How to Avoid the Hospitality Staff Shortage

It’s finally time to reopen those doors and hospitality businesses around the country have been investing huge amounts in ensuring their outside spaces are welcoming, safe and comfortable for guests. And boy do we need it after more than a year of utter decimation of our industry.

The celebration of reopening was a joy for us all and the stories across social media were vast and inspiring. Hospitality really has stepped up its game, responded phenomenally well and in turn our guests have shown appreciation of what we do like never before. This has seen like for like sales up by over 250% in some cases.

Hoorah we all shout, nothing else can kick us down now can it?

And then the new gremlin shows its ugly face…..

“We don’t have enough people and our recruitment isn’t working”

That’s right, the hospitality industry is now facing the reality that people aren’t coming back to work for us again.

WHY? Why would anyone leave this awesome industry?

To answer this question takes a little bit of back peddling.

Hospitality has been hit harder than almost any other industry during the pandemic, our teams have been on Furlough for many months, many have been made redundant and the uncertainty over the future has been very real.

For those on minimum wage, 80% of minimum (eg Furlough) is an impossible wage to live on and that’s just the lucky ones. Others have been laid off, either permanently or temporarily, meaning zero income at all.

These are the people that are our lifeblood of the industry, the people who work insane hours, finish at 5am, deal with every imaginable problem during a shift in the customer service business. These are the people that make us the money.

And it is these people that have been treated the worst of all. How does that make them feel, when they suddenly have no way to provide for their family or to keep a roof over their head?

Well not great and it’s easy to see why that is.

Many of our workers come from overseas, they leave their family, friends and way of life to come and work with us in the UK. And with Covid being the great leveller for us last year, the question they will have asked is “Is this really worth it?”.

Why should people leave their life to work in a country where their income is so easily crushed?

And while we know that the circumstance has been out the control of the operators, it is still an industry that has largely struggled with people retention.

However!.......

Amongst the rubble, chaos and tears there are some golden nuggets shining through. There are businesses that are keeping their people, growing their teams and having internal motivation like never before.

How is this happening? It all comes from the values, beliefs and behaviours of the leadership teams.

Over the past year the inspirational stories of those leaders who have gone out of their way to support their people in so many ways have bred loyalty and motivation from their teams.

Regular communication, genuine support, honesty and integrity oozing from these great leadership teams have seen those businesses be the new employer of choice.

I mean wouldn’t we all want to go and work for a business that values its people beyond all else?

And there lies the rub. You see my field of work is Learning & Development, an area that has seen mass redundancy in the industry too.

Traditionally our job has been to engage, coach, teach and grow our teams but it is now more than ever that the people teams need to change what they do.

As our people return to work, who may be disengaged and demotivated, it is now the people teams that need to motivate, engage and invigorate our people to shine again.

Your People Strategy for this year must unquestionably be about excitement, engagement and spreading love to the most important people in our business…your people.

Our industry is losing awesome people at scary rates as they begin to branch in to more stable industries. But this is a massive opportunity for those who are serious about attraction and retention to rethink what they do, scoop up all of the amazing professionals and create a workforce that will go way beyond your wildest dreams to deliver excellence.

You’ll also create long term employees who stay and grow with your business.

The greatest industry in the world needs to make huge strides at the hardest possible time, the challenge is big but the rewards are even bigger.

Need some help?

Let’s get together, have a chat and plan for your future together.

Written by: Peter Boswell - Hospitality People Professional