Month: June 2021

Tracey Fairclough, managing director of TAF Catering Consultancy, commented in Facilitate Magazine today, saying: “There’s no doubt to my mind our hospitality sector has experienced unprecedented and severe labour shortages since the sector reopened following lockdown. This is due in part to workers from overseas leaving the UK to return to their home countries either because of Brexit or the coronavirus pandemic. Then there’s the furlough ‘hangover’ where a lot of people have now got other jobs to keep themselves going and are not coming back to the industry. This has been frustrating for many of the caterers we’ve been talking to.”

CLICK here for the full article NOW: Catering and Hospitality Hit Staff Shortages 2021.

City-based solicitors Bates Wells said, last week, shortages in the sector could hit ‘crisis levels’ following the post-Brexit deadline for EU citizens to apply for settled status in the UK on 30 June, saying: “EEA [European Economic Area] workers comprise 7.3% of the UK’s working population. The June 30th deadline will create enormous problems for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors. These businesses are already seeing severe labour shortages. This is set to get significantly worse.”

DO YOU KNOW YOU CAN HELP?

TAF Catering Consultancy know, having engaged by talking directly to 40 caterers in the last 6 weeks alone, that Nine in 10 caterers are already facing staff shortages this year.

Daily Business Group also reports similar results and, from a recent poll:

• 51% anticipate shortages in all roles and
• 39% were concerned about back of house roles only.

All of these signs reinforce widespread concerns about the current crisis in hospitality recruitment as trading restrictions ease.

PLEASE HELP US.

Why? We’re simply people with huge passions for our industry and chefs in it… and have a “can do” approach.

We’re reaching out, having commissioned a talented illustrator we know to create two posters for us to SHARE, to help rebuild our Hospitality sector by inspiring those outside and inside to join.

We see life simply: a picture pairs a thousand words. Have a look at the attached and see what you think?

As time is precious and you’re likely to be juggling many balls, besides actions speak louder than words…

Please help us by posting or sharing both these posters adding your own personal (inspirational) message to inspire ANYONE, who might be in your network, to join our wonderful hospitality sector (and/or ask them to SHARE the posters).

Perhaps we’ll meet someday if for a proper chat about this and other things.

In the mean time, thanks for listening and hope to be able to thank you some day for your support.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)

Best Wishes and Keep safe.

Tracey Fairclough | Managing Director

#hospitality #chefs # foodservice #restaurants #taftalkshospitality #contractcatering #foodservices #events #workplacecatering #UKreopening

 

Whilst Boris Johnson last night confirmed a four-week delay to the lifting of all restrictions in England beyond 21 June, the new date for lifting the restrictions now set for 19 July, the worlds of Facilities, Contract Catering, Foodservices and Hospitality should not lose hope.

Yes the UK hospitality does face a jobs crisis, in the aftermath of the typhoon coronavirus pandemic; but the reason hospitality will pick up is because drastic times call for drastic measures and change is happening. 

June 2021 is a special month for me, as it marks my first two years as a consultant at TAF (15 months of which during a global pandemic).

For those who don’t know me already, I would describe myself as follows:

1. One of the few UK female consultants;
2. A member of the LGBTQ+ community;
3. A British citizen by naturalisation.

I’ve been living in London for over 10 years and worked in hospitality throughout my whole career. I love this industry and I am not planning on leaving it anytime soon. I only wish more people felt the same.

Since indoor hospitality reopened on May 17^th, we’ve been hearing worrying news about hospitality staff shortages across the country. A recent survey by UK Hospitality revealed that the vacancy rate across the sector is 9% – a total shortage of circa. 190,000 workers, especially in Front of House and Chef positions. *1  

 

And why would that be? Obvious reasons aside – Brexit and a global pandemic causing people to go back to their countries of origin or changing sector altogether – there’s a more deeply rooted issue within British society (and many others): hospitality has never been considered a “career of choice”.

Hospitality is one of the industries with the highest turnover and is perceived by the general public as “unskilled”. For younger UK generations, hospitality is usually a stopgap career and for foreigners, it represents the proverbial “foot in the door” while getting used to life in a different country. I believe that’s simply unfair.

A career in hospitality deserves as much care and attention as any other sector, both from an employer and employee point of view. It should not mean stressfully long hours and poor working conditions, it should not mean low pay rates, it should not mean precarious contracts.

The point I am trying to make is very simple: I am living proof that focus, commitment and resilience go a long way, and you can really achieve your self-actualisation goals in this wonderful industry.

Focus. Commitment. Resilience. Interesting word choice. Why? Because that’s exactly what the contract catering world (and each of the 40 caterers in our network) demonstrated during these challenging times. They shaped the future of the workplace catering industry (more on this later).

It was an absolute delight to resume non-project related site visits a couple of weeks ago, meeting again face to face with the best and the brightest, the engine of our industry.

What did TAF Catering Consultancy do in return? To answer this question, I’d like to borrow TAF’s mission statement: listening, collaborating, delivering.

1. We listened | We listened to our clients, supporting them throughout and helping them answer the questions: “How has the market changed? How does it look like today? What do we do next with our foodservices?” The nature of our work has changed as a result, and we are engaging more and more with senior stakeholders, to establish at a corporate level what food/foodservices mean to them and a baseline for a more fit-for-purpose approach to deliver relevant, reliable and timely catering services contracts.
2. We collaborated | We embraced the “virtual world” and engaged with caterers (having regular conversations at least three times a year), fellow consultants, specialist collaborators (from executive chefs to HR experts) and industry publications – writing thought-provoking articles, trying to make sense of it all.
3. We delivered | Originally focussing on London corporate organisations by choice, TAF adapted and evolved too, taking on several new projects for essential services clients – none in London and none in B&I. Tracey and I strongly believe a brighter future awaits for all of us, and we look forward to keep breaking the boundaries of traditional consultancy, making our mark along the way.