The advice is based on insights from a new report outlining findings from the two-year Westminster Works scheme, funded by Westminster City Council, which was designed to address the recruitment challenges faced by businesses in the hospitality hot-spot of Westminster.
Over 400 businesses were supported by the scheme and 27,000 candidates registered interest in job vacancies, including positions at some of the most prestigious hotels, restaurants and bars in the country.
Recognised as having a world-class hospitality and leisure offering, Westminster is home to over 3,700 restaurants, bars and cafes and a further 4,000 leisure businesses supporting around 120,000 jobs in the city.
The initial goal of the scheme was to attract more candidates into the hospitality and leisure industry. It soon became clear that a lack of appetite for these roles was not the problem, as over 7,000 people registered interest in the programme during the first six weeks. The focus was instead turned to the methods businesses were using to hire entry level candidates.
Jackie Bedford, chief executive at Step Ahead, one of the key delivery partners in the Westminster Works initiative, said: “In the early days of the scheme we quickly realised that the key to attracting and retaining quality staff was not in making the roles more desirable to candidates, but in changing the way businesses approach recruitment.
“Outdated, CV based applications were causing many people with huge potential and the right personal attributes to be overlooked due to lack of past experience, so this was something we set about to change.”
A new approach via ‘experiential recruitment’ and bespoke training modules for candidates with no previous hospitality experience was trialled as part of the scheme. A first of its kind ‘Recruitment Restaurant’ event was run at Westminster Kingsway College allowing candidates to take part in live trial shifts and secure on-the-spot interviews for vacant roles.
This initiative allowed employers to see potential staff in action and persuaded many to reconsider their current CV based recruitment process.
Tenzing Tashi, restaurant operations manager at A Wong, a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in Pimlico commented: “Before engaging with the Westminster Works programme we were very set in our ways in our recruitment process and would only look at CVs that had previous experience and then would offer a face-to-face interview. We are now open to all kinds of candidates regardless of their experience and welcome the innovative methods of recruitment suggested.
“The team have been sending us quick 30 second video applications instead of CVs and we absolutely love how this works. It gives us a better understanding of the nature of the candidates and their passion and commitment to our brand. We have offered two trial shifts off the back of these and have offered a role to one of them so far. It has caused us to change the way we recruit going forwards.”