Think Again special issue Round the table
David Armitage, director, Boo! Events
Peter Avis, restaurant manager, Babylon Restaurant, the Roof Gardens, London
Alice Cottingham, press officer, Babylon Restaurant, the Roof Gardens, London
Rachel Jones, head of resourcing, Sodexo UK & Ireland
Martin-Christian Kent, executive director, People 1st
Andrew Maxwell, managing director, Tante Marie Culinary Academy
Anne Pierce, chief executive, Springboard
Stephen Spencer, founder, Stephen Spencer Associates
Ruston Toms, director/co-founder, Blue Apple Contract Catering
Markos Tsimilakis, founder, Hungry Donkey
Sean Wheeler, director of people development, Principal
20 | The Caterer
The staff retention strategy
It is a fact that there are not enough hospitality staff entering the industry, but at The Caterer’s round table, experts spoke with one voice to urge businesses to unite under one campaign – and everyone can help. Rosalind Mullen reports from M Victoria in London
Is the staff recruitment situation better or worse than it has been in the past few years and what issues are at play? Andrew Maxwell (AM): It’s worse. We are work- ing harder than ever to attract people into the industry. I spend a lot of time in schools, but the hospitality industry is not seen as sexy.
Anne Pierce (AP): It is a challenge. But in terms of young people’s perceptions, our surveys suggest that they are open to the industry. Some 53% said they would consider working in hospitality. The problem is that their par- ents and teachers don’t agree. They are not aware of the potential opportunities available, so we need to work with older people as well as the young and improve our communication. Other factors are affecting the situation. One is that about 17 years ago there was a significant drop in the birth rate, so there are now fewer young people available in the labour market. It will be 10 years until the birth rate goes up again. And don’t forget that we are not the only industry with a skills shortage. Retail, construction, digital and so on are all competing for the same labour pool. We rely on more than 25% of workers from overseas, so with the impact of the EU refer- endum, we have a potential problem ahead. There is also the drop in the value of the pound versus the euro, which means that the UK is
less attractive as the money that workers from the EU are earning is not the same as before. And unemployment is falling, too, so we need to sell the industry’s opportunities to attract the best talent. We need to unite behind a universal campaign and get everyone to do something significant.
AM: Who should lead that campaign?
AP: Springboard can lead it, but we need everyone behind it.
And obviously, it is crucial to retain staff as well as recruit them? Martin-Christian Kent (MK): Yes. Some 33% of the workforce are aged under 24. We need to recruit 993,000 people by 2022 and 75% of them will replace existing staff. So it is critical that we keep the staff we’ve already got. According to our figures, we need 11,000 chefs over the next eight years, but 14,000 catering students are not stopping in hospital- ity beyond six months. That is partly because the experience isn’t what it should be. Some are put off beforehand because of poor work- placements, but we have fantastic training accreditation schemes and the AA [college rosette scheme] showcases fantastic colleges. The problem of staff retention hinges around managers. We need 229,000 manag-
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