Firm attachments

Labour turnover in the UK is at an all-time high, with one in five people moving jobs each year, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

But that figure pales when compared with the staff turnover rate in the hospitality industry, where every year one in two people leave their job. This equates to an average turnover rate of 48%, which is estimated to cost the industry about £432m each year.

It could be argued that for such a huge industry, employing 1.8 million people across 300,000 businesses and attracting a vast transient workforce, turnover is naturally going to be high. So is too much fuss being made about hospitality's retention rate?

Changing jobs frequently is not necessarily a bad thing, according to Michael Shepherd, managing director of the Savoy hotel.

"I don't believe that people are leaving because they are particularly disillusioned with the industry," he says. "The cycle of changing jobs is just getting shorter. We actually prefer someone with varied experience, who has worked in different cities and different hotels."

That's fine if they are changing jobs within the industry, but many are seeking employment elsewhere. According to research by retention consultants Learnpurple, the majority of departing hospitality staff are hopping over to the retail industry. Pay is certainly not one of the attractions, as the retail industry works on similar salary levels. But the retail sector appears to be more flexible and forward-thinking about how it can allow work to fit in with people's lives.

Supermarket giant Asda, for example, claims that staff turnover is below the 40% mark since it introduced a host of flexible working schemes that won the company the Top Employer title in a Sunday Times survey earlier this year.

Asda's staff can enjoy childcare leave, so that they can stop work for short periods and return later with continuous service and benefits; have a half-day holiday on their child's first day at school; and even have up to a week's grandparents' leave.

The thinking behind many of Asda's schemes recognises that staff have real commitments outside their working lives that require flexibility from their employer.

This is a very different approach from that adopted by many in the hospitality sector, which relies on an unskilled or semi-skilled workforce. Cary Cooper, professor of business physiology at Manchester University, says: "I think a lot of managers in the industry treat their staff as disposable assets - they think they don't have to worry about them. But the turnover doesn't have to be anywhere near as high as it is."

He says the industry needs to take a fresh look at its management style and spend more time developing people.

"People stay when they have job satisfaction, and that comes with being encouraged and seeing that they have the potential to progress," he says.

Of course, it works two ways, and getting the right person for the right job is a vital part of the equation. Millennium Hotels & Resorts, faced with a staff turnover rate of 54%, was determined to find a long-term strategy for retaining staff.

It worked with psychometrics experts PSL to develop a questionnaire to match recruits with the right job. The test was developed by looking at 1,000 of the most productive staff and creating a profile of their work styles and the skills required to carry out their functions to the highest level. The test allows an insight into a person's attitude as well as aptitude for the job. For example, it might find that an individual going for a job in food preparation has no attention-to-detail skills and, therefore, is going to be unsuitable.

Tony Antoniou, Millennium's vice-president of human resources, is quick to point out that it is not used as a deciding factor in the recruitment process. "It helps us to find out what matters to that person in their working environment. It's not a question of if they don't pass they don't get the job," he says.

In some cases, the candidate may not be suited for the job in question but is offered a more suitable job elsewhere in the group.

Once you have the right person on board, the first six months are critical in retaining staff. "People are very vulnerable in the first few weeks, and you can do a lot to take away the fear," says Roddy Watt, chief executive of recruitment consultants Berkeley Scott.

Watt suggests new recruits are given an induction to explain the company culture, opportunities to develop and a history of the organisation. Further support could include a buddy system, where the new recruit is paired with someone in their team, as well as regular appraisals.

David Goldfarb, director of the Mayday recruitment agency, believes that giving staff the opportunity to progress will go a long way towards keeping them.

"It's our responsibility to find the right person, but at the end of the day the role itself and support is down to the client. If the candidate finds there is no input into their future, they'll leave," he says.

In a survey of 2,000 people carried out by Learnpurple, good communication followed by a clearly defined career path came top of the wish list. And if those people are not having their wishes granted by the hospitality industry they will go outside for job satisfaction.

Dave Turnbull, London regional organiser for the T&G union, sees many disillusioned workers leave the industry for jobs in other industries where their needs will be understood.

He says: "Supermarkets that operate 24 hours are no different in their shift patterns from hotels, and yet the retail industry tends to have a more flexible approach to work. I think part of the problem is that the hospitality industry thinks it's a special case, and it's not."

Staff turnover facts

• One in five people move jobs each year across all industries (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)
• One in two people move jobs each year in the hospitality industry (British Hospitality Association)
• Hospitality turnover rate is 48% (British Hospitality Association)
• For the licensed trade, turnover is 188%, which means pubs replace 94% of their workforce each year (Leeds University)
• Hospitality labour turnover is costing the industry £432m each year (Learnpurple)

How the retail sector retains its staff

Asda's flexible working schemes include:

• Childcare leave
  • available for parents to stop work for a short period during the summer holidays, returning later with continuous service and maintained benefits.
• Shift-swapping schemes
  • allowing colleagues to be absent from work for specific family or domestic reasons.
• Study leave
  • for students going away to college who want to return for work during the holidays.
• Store swapping schemes - for students wishing to work in the store close to their university/college in term time and close to their home during holidays.
• School starter scheme
  • allows parents to take a half-day holiday on their child's first day at school.
• Grandparents' leave
  • up to one week's leave available on birth of a grandchild.
• Career break
  • staff can take a career break of up to two years.
• Religious festival leave
  • recognises people's multi-faith backgrounds.

Help from the DTI

The Department of Trade & Industry committed itself to improving relations between employers and employees in 2000 when it introduced its work-life balance programme. The scheme pays consultants to work with businesses and assess the benefits of flexible working arrangements that meet the needs of the employer, customer and employee. Since the campaign was first launched, 166 organisations across the UK have benefited from funding. For more information see www.dti.gov.uk/work-lifebalance.