EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

I remember being at an Hotels Federation event a while back and a speaker referenced the damage that certain angry TV chefs had done to the attractiveness of that sector in terms of the skills pipeline. People were concluding that a career in a kitchen would mean years of grind and being shouted at a lot. I’ve found a perfect counterbalance to that view – ‘The Hotel People’ on BBC.

I’ve really been enjoying the insights in the Hastings Group of hotels these past few weeks. What strikes me when I watch is just how passionate and dedicated the people who have featured in the programme are. It seems like really hard work, but rewarding. I was also particularly struck by just how difficult the pandemic had been on the sector, and how difficult reopening was, in no small part due to the ‘can we, can’t we’ uncertainty brought about by the Executive pondering matters.

The issue that really jumps out from the series is the labour shortage the hospitality sector faces. We’ve been reading about this for some time but I’ve seen its impact now. Staff from one hotel were being borrowed from another hotel in the group to cover shortages, and the pressure that labour shortages have brought has been a core theme across the series. I also saw the labour shortage impacting at first hand during my summer break on the north coast – staff in many places were completely run off their feet but always were trying their best.

I’ve also seen the labour shortage issue from another perspective. I have a 16 year old son who, having completed his GCSEs in mid-June, was mad keen to get summer work. So, CV at the ready, I had convinced him that getting a job would be a cinch and that hospitality was crying out for people. That part is true, job ads were not hard to find but after a couple of hours of trawling job sites, it became oddly evident that a frustratingly high number of hospitality roles (and to be clear, we were looking for server type roles) were seeking people with prior experience.

On a certain level I can understand why an employer would set this bar in a buyers’ market where labour is plentiful. However, in a tight labour market when you aren’t even paying above the market rate, it feels wrong that some in the sector want staff but only if some other employer has already taken a punt on them first and spent some time (and money) training them up! I also observed how disheartening it was to an eager potential worker looking for a start. On a positive note, junior found a job and he appears to be perfectly skilled at collecting and delivering food and drink orders, despite the lack of prior experience.

I get that the sector needs people, its painfully obvious. I just wonder if being more open to ‘fresh’ new recruits could fill some holes. Oh, and embrace technology by putting your rotas in an app. It’s the only way that generation coming through consume info.