Insights
Brexit. It’s frightening to mention the word given how it makes everybody feel. But, like almost everything that scares us, ignoring it will not make it go away. There are already many examples of businesses in our industry proactively tackling the challenges that Brexit is continually creating.
One of the main challenges is around people recruitment and retention. The figures speak for themselves when it comes to how Brexit has affected this: according to The Guardian, the number of EU nationals working in the UK fell by 132,000 in the year after the vote. This trend is driving job vacancies in Britain to a record high, with an estimated 845,000 unfilled job roles.
Hospitality is a notable industry in which the talent pool is shrinking. According to UKHospitality, around 25% of employers in the sectors say they’re already struggling to fill vacancies.
The hospitality industry relies heavily on EU workers to fill many of its vacancies, so should this trend continue, businesses will struggle to keep up with projected growth.
In the past, it’s been up to candidates to impress by showing businesses what they can do for them. Now with talent in short supply the competition to find great hospitality team members has intensified, with candidates looking to be impressed by prospective businesses as they have a choice of job offers. There is also the additional pressure on businesses to retain existing team members, avoiding having to recruit and retrain.
How is your employee value proposition?
Employee value proposition – or EVP – is the balance of the rewards and benefits that are received by employees in return for their performance in the workplace. It’s symptomatic of the two-way street that I mentioned just now – the notion that if you treat employees well, they’ll reflect the ‘experience’ and your business will profit from it.
Your EVP encompasses the key reasons that people are proud and motivated to work for your business, such as the inspiring vision or a positive culture.
Some employers may go down the route of rewarding staff financially for their efforts or providing ‘perks’ for loyalty – they certainly help. But real commitment is achieved when you create an environment of trust and an empathetic relationship between Leaders and their teams. To be valued and trusted is a tremendous motivator for anybody, it doesn’t matter what position you hold!
Everybody has a story
Every team member is on their own unique journey. Can you put your hand on your heart and say that you know everyone’s story? It is one of the foundations of empathy, a person’s values.
It’s not necessarily about sitting them down and asking them to give you their life history. It’s more about actively listening with honest intent; demonstrating to them that they are being heard. This is a basic requirement for any individual.
Once you know the individuals in your team, you have a greater understanding of what drives them, what their aspirations are and ultimately how to help them achieve their goals. Perhaps they believe they’re ready to progress in their career? Or, they want to train in a specific skill to continue their development? Without listening, you could miss this information and good people will look elsewhere to get the opportunities they feel they deserve.
By being tuned-in to what your people are saying and feeling, you can take proactive steps to keep individuals engaged and motivated – ensuring the workplace is one that promotes positivity rather than harbouring negativity.
Bringing it back to Brexit (sorry), there’s a lot of talk right now about what needs to be done so that UK hospitality holds on to its best talent. Gestures only go so far in helping you keep your good people. It needs to go deeper than that and maybe Brexit can act as the catalyst to encourage businesses to focus on the emotional engagement of their people.
Logically everybody works to facilitate their lifestyle but in reality, our feelings and emotions determine the motivation to commit or depart!
True intent to invest in your people will always move loyalty onto commitment and a willingness to invest in you and the business.
HGEM can help you engage with your teams at different stages in their employment journey and help you track what we call Employee NPS – this works in the same way as a traditional Net Promoter Score and enables operators to identify the proportion of employees likely to promote us as an employer versus those likely to do the opposite. Get in touch today 01225 470999 or email enquiries@hgem.com to learn more about how HGEM can help.
