The impact of Brexit and Covid on the UK hospitality workforce

Where is the talent that hospitality businesses need now, and into the future?

In the second part of our series exploring the effects of Brexit and Covid on the hospitality workforce, we look at the impact on the UK talent pool and why a longer-term strategy for recruitment is the way forward.

The impact of Brexit on hospitality employment

Brexit is here and with it comes a raft of legislation around recruiting workers from the EU, visa requirements, right to work status and the need to become an approved employer sponsor. Since March 2020 almost 300,000[1] hospitality people are thought to have left their jobs and returned to their home countries. There is no way of knowing whether they will return. Another unknown is how many of the existing furloughed hospitality workforce will choose to remain in the sector once the scheme ends.

Bearing in mind the skills and abilities of this potentially lost workforce, it’s not hard to see how this, combined with the need for skilled and experienced hires in the sector, could soon lead to a skills gap once again.

Covid, Brexit and the future of the hospitality talent pool

For decades, hospitality has experienced skills shortage and by 2019 this was widely accepted as a labour crisis. With too few available hospitality hires, employers were actively looking to new talent pools for entry level roles, such as older workers, ex-offenders, or candidates from other sectors. The impact of Covid lockdowns has upturned that view for now, with job losses creating a temporary pool of available applicants, but as the sector reopens and recovers and the impact of Brexit on the workforce is felt, a new picture will start to emerge.

We spoke to three respected and experienced hospitality leaders, to understand their views on the current skills landscape and how the sector needs to position itself as a future employer of choice.

Addressing the hospitality skills shortage

Kellie Rixon is Chair of the Institute of Hospitality. We started by discussing the changing perceptions of hospitality and the impact of Covid and Brexit on the UK hospitality workforce.

‘The sector has been so proactive during Covid and we’re now at a point where hospitality, politically, is being talked about. It’s not that long ago we were being described as the ‘great unskilled workforce’ but now everyone appreciates the size and breadth of the sector, with hospitality being discussed because of its significant economic contribution.’

‘That said, hospitality has been deeply affected by the pandemic, surviving lockdowns and generating revenue in whatever form has been our focus.  As we move towards reopening, we’re just beginning to understand what the longer-term impact of leaving the EU will be on the sector.’

‘We’ve talked about skills shortages for years, not just chefs but the reducing uptake of college places and development programmes. We went into Covid with a talent recruitment crisis and now, due to Brexit, we’ve lost skilled international talent too.’

Developing home-grown talent

Is this an opportunity to develop our home-grown talent and rebuild stronger?

Kellie continued, ‘To ensure a long-term successful recovery we have to attract and recruit the right people to the sector, and how we do that is really critical. We’ve got an opportunity to educate and convince people that hospitality is the right place for them.’

‘The challenge we have always had is around education and perception. That has changed during Covid as people start to understand the bigger picture around the role of hospitality, and the diversity and inclusivity in our sector. There is a role for everyone in hospitality and hospitality is everywhere.’

‘Post-Brexit, the industry needs to bring that message to the forefront and shout about it to attract people with the right skill sets into the sector.’

Addressing the skills shortage post Brexit

Hiring from the available hospitality candidate pool left in the wake of lockdown will be a relatively short-term experience. If the sector recovers as it intends and is expected to, the future hospitality skills picture will be very different. On Caterer.com we have already seen a 35% rise in job postings since the PM’s announcements on February 22 and our team are having daily planning sessions with employers of all sizes across the UK, as they prepare to hire again.

Whilst employers are looking at immediate workforce needs, the sector as a whole is again considering… ‘how are we going to develop a pipeline of skilled future talent to meet industry demands in future years?’

Chris Gamm is Chief Executive of Springboard UK, the charity supporting people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life into employment in hospitality, leisure and tourism.

We asked Chris how he saw the current recruitment landscape.

‘Sadly, there have been a huge number of redundancies and job losses within the sector. Added to which each year about 30,000 young people join hospitality so that’s another large group of potential employees who will be trying to get jobs.’

