LONDON — The United Kingdom hotel industry has never experienced such a dire situation in terms of staffing, according to speakers at the UKHospitality Summer Conference.
Hotel occupancy levels throughout the country have recovered to and even outpaced pre-pandemic levels, but hotels are still not staffed sufficiently to meet that higher demand, hoteliers said.
Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, said she is urging government officials to introduce relaxed or temporary visas for international employees. Those include hotel company employees who might wish to get experience in another country or new prospects who have not considered a job in the sector before.
Possible solutions include three-year visas for those aged 35 and under and substantially cutting immigration costs per employee for those who can legally come to the U.K. Currently, such costs are around 1,000 pounds sterling ($1,220) per person.
“This all requires political will, and that is not apparent at the moment,” Nicholls said.
Those at the forefront of hiring employees and running their businesses short-staffed say the situation is exceedingly difficult.
Stephen Cassidy, senior vice president and managing director for the United Kingdom and Ireland at Hilton, said there were staffing issues before the pandemic, notably with chefs, but now the labor problems are a great deal worse.
“We’ve improved workplace value and pay, but it is not enough," he said. "We will get through this. After all, we’re in the industry of serving people."
James Nye, managing director of Anglian Country Inns, said he needs to add 20 to 30 more employees to his roster of 350.
“In our hotels, we serve premium food, and that requires knowledge,” he said.
Booming hotel demand has exacerbated staffing shortages, said Paul Flaum, group CEO of Bourne Leisure, which owns and manages hotels and vacation parks.
“We had 17,500 team members in 2019, and we now need 2,000 more, but no doubt it is more competitive now to get labor than it is to get guests, and I never thought I’d ever say that,” Flaum said.
He added retention is just as fraught, and labor challenges are not likely to calm anytime soon.
“I’ve known markets to have such problems, but not the entire nation. I think this situation will continue for the next few years,” he said.
Sunaina Sethi, co-founder and people director at restaurant group JKS, which has outlets across London, agreed and added the service industry needs to adapt.
“We need more staff so as not to restrict opening hours, and our onboarding procedure is nowhere near to where it should be. The situation is dire, and it is a cycle that needs to be broken,” she said.
One For All, All For One
Nye said one beacon of hope is that for the first time the entire sector is united behind organizations such as UKHospitality that are lobbying government to make necessary changes. He added the industry is in a competition with other sectors to employ people who for a variety of reasons “are preferring to be shelf-stackers, drivers, et cetera.”
The hotel industry has done such a wonderful job providing guests excellent experiences over the past few years, and now it is the time to do that for employees, Flaum said.
“We can develop people at a greater rate of knots than can any other industry. The difference is that in the past we did not have to be brilliant at that, but now we do,” he said.
Cassidy said the goal is “nothing less than making superb the employee-value proposition.”
“Support and development will lead to attraction and retention,” he said.
Sethi said it is more important than ever to give employees a definite sense of their career paths, and Nicholls added the best way to do that is through word of mouth.
“We have to amass a collection of incredible, industrywide stories and a common message. We are not suffering from a skills shortage,” Nicholls said.