Starving for Staff: Is Amazon depriving the Hospitality Industry of workers?

Recently the news broke that Amazon is offering bonuses of up to £3000 to attract permanent and seasonal workers. My first thoughts were, how on earth can the Hospitality industry compete with that?

For the past three decades, there has been a staffing shortage in the UK hospitality industry, which has been further exacerbated by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, more than 660,000 jobs in the sector were lost and there are currently 188,000 vacancies across the hospitality industry (UK Hospitality, 2021). However, with Amazon’s highly attractive incentives on offer, these vacancies might very well stay unfulfilled, they may even rise further. If they do, this will further undermine the ability of many hospitality businesses to survive in the short to mid-term, resulting in more job losses and a further contraction of this vibrant industry.

It is no secret that although this is an extraordinarily rewarding industry to work in, it often involves long and unsociable hours, and the pay in entry-level roles can be low. However, if the mandatory lock-downs have taught us anything, it is that time with our friends and family is so precious, and this is often facilitated by the hospitality industry and the wonderful people who work in it.

So, I’d like to share some of my initial thoughts on how the hospitality industry could attract more people to work in it:  

 

  • Offer on the job training, instead of asking for considerable experience for entry-level roles;
  • Where practicable, increase access to flexible working arrangements;
  • Improved pay, terms of employment and working conditions;
  • Greater range of part-time managerial roles;
  • Further training and career development opportunities.

But I suspect that you might have some suggestions too and we’d love to hear them! We want to know what you think could be done to make working in hospitality more attractive? Please post your thoughts to this Padlet, and we will review them and pass them on to the UK’s industry body – UK Hospitality for consideration as part of their Hospitality Workforce and #fairforhospitality campaigns.

We’re looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

#Jointheconversation #UKHospitality #UniversityofWolverhampton #Hospitalityemployment #Hospitalityeducation #Hospitalityindustry #Hospitalityjobs #Hospitalitycareers

 

By Alison Maton, Lecturer in Hospitality Management

Wolverhampton Business School