Skills and experience are needed

‘When things do start to recover young people are probably going to be at the back of a pretty sizable queue for any available jobs.  With a much tighter economy and shrinking headcounts, employers will be looking for more experienced people who know the industry and can hit the ground running; people who need less supervision and nurturing.’

Chris continued, ‘There’s a feeling that post-Covid, there will be a pool of available great candidates. And, sadly, because many businesses have ceased trading, the number of employers recruiting has also been reduced – there’s a view that it’s going to be a ‘buyer’s market’. That might be true this year, but what about next year?’

Sustaining the hospitality talent pool into the future

As with all business plans, to remain sustainable, employers have to think past the next few months and plan a longer-term recruitment strategy.  We asked Chris what hospitality employers can and should do to make themselves, and the sector, more attractive to homegrown talent?

‘Longer term, the pool of available skilled talent will dry up, so we need to attract young people into the industry by giving them opportunities and creating roles for them. Apprenticeships are great for that, but the number of apprentices is down and falling. We have to reverse this trend because we will need skilled talented people in the future.’

One step towards addressing this is Springboard UK’s current initiative to have 10,000 young people trained and ready for work, in line with the industry’s recovery, by 2022.

Chris commented, ‘The industry has quite a significant job to do to convince young people and the public that a job in hospitality is a brilliant career move, where you can develop some amazing skills and build a career for life.

‘Springboard UK is working hard to address this perception through CareerScope, which encompasses the advice, resources and support from dozens of organisations within hospitality.’

Where is the next generation of hospitality stars going to come from?

This is the question we put to Tim Foster, Co-founder of The Yummy Pub Co and a strong vocal advocate for the industry.

‘We have a looming youth unemployment crisis and we’re seeing a rise in the number of applications from 17 and 18-year olds, coming out of school, not wanting to go into further education. Partly that could be down to Covid but it’s also about them deciding not to go to university, and incurring the associated costs, and looking at a different career path.’

‘What’s exciting is that they are choosing hospitality and despite leaving education, they are engaging with our online learning Academy, developing new skills and enjoying it. Looking ahead, it’s encouraging to be in a position to grow local talent as part of future-proofing our business.’

‘That said, we’ve also got a chance to grab some brilliant talent coming out of universities that won’t have jobs because other sectors have collapsed and there won’t be roles for them.’

‘Employers should be thinking ‘now is an opportunity for candidates to prove themselves and stand out in a very crowded market. Not everyone will understand that but the ones that do are the ones we want in hospitality.’

How can we keep new talent in hospitality?

Tim continued, ‘I think, post-Covid and Brexit, there’s a great opportunity for the sector. If we take the time to nurture our people, develop them and don’t exploit new recruits, we’ll have an engaged workforce that wants to put in the effort.

‘Being innovative and having a flexible approach will be key. When hospitality reopens, there will be a larger pool of candidates to choose from, but if we want to keep good people in the industry then we must view them as investments and not impulse buys.’

‘Think about how new talent could take your business forward, what innovations and ideas do they bring to your business and support them to develop these concepts. Empowering them to take responsibility for their actions will ultimately pay dividends.’

Positive outcomes for hospitality post-Covid and Brexit

Over the past year we’ve seen kindness, thoughtfulness, and consideration for others be a little more prevalent.’ Kellie commented, ‘I’m hoping it’s something that remains as we reopen and that we can keep to the forefront of our thoughts as we start to recruit again.’

 Chris is equally optimistic ‘As an industry, it will take time to return to pre-Covid levels of trading, but we have to be positive and rebuild the sector by taking a longer view. The sector will bounce back, strongly, and when it does, we will need great people to take it forward.’

A final word from Tim, ‘As an employer you have a responsibility to do everything possible to develop your people, to let them shine and grow. We’re here to lead, to decide on the direction the sector should take, how it will be seen by potential recruits as a strong safe industry to work in, and make sure that there are still jobs and opportunities in the future.’