Institute warns of staffing crisis

By Angela Frewin

Pubs must offer better training and rewards in order to keep talented staff in the trade, says the British Institute of Innkeeping.

Director Mary Curnock Cook said: "Labour turnover costs this industry about £160m per year, which means we need to sell 220 million pints of beer or 3,500 pints per pub just to pay for people who don't want to work for us."

The trade, which employs about 622,000 people, needs to recruit about 600 new people each week to make up for the high staff turnover.

Mrs Curnock Cook added that employers who invested in staff were let down by those who used cheap labour: "On paper, we seem to be the only major industry in this country that pays its front-line sales force at below the minimum wage level."

She attacked funding cuts to joint training programmes, which she feared would deter major groups from switching to NVQ-based schemes.

The institute has just been awarded a £210,000 grant under the Department of Trade and Industry's Sector Challenge towards a £460,000 three-year careers promotion campaign. More than 26,000 candidates took its qualifications last year.