Ahead of the busy summer season, many hospitality businesses will be reviewing their recruitment and retention strategies more thoroughly to keep up with renewed demand.
The industry is facing significant challenges with recruitment, with figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showing there are 171,000 vacancies across the sector – more vacancies than those in unemployment.
Much of the difficulty around recruitment is being attributed to skill shortages and skill gaps in the sector, particularly due to the high turnover of skilled staff and a lack of upskilling for the current hospitality workforce.
What is the hospitality skills gap and how will it impact the future of hospitality?
The hospitality skills gap
The State of Hospitality 2022 report indicates a potential 13-14m talent gap over the next 5 years, with more hospitality jobs requiring higher education degrees and a low total of graduates that will fulfil this demand.
Attracting qualified talent in hospitality has been a long-time challenge for the industry, alongside the widening number of vacancies that continue to grow.
In tourism, for example, there is the issue of the low digitalisation of the sector combined with a necessity for soft skills, which can often be difficult to combat due to reputational issues relating to low salaries and intensive work.
Skills gaps are inherently linked to the reputation of hospitality businesses and the industry at large – if hospitality can’t change the public perception of what it’s like to work in the industry, it is unlikely that there will be a large number of graduates or candidates that have the necessary skills to take the industry forward.
In other words, if hospitality is to have somewhat of a renaissance, then it needs to convince talent of the benefits of joining the industry in order to fill these gaps.
The impact of shifting priorities
When the pandemic resulted in the hospitality industry coming to a near-total standstill, there was a lot of time for hospitality employees to begin rethinking their priorities.
Many employees began to consider their work-life balance for the first time, alongside the values and benefits they want from an employer – there has been a significant shift in the way that hospitality is approaching recruitment as a result of shifting priorities.
The Great Resignation has put a greater emphasis on the purpose behind our career choices, and consequently, has meant that many of the already skilled and qualified staff have left the industry.
The result? Skills gaps and talent shortages.
The need for education and learning
According to the State of Hospitality report, the areas that require immediate attention from hospitality institutes or in training are culinary, guest services, and communication – educational institutions play a key role in addressing skill gaps.
For future leaders in hospitality, the skills gaps relate more to in-demand skills and competencies, such as adaptability, outstanding communication and collaboration, and familiarity with dynamic/fast-paced work environments.
Many of the skills that are in high demand are soft skills, specifically skills that are highly transferable and buildable, such as communication.
If hospitality businesses begin to focus on improving compensation and their employee benefits, providing clearly defined career development paths and prioritising continual learning, it will be far easier to attract and retain talent.
What are the emerging talent areas?
As mentioned above, there are a variety of soft skills that are in high demand, but which are the emerging areas and why?
In the UK, Brexit, the pandemic, and the overall public image of the industry have contributed to skills gaps, and also created a high demand in emerging areas.
Finance, revenue management and technology are the areas rising in demand and given the slow pace at which much of the sector is adapting to digitalisation, this need will only increase over time.
Automation, biometrics, big data analytics, and even artificial intelligence (AI) are areas that are expected to continue growing in importance, and with this increase comes a necessity for talent proficient in these areas.
These are also areas that could be extremely valuable in other industries that may seem more attractive to potential candidates - so how can hospitality businesses remain competitive during skill gaps and talent shortages?
Focus on job satisfaction
The challenges that the industry is currently facing are not permanent.
As with other industries facing talent and skills shortages, hospitality will have to adapt to a more candidate-centric market – in other words, it’s time to put job satisfaction at the forefront.
This includes areas such as:
Personal development (e.g. encouraging professional development, offering training, focusing on growth opportunities)
Clearly defined career paths
Adequate compensation (e.g. salaries that are determined by benchmarking)
Strong work-life balance (e.g. flexible working opportunities, wellbeing support)
In hospitality, growing professionally and being able to develop skills throughout the course of the job is now a greater expectation due to the tumultuous period of the last few years.
Rather than feeling as though they may stagnate or struggle to have work-life balance, hospitality employees and candidates want to seek out jobs that can be stable, fulfilling careers.
It’s up to businesses to convey their efforts to make this happen during the hiring process, or through their retention strategy.
Put your employees first
Though the initial panic as to how the hospitality industry might bounce back has worn off, there is still a lot of apprehension about the future of the industry.
Skills gaps in both soft and hard skills have meant that employers are having to re-evaluate their approach to attraction and retention to better meet the demands of candidates to be able to fill these gaps.
Rather than focusing on recruitment models and efforts that assume a salary or strong branding is enough to attract skilled talent, businesses need to move forward with a candidate-centric approach.
In other words, what is it that hospitality candidates are looking for, and how can they provide it and convey this to them?
Once this is answered, the skill and talent gap might seem a little less intimidating for the industry.
Get in touch
If you’re looking for an experienced, collaborative hospitality recruitment partner, get in touch with the Talent Hive team today.