Mark McCulloch is the founder of Hospitality Rising, which is working to change attitudes towards jobs in the industry butt he says it is important not to look back at how things were before Brexit but deal with the reality of today’s labour market.
The industry is facing a crisis as the number of workers coming from the EU dwindles. Companies now have to come up with innovative ways to find and retain staff – including regular pay rises.
Mr McCulloch told hospitality podcast 5th Wave: “Because there’s no foreign people coming in en masse, actually [to] the British public it is kind of beneath them to work in hospitality.
“They’re too posh to pull a pint. So, very simply put, it was how could we change perceptions for the better for UK nationals to want to work in hospitality?”
He said it is important to emphasise the benefits of working in the industry to make it seem like a viable career path.
Mr McCulloch embarked on a campaign to change its image and said that before it was launched, only one in five people would consider a job in hospitality.
That figure changed to one in three, while 79 percent of under 30s said his campaign would make them want to work in the industry.
He continued: “I would like hospitality’s reputation to mean that it was a valued job or a career. When people are thinking about what they want to do with their lives, could we get to a stage that hospitality would be in those top five choices?
“The positives are: the money is actually pretty decent; also it’s never really a boring place to be. Every single day is completely different.
“So if you don’t want to sit in an office, or you don’t want to answer to some middle manager, or sitting in a cube somewhere in finance, this is definitely a career for you.
“When we’ve been doing our research we’ve been talking to the superstars of hospitality under 30.
“We interviewed one lady up in Scotland and she is 23/24. She is running a £2million business. In what legal profession would you ever be in that position?”
He also said the industry should not expect the Government to fix everything in post-Brexit Britain.
The branding expert added: “I’m a great fan of controlling what you can control and I doubt we’re going to get this ‘back to everything the way that it was’ deal.
“We can try to change the perceptions of the people who do have the right to work here and take it from there.”
The 5th Wave podcast also heard from Danish bar chain Joe & the Juice’s Head of UK Operations Jakob Gundersen and Redemption Roasters founder Max Dubiel.
Mr Gundersen said companies need to offer the right pay and benefits to keep good staff. He added: “It needs to be an engaging work environment, you need to enjoy your job, it needs to be challenging.”
Research shows some 61 percent of employers are looking at hiring ex-offenders, something Redemption Roasters does.
Mr Dubiel said: “People are the most important asset we have in our industry and we need to make sure that we pay them well and attract the best talent.”
