AT the end of June, Hospitality Ulster launched its Hospitality Workforce Strategy in association with our partner organisation UK Hospitality.
The turnout at the launch event at Parliament Buildings, and the interest in the strategy itself, is proof that there is concern from hospitality business owners trying to find solutions.
The industry-led strategy directly addresses a huge problem that our sector, like others, finds itself in the middle of. It is no secret that recruitment and staff retention are significant issues across the board, but it is acutely notable in a sector that has a focus on its people.
Right now, we face the challenge of getting the hospitality sector up and running again after the pandemic. It is no use, however, to open the doors and not have staff to manage and operate. Business must be sustainable for it to work, and it is counter-productive to muddle through and hope for the best. Now is the time for us to take control of this current labour crisis and provide tangible solutions that support businesses to retain and attract staff.
As we grapple with several other critical challenges, including the cost of doing business and challenges around customer flow due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, it is important that some solutions and actions can be implemented to address these pressures head on.
The strategy developed, alongside our sister body UK Hospitality, aims to ease this workforce crisis and provide the direction that will support the industry improve staffing levels and ensure we maintain some sort of forward momentum of our recovery agenda.
The hospitality sector is people centric. It is our staff who make our pubs, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops the place that customers choose to spend their social time in. The ongoing workforce crisis is causing real upheaval for business and the sector’s ability to recover and stabilise overall.
To confront the staffing crisis affecting our industry, we are supporting an environment of training and development which aims to build lifelong quality job opportunities. By highlighting that our sector offers rewarding careers with many different routes, we can ensure that the sector is properly staffed, and that talent is rewarded and celebrated for its contribution to the industry.
Through the five areas of focus – recruitment, skills and training, working lives, the image of the sector and infrastructure - we have established a range of actions that business and other stakeholders can implement to plug the gaps in the industry and limit the ongoing challenges. By delivering on this action plan hospitality will be able to deliver high-quality, skilled jobs that will boost not just the sector, but have real and lasting impact on the wider economy.
Hospitality is a great career choice, an industry filled with hard-working, exciting people bringing new, innovative ideas to boost the industry’s offer. We have presented this strategy to government, and now renew our call for a dedicated hospitality strategy to match our ambition as we lean into the next phase.
We have presented a forward-thinking, solutions-focused strategy that will support hundreds of businesses across Northern Ireland regroup and push forward with their recovery. Now the work must begin implementing and pushing ahead so that the industry can do what it does best – provide a world class hospitality offer.
Colin Neill is chief executive of Hospitality Ulster
