All week, the Stray Ferret has been reporting on the reasons behind the jobs crisis facing hospitality venues in Harrogate — from low pay, to high housing costs and Brexit.
Today we spoke to two business owners about how the sector can move forward and attract staff. Both said that it’s not as easy as just offering more money.
Kim Wilson owns guesthouses The Camberley and The Lodge on Kings Road and is the chair of guesthouse association, Accommodation Harrogate.
She said it annoys her when people suggest hospitality venues should simply increase wages to attract staff when covid has significantly increased her business costs.
“Hospitality is under pressure to be cheaper and cheaper. My laundry has just gone up by 15%. Everything is going up and customers want to pay less and less.”
Kim Wilson
With a largely female team of housekeepers, Ms Wilson said the biggest thing the government could do to help her is provide childcare to mums.
“Short of providing free chlldcare here, it’s not worth me paying them £9 an hour for them to pay £8 on childcare. That’s the problem.”
She also said changing attitudes mean some young people no longer want to work.
“Students used to want work over summer whilst they were home from university but their attitude now is sad. It’s: ‘we’re so much in debt already, we’ve given up caring, another £2,000 doesn’t really matter when I owe £40,000’.”
Read more from our series:
- “I couldn’t do it for life” – the jobs crisis in Harrogate’s hospitality venues
- Are Harrogate’s high housing costs to blame for the hospitality recruitment crisis?
- Is Brexit to blame for Harrogate’s hospitality jobs crisis?
Paul Kinsey owns the Viper Rooms and said the nightclub has been relatively unscathed by the crisis, compared to hotels, pubs and restaurants.
He said he pays more money per hour to staff than bars and restaurants to give them an edge.
“We’ve always paid more than pubs and bars.
“We recognised fairly early on it was going to be a competitive market. People have choices.”
Hiring staff is one thing but retaining them can be another. Mr Kinsey said it’s not enough to simply offer more money.
“We’ve done research on a number of occasions that asks staff why they come to work and money has always been second or third.
“Top of list is the way they are treated by their boss. It’s as simple as that. That distinguishes us from some of the larger operators in town where it can be anonymous.”
Paul Kinsey
Harrogate BID recently organised a meeting with Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, HBC, Harrogate College, and figures in the town’s hospitality industry to discuss how to encourage more people to look at hospitality as a real career option.
Mr Kinsey added:
“We’ve got one member of staff who trained as a paramedic but he wants to work in hospitality because he enjoys it. It’s being clear to people that there’s a career to be had. You don’t have to have a qualification, you have to work hard and be honest.
“They can also rise to a position of management a lot younger than in a retail job. If you’re good enough you’re old enough.”
