"It always seems impossible until it is done"

Right now I believe that this quote by Mandela should be in every hospitality boardroom across the country

We are at a time when things need to change and "re calibrate". I don’t mean change through “transformation” and “disruption” (all overused and meaningless words) but change that rebalances our desire to make a healthy profit with the need to have a healthy, happy, engaged, and effective team (by the way a profitable business is to be celebrated if it is "healthy" also)

Not in all cases but in many there needs to be some "reality" from owners about the actual and expected value of their assets, the return on investment, the assumed profit businesses can deliver, the unsustainable level of growth that has traditionally been expected, and that as a result this balance between people and profit can be restored

Over my 30 years in hospitality increasingly hospitality has become all about the bottom line, with targets set to appease shareholders, owners, banks, and potential buyers. As a result margins and costs are squeezed with payroll usually being the first line to feel the cut. Somewhere along the way many (but not all) hospitality businesses have lost sight of what hospitality is really about - to care. Caring about helping people spend their leisure time and helping people to "get stuff done"

Now is the time not only to be brave, to think differently, and do those things that our instinct has been telling us for some time, but also there is an immediate need with the sector being unable to recruit people of all ages, and struggling to retain its talent both young and old

• We know that this issue of recruiting and retaining good people is nothing new. For decades, the sector has struggled with how it is perceived (and we know that perception is reality)
• We know how amazingly rewarding hospitality can be, especially those of us lucky to have had long and reasonably successful careers
• We know that hospitality doesn't just have to be a "career" such as a path into management or beyond, but also a meaningful part time job. A job that regardless of your age, beliefs, or background can help you in different ways – socially, economically, personally, and academically

Short term, we know of the many arguments on the table that are out of the (immediate) sectors control – reviewing track and trace and associated isolation rules, business rate relief, permanently reducing VAT on all forms of hospitality, tackling the shortage of EU workers, resisting any form of tourism tax etc. These are all well known and valid points and plenty has already been written about it

Right now there a number of questions we have to ask ourselves:

1) What do we need to do right now to get people back into the sector and stop them leaving?

2) What do those who have influence and decision-making power in hospitality need to be doing?

3) How do we get people excited about working in the sector – from opening up their own beachside café, taking the lease on a country pub, through to being the General Manager or MD of a Hospitality group?

I will share my thoughts at a later stage with regards to point 3 where we have a massive opportunity right now with so many “eyes” on the sector. The below is what the sector could do if it chose to. My thoughts are based on years of working in, and running various operations large and small

The below ideas relate to point 2. To the owners, the MD’s, the Regional VP’s, the people with responsibility, the people who can make decisions, the people with power – whether it be hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafes, or event venues

To those of you who own hospitality businesses I ask you to consider the below points. Some points you may believe are na?ve, some hard to take as there would be a short-term impact on the bottom line, but over 30 years in the sector has given me some insight as to what we could do to start this “re balance”

In no particular order…

1)??????If you are simply paying the Living wage, ask yourself why? In my recent poll on Linkedin 40 % are paying either the national living wage or national minimum wage (only 5 % are paying ￡10 +). Never mind being “competitive”, pay what the role is worth

2)?????Why would you pay two people doing the same job a different entry rate just because of their age? If two people are doing the same job pay them the same

3)?????If you are an owner, consider expecting less with regards to profit and the value of your asset (I have heard from some Managers who say that their

bosses are expecting next year’s profit to be the same as pre Covid-19 which is simply unrealistic). More often than not margins are squeezed due to feasibility numbers that have been created in a Board room with the asset value being the key driver. This in turn always leads to a squeeze on costs with payroll usually being the first to get cut simply because it is the biggest cost and easiest “on paper” to reduce

4)?????Stop only incentivising your team on profit (even a “balanced scorecard” approach tends to have profit as the dominant and overriding factor). Guess what, many of your team don’t care about how much money you make and for most it is a meaningless number. Incentivise them on what matters to them personally and the true purpose of their role – the guest experience, their commitment to learning and self-improvement, how they engage with their colleagues, their creativity to drive revenue etc.

