Waving – but not drowning
The Catering Forum is now in its seventh year but, to listen to many of the delegates on board the Oriana earlier this month, you'd think they were still in year one. They talk about the same old problems, have the same old moans and - when it comes to solutions - they appear to have the same old sense of impotence.
Leaving aside the newer ailments that have dogged the industry in recent years - the burden of employment law, EU-related bureaucracy, food safety issues and the cost of renting or buying property - the one subject that dominated every sector-specific discussion was the skills shortage. Problems associated with recruitment, staff retention and training beset operators at all levels. This is nothing new, and the Catering Forum report from 1996 highlighted the same difficulties.
So, not much - apparently - has changed. Or has it?
The recruitment problem is now so far-reaching, affecting, as it does, every facet, discipline and sector of the business, from the hotel kitchen to the accountant's office, from the high street to the primary school, that many operators are being frozen by it, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car (forgive the cliché). They don't know what to do or how to cope. Not only that, but many of those trapped operators are too quick to believe that the car is being driven by members of their own fraternity and they feel unjustly persecuted.
Colleges are blamed for not producing the right calibre of students, the media is blamed for the poor image of the industry and the Government is blamed for not handing out financial bandages to solve the problem. But this is the industry doing what it does best - knocking itself down and missing chances to improve things.
Yes, the skills shortage is critical. But it is also critical in many other professions. Education is in dire straits because of 25,000 unfilled teacher vacancies. Construction is facing a similar shortfall. In the health service, doctors, nurses and social workers are all in short supply. Other sectors are forced to recruit abroad. Even apparently steady professions such as accountancy, banking, law and IT struggle to attract good quality graduates.
What these industries do, however, is take steps to improve the situation. Hospitality does the same - you just wouldn't think it, listening to delegates at the Catering Forum or, indeed, any other pan-industry conference. The two winners of the Richmond Events' Young Guns award this year prove that colleges can produce students of the necessary calibre. The Sector Skills Council working party is drawing up plans to co-ordinate training to meet the demands of the industry. Springboard UK does attract young people into the industry. Changing working practices and better employment conditions are helping with recruitment and staff retention.
But it takes the full involvement of everyone employed in the industry to make these changes work and improve the image of the profession. All-round involvement and a sense of self-belief are the keys to success. And change has to come from within. It's no good launching lifeboats if those in the choppy sea won't climb aboard.
FORBES MUTCH
Editor,
Caterer & Hotelkeeper
