The attractions of staff accommodation

19 March 2014 by
The attractions of staff accommodation

Savvy operators offering decent, cheap staff accommodation can have a loyal workforce on their doorstep, around the clock. So why is so much staff housing not up to scratch?

The hassle of providing staff accommodation, along with its legal, administrative and welfare obligations, is something many a busy hotelier, restaurateur or pub operator could probably live without. Realistically, however, the pros outweigh the cons, not least when it comes to attracting and retaining staff.

The perk dates back to before the national minimum wage, when poorly paid hotel trainees were provided with accommodation and food. More recently, as the industry has increasingly come to rely on overseas workers, staff accommodation has proved crucial in attracting and helping employees settle quickly. And with the recent opening of EU borders, it seems that staff accommodation will continue to be a key recruitment tool. For example, of the 4,000 British vacancies listed on Romanian job sites, demand is greatest in the hospitality and catering sector.

"In terms of marketing, it is something we detail very clearly when drawing up job adverts and it also features prominently on our careers website," says Elite Hotels group operations director Simon Willis.

Remote locations

Demographics is a decider for many businesses. If a hotel or restaurant is miles away from an employee catchment area or badly served by public transport, it has no choice but to provide staff accommodation.

Willis points out that three of Elite's four properties - Ashdown Park in East Sussex, 
Tylney Hall in Hampshire and Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire - are country houses. "In light of this, it is vital that we are able to offer accommodation, particularly for operational roles that require shift work and are often filled 
by younger people, many of whom come from overseas," he says. "If we were not able to 
offer this, recruitment would undoubtedly be more difficult as the costs and practicalities of travelling to and from our locations would simply not add up."

David Everitt-Matthias, chef-patron of 
Le Champignon Sauvage restaurant in Cheltenham, agrees: "Providing inexpensive accommodation to staff is, in my opinion, essential - especially if you are based outside London."

But being remote is not always a prerequisite. At Four Pillars Hotels, it's the two city 
centre properties that benefit most from accommodation. About 45% of staff live in at the Oxford Thames and Oxford Spires hotels because they are in affluent areas where housing is expensive. This contrasts with the more rural Cotswolds Park, which has only four
live-in employees, but which is also served by good transport links to the catchment area of 
Swindon. Similarly, only 10% of workers at Oxford Witney live in as there's a rich seam of staff in the Cotswolds.

The company tends to offer the live-in option to staff in the lower ranks. If someone is promoted to department head, they are given three months' notice to move out on the basis that it's not appropriate to live and work with their team.

Home or away?

So where should you house your staff? Smaller businesses usually have to buy or rent accommodation, while hotel groups and pubs often make use of on-site properties. The latter has the added benefit that staff working anti-social shifts don't have to travel, and business doesn't suffer in severe weather conditions. However, noise and anti-social behaviour from staff can be a downside if it affects guests.

Standards of staff accommodation vary between employers, though they have to meet the requirements of House in Multiple Occupation licences. This means that all health and safety aspects have to be adhered to, and that the property is not overcrowded and has adequate amenities. Most offer single bedrooms, but nearly always shared bathrooms and living areas. Meals are often provided at work.

Elite, which owns all its staff accommodation, offers full board, with the vast majority of staff having en suite facilities and only a few sharing rooms.

"All bills are included, so staff, in effect, have accommodation offset against their salary, which covers the costs of their accommodation and full board," says Willis.

First homes

Welfare is another area many HR departments get caught up in, with some domestic problems taking up time that should be spent on work issues. To help settle staff, Elite provides details of local doctors, hospitals, citizens' advice bureaus, public transport and so on, as well as language lessons where necessary.

"We are conscious that many of our younger staff have never lived away from home before or are living abroad for the first time or, in some cases, both," says Willis.

The fact that many of those taking up accommodation are young people who have not had to look after themselves before can add to the employer's maintenance headache.
It means a bedroom can be in need of decoration after just six months, or the washing machines constantly need repairs because they are being wrongly used. And, of course, the staff want to party.

Few operators extend hotel services to staff accommodation, so employees are often responsible for cleaning their rooms and have to devise their own housekeeping rotas.

As with welfare, the job of making sure standards don't slip often falls to the HR department. Four Pillars' HR team carries 
out weekly inspections of the accommodation, although one of its off-site properties has
its own resident manager who looks after maintenance and cleaning. If there is evidence of deliberate damage, the HR department issues warnings.

"We have the same regulations as we do 
for the hotel when it comes to fire, health and safety, water-tanks and so on. Everything is inspected to the same standards," says Four Pillars HR director Katherine Swingler.

When it comes to rent, many hotels run
a neutral-cost policy. Legally, if they provide staff accommodation, some of its value can count towards minimum wage or is offset. The offset rate for accommodation charges is £4.91 a day or £34.37 a week. If an employer charges more than this, the difference is taken off the worker's pay, which counts for the
minimum wage. If the charge is at or below the offset rate, the staff pay is unaffected.
If the accommodation is free, the offset rate is added to the worker's pay.

In some cases, employers are exempt from tax and national insurance; for instance, when providing accommodation for pub managers who need to live at their place of work in order to do their job well.

On balance, there tends to be a positive
for every negative when providing staff accommodation. And it's even possible that by providing good quality housing you'll improve staff retention as employees are less likely to 
job-hop if they have to leave where they live. Just make sure their contract is watertight in case they quit the job but don't move out…

The pros and cons

FOR

  • It helps to attract and retain quality staff.
  • It allows staff to manage challenging shift patterns more easily as they don't need to travel to and from work.
  • In severe weather, when roads are closed and public transport is not running, staff can always get to work and home again. If you have a 24/7 business, this is crucial.
  • It can help to build a strong community spirit among staff.