5)?????Abolish split shifts. Don’t kid yourself that you will be able to do this and maintain the hallowed “payroll %” in the short term but what a statement, what a commitment to your teams mental and physical health. Who will be the first Group to publicly state that across their business that spilt shifts are not allowed?

6)?????Limit the hours people work and be as obsessed about why your staff are working over 40 hours as to why they were 10 minutes late for work

7)?????Stop charging your staff for uniforms or making them buy their own shirts, trousers, and shoes etc.

8)?????Start paying your team for every minute and hour worked and yes, this includes trial shifts and breaks. I know it hard to believe but in the 21st century there are still businesses out there not paying staff for breaks

9) Ask yourself why, when you are paying the national minimum wage or even the national living wage but only offering zero-hour contracts people are saying "no thanks" to an offer or are leaving. People need to know the minimum they will earn, not the most they might earn....

10)?????Make recruitment easier. Stop the endless online questionnaires, assessment centres, multiple rounds, panel interviews. By all means follow a simple process but get people in and give them a chance

11)??Actively look for and “celebrate the everyday”. Those staff that consistently work hard, support their colleagues, that love what they do. They are your silent ambassadors, they are the ones who will help you change and improve what you do – go and find them, talk to them, listen to what they have to say, commit to making changes on what you hear

12)??Start really investing in your team’s development. Technical skills are great but start to invest in the soft skills, the life skills, the skills that will encourage them to want to learn more

13)???Help your best people grow and move on within the sector – see it as a sign of your success and a healthy business

14)??If you are owner give all your team all the tools they need to do their job (this includes the best ventilation you can afford in kitchens and great staff areas). Ask them what would make their jobs easier? Guess what, this will make them more effective

15)???Lobby the Government to relax the rules on young workers. Instead of restricting what they can do encourage them to work, to put in the hours, to learn new skills both technical and life. This is of course different from exploiting young people

16)??Right now there are multiple Hotel, restaurant, and other leisure groups all coming up with their own recruitment and retention strategies. Now more than ever the sector needs you all to join forces. Combine resources, funds, and ideas and do it as one – which Group will be brave and take a lead on this?

17)???Explore and understand how APPS and tech such as STINT can help us transform the way people work, and when they want to work

18)??Encourage people to work from where they can be most productive. This doesn’t take anything away from the basics such as agreeing objectives, 1:1’s, personal responsibility, and delivering. But having your finance, revenue, regional teams, or reservations team sitting in an office simply doesn’t make sense

19)??If you provide staff accommodation, ask yourself; would you sleep in it, would you be proud to show your guests around it, would you ask those close to you to stay in it? Staff accommodation has traditionally been bad, and this has to change. Who has the best staff accommodation out there I wonder?

20)?When you advertise a role lead with why you need them, the value they can bring, and how important they would be to your organisation. Too many roles just talk about the Company - how great they are, how big they are, what the roles responsibilities and expectations, that “training is provided” are etc.

21) Put salaries on job roles. We all try and kid ourselves that pay is not the most important thing. Form experience trust me it is right up there!

I of course hope that many businesses reading this list can honestly say that they are already doing all these things. Indeed, I know of a few who are doing much more

But this list is just a starter for 10. It simply gets us started, is where we should already be, and sets the sector up for what needs to comes next...

I also understand that this list doesn’t necessarily fix the problem (certainly in the short term), and that of course there will be some who will challenge what I have written. I simply encourage those of you with real decision-making powers to at least sit down with your teams and ask the following:

“Is our business progressive, brave, really listening, responding to both the immediate and long-term challenges we face or, are we moving deck chairs, rehashing old thoughts, blaming Covid-19 and Brexit, stuck in a paradigm, and obsessed about asset value and profit?”

I believe if ever there was a time to be brave, to start changing both the reality and perception of hospitality then that time is now

Philip Bolson is the owner of Mr B Hospitality, a consultancy business that supports developers, individuals, and SME’s start, grow, and flourish