I was doing some research for the newsletter this week when I came across this survey talking about Hospitality Recruitment’s Looming Recruitment Crisis carried out by Big Hospitality in April 2014 looking at the problems in finding new staff. It got me thinking generally about the problems of recruiting in the food industry, whether in food service or food preparation. I looked at the available careers at your food job and could see that there are clearly plenty of companies advertising what look like great jobs on the site.
So I thought I’d ask you what your experiences have been. We have put together this very short free-text survey to get your thoughts and views which we will then compile and share in a blog a couple of weeks. I’m interested to know if you feel the same as the above survey findings, that the problem lies with the attitude of young people (which I personally find very depressing), or if you feel there are wider issues.
Please let us know what you think via the survey or in the comments below.
Demand is high and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. As the survey states, 660,000 people will be needed by the industry within the next five years but as with most of these surveys, the focus is on future requirements rather than looking at the shortages we are already facing in the here and now.
The reality is that as the hospitality industry continues to grow at rapid pace, the gulf between demand and the supply of available candidates will continue to get wider. It’s not just down to employers, or hospitality recruiters, or education establishments, or even the government to ’solve’ the skills crisis in the sector – there’s a collective responsibility we all have to meet this demand. There is also a question of identity too; the industry has suffered from an identity crisis which is more historical than actual, and more needs to be done to effectively position hospitality on a par with other, more traditional sectors.
Of course this won’t happen overnight, but we need to work hard at raising the profile of the industry particularly if we want to attract (and retain) those high achievers who will play a pivotal role in influencing the future growth of the industry. By working in tandem with one another, much progress can be made in tackling the skills shortages and raising the profile of hospitality as a career of choice.
Jo Fowle, Director at Urban People
http://www.urban-people.co.uk