Many happy returners
Women. You train them, promote them, and then let them walk out the door when they start a family. But a new law being enforced next April plays to the strengths of the industry and will focus employers on luring them back.
Imagine sacking your waitress because she's pregnant. It's unthinkable. Perhaps immoral. Certainly commercial suicide. One of the first cases employment lawyer Alexandra Davidson worked on, however, was where a woman had been sacked for being pregnant. Astonishingly, she lost the tribunal simply because her employer had not done anything wrong.
We're not talking about the 19th century here. It's only 10 years ago, but it just goes to show how far the sex discrimination laws have gradually changed our perception of what's fair.
Davidson, a partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, reckons that a new law which comes into effect next April will once again revolutionise working culture. The Employment Act 2002 reflects the Government's Work-Life Balance Campaign, which aims to ease the stress of juggling work and home life. Although it will give increased rights to both parents, it is inevitably working mothers whom it will affect most. In a nutshell, it will raise maternity pay from £75 to £100 a week, increase paid maternity leave from 18 weeks to 26 and - perhaps most significantly for an industry that relies on shift work - give employees with a child under six the right to apply to their boss for a variation in their working times or hours (see below).
It's a great opportunity for the hospitality industry to change what some regard as its weakness into a strength - namely, irregular working hours.
Women who want to get back to work but can't because of family responsibilities are arguably an undervalued skills pool that could be wooed through flexible working hours to ease recruitment problems. And in an industry that is famously poorly paid and where many simply can't afford nurseries, flexitime could enable couples to share childcare.
As Bill Godfrey, director of employee relations at Thistle Hotels, says: "One of the advantages of this industry is that as a 24-hour operation we can adapt the hours we offer people and make ourselves attractive to a wider recruitment market."
Recruitment, as everyone in the industry knows, is a problem. According to the Hospitality Training Foundation's Labour Market Review 2002 report, 56.4% of vacancies for hospitality jobs were unfilled last year. Retaining staff is, therefore, of paramount importance.
Employers who already have a flexible working policy find it is mutually beneficial. Wendy Bartlett, director at contract caterer Bartlett Mitchell, has used flexibility to retain and recruit staff to the extent that some even bring their children into the office for short spells in the school holidays. "Women returners are a big market that needs to be accommodated and they have vital skills - mothers are, after all, adept at juggling," she says.
Bartlett reckons the food service sector has a lot of scope for flexibility but not every company exploits it. "It's easier to do split working, for instance 9.30am-2.30pm," she says. "And clients are flexible on how you manage the job - for instance, phone ordering can be done from home." So when one of her "exceptional" chefs, Julie James, was thinking about leaving because of childcare problems, Bartlett contacted the client. "We agreed that she does some duties, such as, say, book-keeping, at home and we alter other people's hours in the unit - if they agree," Bartlett says.
Bigger picture
Looking at the bigger picture, Bartlett also believes flexitime can woo women back into the industry who have lost confidence after a career break. Training manager Karen Jones, with whom Bartlett had worked elsewhere, had taken time out of her career to have four children. Bartlett, who needed a trainer on an ad hoc basis, lured Jones back into the workplace by agreeing she could work around her childcare so long as she met the targets. "We have benefited because she is happy to do only two or three hours' training a day, whereas someone else would want a full-time job," Bartlett says.
For Raj Soor, training and development manager at Yo! Sushi, female staff loyalty is crucial. Four of the restaurant company's 13 restaurants have female general managers and there are 10 female duty managers. Yo!'s flexible policy towards women is driven partly by the "appalling" recruitment market. Replacing staff, Soor estimates, is about 8-15% of salary. "We want to add value to our staff and to keep them for 18 months or two years rather than six months, and we want to make sure that when they leave it is for the right reasons," he says. It's also cost-effective. "Flexitime has become normal because we take on a lot of part-timers - it's a difficult market to find full-timers."
But, like Bartlett, he also values the particular skills women bring to the job. "Women tend to be better managers - and they can do more than two things at the same time," he adds.
So why are there so few women in the plum jobs? Can working mothers work flexitime and break through the glass ceiling? Caroline King, general manager at the Milestone hotel in London, is not a working mother but sees no reason why it wouldn't work. "The industry has to be flexible. Labour shortages are tight," she says. "GMs can work flexible hours but it depends on the deputy and the structure of the hotel."
This is borne out by Michael Cockman, UK marketing director at the Carlton Hotel Collection, who says managers can often do a five-day job in four. Six of the UK-based company's hotels are in the Netherlands, where hospitality is seen more as a career and half of the general managers are women. The general manager at the Carlton Ambassador in The Hague already works hours to suit her childcare arrangement, and two sales managers at the Carlton Ambassador and the Carlton Beach in Scheveningen are being allowed to return from maternity leave on a four-day week.
Under the new law, of course, the employer can still say no and win a tribunal. It would be ridiculous, for example, if a boss had to buy in extra cover for a waitress who couldn't work lunchtimes or weekends. But it will expose unreasonable employers who are stuck in the past. For example, those who refuse to consider a job-share even if two workers present a proposal. It will also curb a more cynical trend, as Cockman explains: "Job-shares often depend on the size of the hotel and the type of job, but it is also down to how helpful an employer wants to be and whether they want people to stay. If you don't it is an opportunity to say goodbye."
The bottom line, though, is that as society increasingly seeks a good work-life balance, this industry can use flexitime and job-shares to turn the traditional bugbears of irregular long hours and shift work to its advantage and crack the skills shortage. As Godfrey says, it won't affect only women. "This legislation is introducing parental rights, paternity leave and adoption leave for men and women, so it is promoting a work-life balance that this industry can act on," he says.
