Since the Covid-19 pandemic, persistent staffing shortages have strained Middlebury’s dining team. On Aug. 15, to combat recruitment challenges, the college’s Human Resources Office launched a three week targeted pilot referral program, offering a $500 bonus in December to faculty and staff members if they helped to recruit a new dining employee.
Middlebury Human Resource Business Partner Kelly Dinan explained that a goal of the initiative was to get staff members invested in the hiring process.
“By offering a $500 bonus for successful referrals, we aimed to tap into the networks of our current employees and encourage their engagement in the recruitment process,” Dinan wrote in an email to The Campus.
Since the program’s launch, six full-time positions on the dining team have been filled, but none of the hires were referred through the program. Recruitment continues to be a challenge. This semester, there are eight vacant positions across the campus dining team, including cooks, prep cooks, and catering staff.
To qualify for the program, referrals had to apply by Sept. 7 and remain on staff through Dec. 12. Dining Services Manager at Ross Brent Simons told The Campus that the restrictions on dates left him frustrated.
“I had a recent hire who missed the kickoff of the program by a few weeks. They are ineligible for the bonus, which is very disappointing,” Simons wrote in an email.
The pilot resembles a similar program launched in 2021 to help recruit more staff in facilities and dining services. However, the 2025 referral program does not include the additional sign-on bonus for new hires, according to Dinan.
“The majority of positions in Dining are difficult, physical jobs. Most employees are on their feet for the majority of their work day,” Simons wrote in an email to The Campus. “The Ross Dining Hall team is still down one full time position, whose tasks are currently broken down amongst the remaining team members.”
“While the number of referrals was lower than anticipated, I believe the program helped raise awareness of our job openings and allowed us to connect with candidates who might not have otherwise considered Middlebury,” Dinan wrote.
Going forward, Simons suggested an extension of the bonus program, including increasing the sign-on and referral bonuses and expanding the referral eligibility beyond the college community to help address the current shortages.
In an email to The Campus, Executive Director of Food Service Operations Dan Detora explained that an ideal outcome for the dining infrastructure would be a single main dining hall, where the team would be concentrated.
“The ultimate goal would be to build one dining hall where we can centralize our team, but in the meantime, we are looking for better equipment and new technology to help streamline our tasks,” Detora wrote.
