Webinar to address the ‘existential’ on-trade staffing crisis

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 18 March, 2021

Robin Hutson, CEO of The Pig and Lime Wood hotels, Chantelle Nicholson, chef-patron of Tredwells and All's Well, and restaurateur Xavier Rousset MS are to headline a Staffing for Success webinar on Monday 22 March (3.30pm) on one of the biggest challenges facing the post-pandemic restaurant world.

The hospitality sector, and London on-trade in particular, is facing what D&D London CEO Des Gunewardena described in a recent Harpers webinar as “an existential crisis”, with a skills shortage that will impact on the drinks trade selling through the sector.

The figures make for sobering reading, with a mix of Covid and Brexit leading to a bleeding away of quality staff, with many heading back to the EU and few currently replacing them as hospitality’s gradual reopening looms. Big cities such as London have also seen people leaving in droves during the pandemic.

As Charlie Gilkes, founder and director of Inception Group, recently told Harpers: “One of the most terrifying things I’ve seen is 700,000 people have left London.”

Gunewardena has revealed that D&D London’s staff have dropped from 2,000 people to 1,400 over the past 12 months with the challenge now being, as reopening looms, that “it’s not just a staff shortage, it’s a skills shortage”, with insufficient trained people to fulfil demanding hospitality roles.

Facing up to these issues, our fresh panellists will consider the scale of the staffing crisis, examining key ways in which this can be overcome to attract and retain the best people to enhance both service and profitability.

Topics will include enticing people back into the trade, driving up-skilling, encouraging greater diversity and making clear that this a serious and rewarding career option with paths for advancement.

Our panellist will share their insights and expertise in a moderated discussion format, with questions encouraged from the ‘virtual’ floor towards the end of the session.

To register for this free-to-attend Staffing For Success webinar, please click here.

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