Managing Your Team In A Period Of Staff Shortage

In the last few years the hospitality industry has suffered a double blow with the impact of Covid and Brexit. It is difficult to measure which event has had the most impact, but it is undeniable that a lot of the foreign work force has returned home and are not able to come back to the UK. The proportion of EU workers in the industry is now at its lowest despite a huge number of vacancies and many skilled work force are looking for jobs in mainland Europe.

Current legislation does not place the hospitality sector as a priority sector with regards to immigration rules, meaning that we must obey the rules set up by the Home Office to sponsor a visa application.

The difficulty with this scenario is that our industry has another specificity that affects our capacity to sponsor any visa, namely the service might charge. Most of the renumerations in the industry are made from a mix of salary and share of the service charge; both things combined make it well above the threshold required by the Home Office to be able to sponsor a qualified worker. But the reality is that the service charge is not considered due to its unpredictable nature and only the salary is taken into consideration, leaving most positions outside the scope defined by the legislator. Then add to the mix the lengthy process of the application and one can understand that this direction is not viable to resolve our crisis.

The most important blow is down to us. For years, our industry has used and abused the work force, working unacceptable, long hours in difficult conditions and with a lack of respect; promotion of TV chefs bullying and swearing at their staff has undoubtedly inflicted long-term reputational damage. We have created a negative image of hospitality which is no longer acceptable and despite the effort of many good operators, working in our industry is not deemed a positive, long-term career.

Since the end of the Covid restrictions we have seen customers returning to restaurants and bars. Activity is on the increase and in many cases has risen above the level of pre-pandemic. So how can we manage this increase of activity despite the lack of available staff in the industry?

Review Your Offer

Think about your products and what your offer should be to be in line with your concept. If you have a burger concept, do you need to offer a starter such as burrata? Does it add anything to your concept and positioning?

You need to review item by item and ask yourself these questions:

• Does it improve my concept?
• Is it complicated to produce and require a lot of skill and time?
• How much training do I need to produce and sell this item?

The general idea is that you must focus on what is essential to attract guests with less input in working hours. Focus on the essentials and the profitable items only.