Hospitality Rising Tackles The Recruitment Crisis

The ongoing recruitment crisis facing the hospitality industry needs no introduction. First it impacted plans for the post-Covid ‘return to normality’, now it’s seriously restricting Christmas sales opportunities and looking like a long-term barrier to growth – it’s clear that the crisis won’t sort itself out.

At the time of writing there are 188,000 vacant hospitality jobs in the UK but only one in five UK adults would consider a move into hospitality. A “We’re Hiring” post on your social accounts may reach a handful of people, but with fierce competition there are simply not enough people in the hiring pool to fill the gap.

The problems the industry faces are fundamental and it’s clear that a collective, long-term solution is needed. Why don’t people want to work in this wonderful industry? It’s a question that we need to ask ourselves. We need to understand this, and change people’s perceptions, on a huge scale, to start convincing people to consider – and actively seek out – careers in the sector.

Introducing Hospitality Rising

Hospitality Rising is a collective from within the hospitality and advertising sectors, seeking to tackle the problem collaboratively, between us providing £250,000 worth of pro bono creative strategy and concept development. Top advertising agencies involved include Ignite, VCCP, Ogilvy and Forever Beta.

Together, we’re planning the biggest collective recruitment advertising campaign the industry has ever seen.

We believe that by using the power of storytelling in advertising we can change the narrative around the industry, change people’s perceptions and, ultimately, influence their decisions around pursuing hospitality as a viable, and desirable, career path.

The Hospitality Rising collective is working to conceptualise and produce a powerful nationwide campaign – one that completely reframes what working in hospitality is like, and what it means to be a part of the industry.

The ambition is for the campaign to feature across TV and digital channels across the UK – but in order to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of people.

This is where we need your help

Hospitality Rising has already raised £200,000 from a range of small, medium and large operators, industry suppliers and corporate sponsors, such as Hawksmoor, Marugame Udon, Côte, Koop + Kraft, Peach Pubs, Punch Pubs, rhubarb Hospitality Group, Hilton, Buzzworks, Pizza Pilgrims, Wahaca, Arc Inspirations, Loungers, Coal Shed and PizzaExpress.

The fundraising goal is £5 million pounds so we’re asking the hospitality industry to come together to help us reach the target. All proceeds go directly towards advertising costs so every pound will help us reach more people with our message – and that will ultimately benefit every business in the industry. It’s an investment that will pay off for years to come.

We understand that resources will vary so suggest a pledge of £10 per current employee in your business. So if you’re:

• An small independent pub with 5 staff = £50 would be fantastic
• A mid-sized restaurant with 50 staff = we’d love £500
• A FTSE 100 company with thousands of staff (and thousands of vacancies)… we really should talk!

Ultimately, we ask you to offer what you can afford. And to consider pledging to this collective cause, instead of individual job adverts or recruiters fees. Whether you donate ten pounds or ten thousand pounds, you’re helping to create mass awareness and change perceptions on a macro scale.

This isn’t a short-term fix – it’s not just about filling positions for this Christmas – we’re trying to affect long-term change and fill the vacancies of next year, and the year after that too.

You can find more information on Hospitality Rising and sign up for direct updates here.

To pledge money or get involved, contact Mark McCulloch at mark@supersonic.marketing

We’ll share more on the project as it develops – thank you for your support.