UKHospitality research has confirmed an acute staff shortage in the industry, which is preventing some sites from opening, and forcing others to restrict their trading hours. Despite various reasons for the shortage, lack of confidence in the sector is damaging recruitment efforts.
To address the shortage, UKHospitality has announced a 12-point plan that aims to attract people to jobs and careers in hospitality. The plan focuses not only on short-term solutions, but also medium and long-term, outlining what employers can do and ways the government can support.
Short-term actions include boosting collaboration between hospitality and the government, schools, colleges and universities, along with broader ideas to improve perceptions of the sector as an employer, introduce new qualifications and grow the pool of available workers.
The plan follows UKHospitality’s new partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), to promote jobs in hospitality.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, highlighted hospitality’s offerings of diverse roles, career opportunities and stable employment. However, it is clear the sector needs to attract new people by highlighting the benefits of a job in hospitality.
Before the pandemic, the UK employed over 3.2m people, ranking as the third-largest private-sector employer in the UK. By working with the government to implement this plan, Nicholls hopes the sector will be restored, to provide growth and careers to drive the UK’s economic and social recovery.
