It comprised ten experts in the fields of HR, operations and food and beverage representing companies with a combined UK workforce of more than 130,000, and included BaxterStorey, Greene King, ISS, Unitas, Punch Pubs and Compass Group UK&I.
The group was told that recent Nestlé Professional research had highlighted the industry’s perception problem. It found that negative hospitality stereotypes were held by parents (47%), friends (35%) and teachers (34%) – the very people youngsters seek career advice from.
The stereotypes included ‘unskilled’ roles, ‘lack’ of careers and ‘limited’ progression opportunities.
The first challenge, according to Graham Briggs, Head of Apprenticeships at Greene King, was to tell the story of what hospitality actually means.
“When we speak to people about a career in hospitality, it’s clear there’s a disparity between what we know, as people who live and breathe the industry, and what the wider perception is.”
BaxterStorey Director of Food and Beverage, Greg Bramwell said the industry ‘needs to do a better job’ at promoting the skillset that young people can develop, from multi-tasking, problem solving and teamwork, to communication, customer service and attention to detail.
Greene King’s Senior HR Business Partner, Ross Baxter said: “Through careers events, we’re hoping to shift young people’s mindsets and show how careers can quickly develop in hospitality.
“But let’s not just say it, let’s prove it.”
BaxterStorey’s Executive Head Chef, Frank Coughlan added: “The challenge, unsurprisingly so, is children often go to restaurants with their family and have very limited visibility of hospitality careers.
“Therefore, we need to bring to life the broad range of careers which youngsters don’t get to see – working in big stadiums, cruise ships, the list goes on.”
All agreed that the biggest issue facing the industry when it comes to attracting young talent, is its tendency to contradict itself with siloed messaging from different companies about hospitality careers.
Managing Director of Nestlé Professional, Katya Simmons, explained how the industry’s fragmented structure limits it from being able to deliver consistent messages about hospitality careers to young people. “Put simply, we need structure to be able to create clear messages on topics like culture and career progression which, from our research, we know are two key drivers for young people”.
It was suggested that there was a role for influencers and role models to step forward to change the way young people think about hospitality.
Compass Group often sends out their graduates to secondary schools to inspire students, said Amanda Scott, Director of its Talent, Learning and Diversity and Inclusion programme.
“Being closer in age makes them more relatable,” she said.
The roundtable concluded that to improve the perception of hospitality as an aspirational career choice for young people a more unified and collaborative approach was needed.
Nestlé Professional agreed to join forces to create an ‘open and honest dialogue’ with an industry body to start to address the key issues raised in the discussion.