UKHospitality: Promising initiative

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, on the new Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise, as well as the Hoteliers’ Charter...

If ever an industry was all about people, it’s hospitality. This is something that’s been brought into sharp focus these past three years, as vacancies have continued to increase in their thousands, leaving similar numbers of businesses desperately short-staffed. This is why there’s an urgent need to attract people to hospitality and, once in the fold, do our utmost to keep them in the industry.

It’s why UKHospitality, alongside the Hospitality and Tourism Skills Board and other industry organisations, has just launched our new Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise. We believe this initiative is critical if jobs and careers in our sector are to be attractive for jobseekers and existing team members alike.

Staff retention is absolutely essential for upskilling hospitality. And if retention is to be delivered, team members must feel valued and supported in their workplaces – workplaces that offer rewarding jobs and careers in which people can develop and thrive.

The Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise seeks to point employers and their teams towards resources that support wellbeing best practice. Providing such support will enable those in hospitality to reach their full potential and ensure years – rather than months or weeks – of enjoyable, productive and valuable employment in our sector. Industry best practice suggests creating a business or team ethos is critical to promoting wellbeing and retaining staff.

Our Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise encourages businesses to:

• Ensure that they create a working environment that facilitates respect between all team members – it’s important that management and team members show each other respect and act courteously towards each other.
• Promote a diversity and inclusion policy – essential if people are to feel valued and able to achieve their full potential.
• Support team members on their wider life issues, if appropriate, and provide assistance where possible – provide information that staff may struggle to access; for example, the money and pensions service.
• Ensure that team members are well-rewarded for their work, considering a wide range of pay and benefits, communicated through a clear pay policy – ensure that team members are compensated for their work in a fair and rewarding fashion, at a minimum ensuring compliance with the National Minimum Wage rules.
• Where tips are received, have a clear policy for their distribution and keep deductions to an absolute minimum and only to cover costs – ensuring team members receive tips and service charge help maintain an engaged workforce, and is what customers want to see.
• Identify training and development opportunities for team members at all levels, and promote these to their workforce along with provision of all necessary compliance training to keep our teams safe – critical for current and prospective team members to increasing productivity, assisting staff retention and increasing social mobility.
• Be open to flexible working where they can and offer a range of shift patterns with reasonable notice on changes – the hospitality industry has long practised flexible working and continues to offer its team members opportunities to work dynamically.
• Produce and maintain a health and safety policy – employers have a responsibility to ensure their workplace is safe to be in.
• Be aware of the mental health challenges associated with working in hospitality and minimise these – employers have a duty of care whereby they must do all they reasonably can to support their team members’ health, safety and wellbeing.
• Enforce a policy of anti-harassment in the workplace – businesses should ensure that team members are protected from harassment by both customers and colleagues.
• Responsible recruitment – it’s critical that businesses take responsibility for compliance within their direct recruitment process, through recruitment agencies and their supply chain, eliminating any exploitation.

Not only has UKHospitality helped launch the Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise, but we have also taken on the administration of the Hoteliers’ Charter. Drawn up in 2020, the charter makes a commitment to providing a workplace environment built on the foundations of respect, fairness, equality, diversity and opportunity; and to placing colleagues’ wellness and career development at the heart of the signatories’ operations.

Becoming a charter hotelier demonstrates a commitment to your people, elevates your credibility as an employer for great career development, promotes the culture of your hotel to attract your targeted employment pool, connects you with like-minded hoteliers in your area, and connects you with the wider industry and best practice.

By signing-up to UKHospitality’s Hospitality Wellbeing and Development Promise – and, for hoteliers, also putting your name to the Hoteliers’ Charter – you’ll be doing yourselves and the whole of the hospitality industry a huge amount of good. Because it’s all about the people, people.

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