Pubs increase pay in bid to attract workers
THREE quarters of pub and restaurant bosses say they are increasing pay to attract staff as a worker shortage continues to hamper the sector’s recovery.
A survey of 200 senior executives from across the hospitality industry found that one in six jobs currently lies vacant, and 96 per cent of business leaders were seeing staffing shortages for some roles.
The CGA business confidence survey, conducted with technology specialists Fourth, showed the shortfall was prompting bosses to step up efforts to attract and retain workers.
Around 76 per cent of respondents said they had offered better pay to keep staff, while 75 per cent had stepped up levels of communication with employees in an attempt to improve retention.
Meanwhile, 18 per cent of leaders surveyed said they felt confident about their recruitment and retention over the next 12 months – a fall from 67 per cent three months ago.
Karl Chessell, CGA’s director of hospitality operators and food, said: “These figures illustrate the full scale of hospitality’s recruitment and retention crisis.
“Thousands of businesses are now critically short of staff, while many of those who have sufficient labour face a fight to keep hold of it. Gaps at front and back of house and fast-rising wage costs threaten to derail the industry’s recovery, and sustained, targeted government support is now urgently needed.”
The labour crisis has hit businesses across the hospitality sector, with Pan-Asian chain Wagamama recently revealing difficulty in hiring chefs in a fifth of its restaurants.
Chief executive Thomas Heier said Brexit was having an impact on the number of European workers looking for jobs in the UK.
In its full-year trading update on Friday, pub chain Wetherspoons also said that, despite increasing employee numbers from 39,025 to 42,003, it faced shortages in holiday hot spots.
Kate Nicholls, UKHospitality chief executive, called on the Government to relax immigration rules and urged it to review tax rates for the sector.
“With the right support and conditions, the sector has the potential to be at the forefront of the economic recovery,” she said.
“We urge the Government to implement a long-overdue reform of business rates and a permanently lower rate of VAT for hospitality and tourism to help fragile businesses.”