And as a parting shot he adds. "With all this time off people will have it's an opportunity for us to get more business in the leisure industry."
Main provisions of the Employment Act 2002
The Employment Bill 2001 received Royal Assent on 8 July 2002. The main provisions will come into force in April 2003 and are summarised below.
* Statutory maternity pay (SMP) will be increased to £100 a week, or 90% of weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
* Paid maternity leave will be extended from 18 weeks to 26 weeks.
* Women who have completed one year's continuous service with their employer will be entitled to an additional 26 weeks' unpaid maternity leave.
* Working fathers will be entitled to two weeks' paid leave at SMP rates. This will be in addition to their right to take unpaid parental leave.
* One adoptive parent will be entitled to 26 weeks' paid leave at SMP rates. In addition, if they have completed at least one year's continuous service with their employer the adoptive parent will be entitled to a further 26 weeks' unpaid leave.
* Employees with a child under the age of six (or under the age of 18 if the child is disabled) will have the right to apply to their employer for a variation in their working times or hours. Requests can be refused only if there is a clear business reason.
* There will be minimum statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures which must be followed by an employer. These will be automatically implied into all contracts of employment.
The employee's view
Mutual friendship and support from their regional director were the pivotal reasons why job-share could work successfully for two mums at Ramada Jarvis, writes Stuart Harrison.
Both Penny Crosswell and Jayne Alison knew they had the ability to progress further in their hotel careers. But with each juggling a demanding home-life with work, it seemed the practical limit was the part-time roles they held at the company's 128-room hotel in Hatfield, Hertfordshire - at least until their children had grown up.
Alison was working three days a week in sales and Crosswell two days a week in tele-research and projects when Jarvis restructured and introduced the senior position of revenue manager, covering all aspects of conference and rooms sales. The first person the company appointed, however, didn't work out.
"When the position became vacant the second time we looked at each other and, almost in unison, said ‘we could do that between us'," Alison explained. "The only reason we hadn't considered it first time round was because we were fixed into this pattern of thinking that we were part-time."
The mums, both with two children of similar ages, knew they could make it work, yet it wasn't easy to persuade the decision-makers. Nearly two years into the successful partnership, both Allison and Crosswell believe it would not have happened without their strong friendship, good communication and the commitment from their then regional director, Charles Prue.
"When we began the process of applying for the role there was tremendous scepticism. We were interviewed three times and without Charles's support it may never have happened. We don't believe it will work in all cases. It is imperative you are tuned into each other," Allison says.
Allison works Monday to Wednesday and Crosswell works Wednesday morning, Thursday and Friday. The crossover morning is when they plan their revenue meeting, setting rates, forecasting, establishing work schedules and dealing with personnel.
"Effective communication is the first principle. We have the same boundaries in place. In the early days we were continually on the phone to each other, we had to be united in everything we did and convince our colleagues it would work," Crosswell says.
She sees the long-term benefits of job-share to the hotel industry. "The company retains the experience of women who have a vast resource of skills at their disposal. These skills don't become lost to the marketplace when mothers have to make the difficult choice between staying at home or leaving their children in the care of others and working.
"There are holes in the service levels of our industry and we need to find creative ways to address them. As the first management job-share in Jarvis we want to set both a practical example and inspire others."
For Crosswell and Allison, it's only the beginning and they are constantly looking at how they can develop it. "We aim to be the first job-share general managers in the company," Crosswell says.
Stuart Harrison is the principal of the Profitable Hotel Company
What the law says
About 3.8 million parents (1.5 million women) will be eligible to apply for new working arrangements when the Employment Act 2002 comes into effect next April. The new law ties in with the DTI's work-life balance campaign. It will not only introduce rights for fathers and adoptive parents to paid time-off for the first time, it will mean employers will also have a legal duty to consider requests for flexible working from parents - and, of course, that particularly benefits working mums.
On the face of it, the new law goes only slightly further than the law used at the moment, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, which stops employers from imposing conditions with which fewer women than men can comply.
But, according to Alexandra Davidson, partner at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, in many ways it will be better. For instance, discrimination won't be an issue - after all, it is hard to prove, particularly if a department is full of women; and while the employer can still say no to an employee's request for flexible working hours, there will be a more formal procedure (the employer has to meet the employee within 28 days of receiving a claim, the decision has to be made within 14 days and then it can go to tribunal).
There will be grounds for refusal. For example, if an employee was to become a burden on others, or if the employer would have to take on extra staff to cover their shifts.
One problem Davidson highlights is that the compensation level has not been set. She worries that it could be turn out to be a derisory sum for managers or those in better-paid positions.
"It sounds good but how it works remains to be seen," she warns.
Did you know?
\ 65% of mothers work now compared with 47% in 1973.
* Women earn 18% less than men and part-timers earn 41% less than full-timers (in the Netherlands the gap is only 7%).
* 74% of women reckon their career development has suffered by taking time off for children.
\ 68% of businesses are experiencing an increase in demand for flexible working and 78% believe it drives competitive advantage.
Source: Flexecutive
\ Women account for 30% of managers in the UK but earn 24% less an hour than their male counterparts. The gap between women's part-time hourly earnings and male full-time hourly earnings increased from 40.2% in 2000 to 41.3% in 2001.
\ 47% of male managers have dependent children compared with only 35% of female managers.
Source: Equal Opportunities Commission
Contact
Alexandra Davidson, partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner
Tel: 020 7427 1313
Useful Web sites
Updates: www.dti.gov.uk
Advice for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): www.jobsworth.com
