From vicious cycle to virtuous circle

Check your reviews on TripAdvisor. They rarely centre on the building or its fixtures and fittings, but talk about the staff, the food and drink (quality and price) and the cleanliness of the toilets — usually in that order.

So when pub managers say they have difficulty in recruiting and retaining good people, we all ought to be deeply concerned. The latest warning comes from People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, which found in a recent survey 20% of employers reporting that their staff “did not have sufficient skills to meet their business’s needs”.

Reluctance​

It is understandable — on the face of it — that licensees are reluctant to invest time and money upskilling their staff, when so few of them stay for very long. People 1st estimates that 40% of hospitality-sector employees are either students or migrant workers, and it’s certainly not unusual for a pub to have an annual labour turnover rate above 100%.

But to the licensee who says: “What if I train them and they leave?” I would caution: “What if you don’t train them and they stay?” That’s the bigger risk for your business — having incompetent staff turning off your customers and damaging your top and bottom-line performance.

Meaningful​

Besides, there is plenty of evidence — both objective and anecdotal — to say that employees who feel they have been invested in will stay longer and produce the kinds of discretionary effort levels that can make a positive difference to your customer’s experience. They might even decide that the pub industry can provide them with a meaningful career, rather than it being simply a staging post en route to another ‘more professional’ occupation, as it was for so many doctors, lawyers, accountants etc.

So that’s how you can help yourself on a micro level. But what about the bigger picture? People 1st says that barriers to the perception of the pub trade as a viable vocation include: a lack of career opportunities, low pay and zero-hours contracts.

Reward​

It found that 85% of bar staff are paid below the ‘living wage’ of £7.65 an hour (£8.80 in London) — the greatest proportion of any employee group in the economy. This can partially be explained by the relative youth and inexperience of sector employees, but that mustn’t be an excuse for our sector failing to tackle these structural and reputational issues.

If we cannot immediately address the low-pay concerns, then we must show how quickly pub staff can rise through the ranks into positions of significant responsibility and reward, and ultimately get the chance to run their own ‘people business’ and develop the next generation.