TOURISM and hospitality businesses around the north are being urged to sign up to new industry standards for staff in a bid to address the 14 per cent vacancy rate across the sector here.
Many bars, restaurants and hotels here have struggled in the extremely tight labour market and high-inflation environment post-pandemic, which has been exacerbated by the restrictions on free movement of people post-Brexit.
Hospitality Ulster said its latest data pointed to a 14 per cent vacancy rate in the Northern Ireland sector during May 2023.
The trade body is leading the latest industry response in the hope of encouraging employers to sign up to new standards for their staff, covering a range of areas from clear policies on pay and tips, to training and wellbeing promotion.
The ‘Wellbeing and Development Promise’ is a UK-wide effort to help firms recruit and retain staff, but Hospitality Ulster is leading the drive in the north in partnership with Tourism Northern Ireland and the Hospitality and Tourism Skills network (HATS).
Its chief executive, Colin Neill, said his sector is doing all it can to make working in the industry more appealing.
“Covid changed some people’s attitudes on how they wanted to work and where they wanted to work,” he said.
But he said it could ultimately be up to the UK Government to take action to allow more people to come here to work.
“We want to make sure everybody that can work in the UK or the island of Ireland, can do so," said Mr Neill.
“But I think if there is still a shortfall, government needs to realise that the shortfall will hold back the economy.
“It won’t just hold us back, because other industries will be doing all they can, but once we exhaust the levers we have here, then we have to look to Westminster.”
The Copper Tap in Omagh is among the latest hospitality businesses to respond to the crisis facing the industry.
The popular live music venue has announced the closure of its food service offering. In a statement at the weekend, the Copper Tap’s owners said: “Unfortunately the food element of our business, like hundreds of other businesses, have suffered with rising energy, raw material and resource costs.”
The chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, was in Belfast on Tuesday to help launch the new initiative.
“Hospitality has always relied on the thousands of individuals who work in our pubs, restaurants, hotels, and cafés,” she said.
“And it is the people that work in our industry who make it the world class industry it is.
“This is why the holistic approach to the promise is so important; individuals can feel that they are supported not just at work but in their wider life.”
Employers can read and sign up to the ‘Wellbeing and Development Promise’ here.
