Sector needs more inclusive recruitment to help job vacancy crisis

09-Mar-2022 - Last updated on 09-Mar-2022 at 09:54 GMT

Pictured: Klára Kopčiková (top) and Katie Rouse (bottom)

Hospitality needs to promote more inclusive recruitment to break bias in the industry and help the recruitment crisis, but positive changes are happening according to workers across the trade.

Couch bar director and bartender, Katie Rouse, who has 14 years’ experience in the industry and has won awards such as Midland Food & Drink Rising Star, believes true change in the sector lies within diversity and equality for all.

She said: “The hospitality bias will not seriously improve until we create safer work environments for non-binary, transgender and LGBTQ+ people.

“It’s one small step forward into respecting people for their talent and as an individual.

Better working environment

“In our case, and many others, we don’t get the opportunity to hire many interested candidates who aren’t men.

“We can change this by catering our job adverts to be more inclusive, to support charities and promote a better working environment to help drive a more diverse group to your venue.

“You should always hire the best person for the job but I very much feel there’s a large amount of people who wouldn’t apply in the first place, using more inclusive language in recruitment is a great start to making this change.”

This follows International Women’s Day yesterday (Tuesday 8 March) and figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) last month which revealed job vacancies in the sector were 100% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

However, while things are changing, the Pineapple Club, Birmingham bar manager Klára Kopčiková, explained hospitality can still be a somewhat selective industry based on age, race and physical and mental health.

Fighting for equality

She encouraged more operators to consider a wider variety of people and noted women are making more of a stand in the industry now.

Kopčiková added: “In the short time I’ve been in the industry, I’ve seen an improvement in women being able to fight for ourselves.

“We are louder, we don’t settle for less, we are fighting for equality and showing we are just as good.

“I would love to see more management teams taking active steps towards creating a healthy and friendly working environment regardless of those [selective] factors by implementing days for mental health, help lines, proper breaks on shifts, enough time off.”