of the team can make a huge difference when the busiest part of the event season heats up in the spring and summer.

“Obviously, we would love to have all these professionals be able to return to jobs in their industry, but even when that does happen we anticipate many staying on on-call with us because they simply love working our catered events. Having such a great talent-pool available to staff our events has set us apart from our competition. Especially when we have numerous events happening at the same time and may have the need for as many as 200 on-call service staff at one time,” Forte added.