Opportunities for women to shine at work

Your article on staff turnover gave us food for thought and elicited some thoughtful responses on the matter (Caterer, 6 April, page 44).

However, I feel that one further point should be raised, which builds on Brian Wisdom's letter about helping women to work (Caterer, 6 April, page 21). After all, most official sources (such as Government and trade organisations) confirm that women represent as much as 60% of the tourism and hospitality workforce.

At the recently held Shine Awards for Women's Achievements in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, DTI chief economic adviser Vicky Pryce said that the tourism industry spent £886m a year dealing with high staff turnover and retention problems. Between now and the Olympics, the costs will have added up to £6.2b.

In our experience, too many women work far below their abilities, and this is a waste of talent. Not only is this wrong for the women involved, but in this era of increased competition in the global market, it is also a concern for UK plc.

Of course, talent management can be done in the way of continuous personal and professional development. In this context, I would like to highlight at least two initiatives that are already helping to address this matter.

One is the Mentoring and Masterclasses programme supported by the London Development Agency (www.tourism-mentoring.co.uk). The second initiative is about to be launched in the North-west and is specifically targeting women who wish to pursue a career in the industry, through a combination of NVQ-type training and mentoring.

We hope that more initiatives of this kind will follow, and we encourage the industry to participate by sending worthy staff on these programmes.

Alessandra Alonso
Joint MD, Shine People and Places, London

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