More online In association with Are you confident about your recruitment plan for this year? 100 16% 80 28% 60 28% 26% 40 36% 20 0
28% 2%
2022 C
Not at all confident
13% 2023
onfidence in the labour market has increased substantially among hos- pitality business leaders in the past
18 months. The Hospitality Business Leader Survey 2023, produced by The Caterer and CGA by NIQ, found the number of business leaders predicting labour sourcing would be a very significant issue in the next 12 months fell to 65% from 81% the previous year. While confidence is clearly building, there’s
no sign that the problem is disappearing. A further 28% of leaders said recruitment would be a significant issue, with just 7% anticipating no difficulties in recruiting. Andrew O’Callaghan, people director at res-
taurant group Dishoom, confirmed he has noticed an improvement in the labour mar- ket, particularly in London, where the group had struggled to recruit in early 2023. He says: “We were finding recruitment incredibly difficult in the first half of last year, but from the second half of the year it’s become much easier. We now start the week with a 2% vacancy rate and back then it could have been a 10%-15% vacancy rate on a bad week. Outside of London we’ve found it much easier, even since Covid. We do particularly well with team recommendations [outside of the capital].” The Hospitality Business Leader Survey
showed that concern about recruitment was more acute among hoteliers, with 71% describ- ing labour sources as a very significant issue. Emma Bellwood, HR director at the Grand,
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Not confident Unsure Confident Very confident
17% 6%
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Dishoom: the small things really do matter
Dishoom has won awards for its culture and was named among the top 10 big organisations to work for in The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work 2024. Andrew O’Callaghan, people director at Dishoom, explains that building a culture requires attention and consistency. He says: “We’ve always understood and obsessed over our steps of service for our guests and we started thinking about our team members’ journeys and their interactions with us in the same way. “It starts right at the beginning of that
journey. We’ll obsess over the words we use in a job advert, think deeply about how we maximise the number of people turning up for interviews and then how we set them up to do the best for themselves in that interview. “We’ve done that through every stage of a team member’s journey, breaking it down and understanding it and then making improvements every week. “These improvements don’t need to be
“We’re open to everyone from every place in the world, every economic area and every background – there’s a job for everyone” Emma Bellwood, the Grand, York
York, confirms that recruitment in the city continues to be difficult. Accordingly, the hotel has looked to access alternative talent pipelines and focused on retention, record- ing its lowest ever turnover rate of 31% in the last reported year. She says: “When we do have an opportunity
to recruit, our strategy has been to be a posi- tively inclusive employer. We have partnered locally with community partners and charities to break down barriers for people further away from the employment market. For example, we work with our local women’s open prison; people who have left the care system and we take up every Department of Work & Pensions initiative that comes our way. We’re open to everyone from every place in the world, every economic area and every background – there’s a job for everyone.”
July 2024 | The Caterer | 9
expensive, but they do take time. We’ve done so many small things that team members have really appreciated. For example, on their two-year anniversary we invite them to come in with family or friends and have dinner on us. It’s those interactions and moments people have with you that make a difference. “Similarly, everyone getting to meet the
founders when they join the company, to hear what’s important to us from them, is such a big cultural signal and it doesn’t cost very much. “From there it’s about making sure these things are delivered consistently, which is particularly important as you get bigger.”
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