AGAINST

  • It can be costly as staff buildings need to be maintained in the same way as a hotel or restaurant.
  • Welfare is a burden as staff issues that would otherwise be personal and away from work can sometimes be added to the workload of personnel managers.
  • Noise and anti-social behaviour, which although related to the above issue, can be a problem in its own right, particularly if the accommodation is within earshot of guest accommodation. The summer tends to be more challenging than winter.

THE RESTAURATEUR: CHEAP STAFF HOUSING IN AN EXPENSIVE AREA

Matthew Mooney, owner of the Belle Epoque restaurant in Knutsford, Cheshire, has provided staff accommodation to any employee that needs it for the past 40 years. Like the rest of the industry, a lot of his staff are from abroad.

"They used to be French, but we've had South Africans and Eastern Europeans as work permits have changed," says Mooney.

He admits the accommodation he provides is "not palatial", but it gives new arrivals a stop-gap before they find somewhere. That said, he says one employee has been living in his converted potting shed for four years.

Mooney says that recruitment consultants often look for staff accommodation when marketing vacancies - particularly as Knutsford is an affluent area.

"We charge a standard £30 a week, but if the worker is at the lower end of the wage scale, we'll waive it - we're flexible," he says. "We impose our own standards. The accommodation is functional, but [providing it] is part of our recruitment policy."

Mooney reckons that one of the benefits of having staff live on-site is that it is easier to get someone to cover for absentees at short notice. So far, he's had no issues with staff refusing to leave, even after they have been dismissed for gross misconduct.

"It's in your interest for them to leave the place presentable, so you can't turf them out - it wouldn't reflect well on the business. The art is in managing them - there's no rule book; both sides have to be considerate," he says.

"Ideally, I would prefer not to provide it because we could use the space ourselves, but it is a commercial requirement. If we were in Manchester, it wouldn't feel so necessary - it's just that the cost of living is so high here."

THE HOTELIER: A SHORT-TERM, QUICK-START SOLUTION

At the five-star, 400-bedroom Celtic Manor Resort, vice-president of facilities and development, Russell Phillips, says the advantage of staff accommodation is that it allows the HR department to recruit and start staff quickly. This outweighs a pitfall, which is losing money if the properties aren't full.

"Our employees come from all over the UK and Europe, and we often want them to start as quickly as possible, so staff accommodation is a means of easing their move here," says Phillips. "New starters from overseas usually need to set up a bank account before they can secure any other type of accommodation, so it's not intended as a long-term solution."

New employees are offered accommodation in nearby Newport for up to three months, after which they are expected to find their own housing. The hotel operates a mixture of rented and owned property under full House in Multiple Occupation licences.

"Where we can use our own property, it is an effective use of a building that might otherwise lie empty, but we wouldn't purchase more property for use as staff accommodation," says Phillips.

Staff get their own bedroom but living areas are shared and the system runs on a cost-neutral basis. The room rate ranges from £57.50-£75 a week for a single room, depending on the property. Couples pay £105 a week.

The staff also pay a bond of £400 for singles and £620 for couples on arrival. This is returned to them when they leave if they have kept their accommodation in decent condition and it helps ensure they respect the property.

"We only house about 15 people out of a workforce of 750 permanent staff," says Phillips. "This is a significant reduction from a few years ago, when we had more than 100 people in staff accommodation. We have seen a general trend of Eastern Europeans returning home and more local people being employed instead."

THE FREELANCE CHEF AND BLOGGER: ACCOMMODATION EXPERIENCES

By Chef Hermes

As a freelance chef I get to see all manner of staff accommodation, and the poor standards provided by some employers can defy belief.

One client expected me to put in a 14-hour shift and then stay at accommodation that didn't have anywhere to wash properly; plus the bedroom had broken windows, and I was to sleep on a soiled mattress. On bringing this to the management's attention, I was given short shrift, with "Well, what do you expect?"

To complete the week's work cost me over £250 in B&Bs, but what if I had been a full-time employee?

Last year I did some work for a group of gastropubs. Again, after a full day's work I was shown to my room.

The entire block was lit by emergency lighting, which shone directly into the staff bedrooms until 1am. The communal bathroom was rancid, with fixtures that weren't even connected to the wall, and there was a large patch of damp in the bedroom. Did the owners and management not consider these to be contributing factors to poor staff retention?

There isn't any real correlation as to which employer will supply what standard. They can be a high-profile golf club or a lone independent operator, but standards will vary wildly.

What never ceases to amaze me is the general lack of interest from owners and managers. Yes, staff should look after the general cleanliness, but operators have to invest in maintenance and standards.

Thankfully, most have moved on from the experiences I've had, which have included a mattress on a base of soft-drink bottle crates and no heating. Neither is it acceptable to force staff to share rooms when they're not in a relationship. On more occasions than I care to remember, I've seen predominately Eastern Europeans treated like second-class citizens in this way.

Generally, when staff accommodation is done right, it's very good. More and more employers are supplying free Wi-Fi and en suite bathrooms. Owners can reap the benefits from looking after staff properly with loyalty and better productivity at work.

Continue reading

You need to be a premium member to view this. Subscribe from just 99p per week.

Already subscribed?

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking