How the UK is preparing for an unpredictable 2022 season.
Hospitality has been, perhaps, the most challenged industry in the UK during COVID. The sector has been dealing with lockdowns and travel restrictions, furlough followed by staff shortages, soaring costs, and supply chain issues. Bookings and cancellations have ebbed and flowed as travel is on, then off again. Add to this the effects of Brexit, with hospitality workers returning to their home countries — meaning increased competition for remaining talent, especially from industries with more secure and regular working hours — and times have been really tough.
As the UK weathers the storm of Omicron, what does this mean for the future, and what opportunities exist for the hospitality sector at the start of 2022? Households accrued over £190bn in additional household savings during the pandemic and there was much talk of a holiday spending boom to follow. Since then, however, at the same time as travel restrictions have begun to ease, inflation and pressures on household spending from spiralling fuel bills will for many mean a cautious approach to planning this year’s getaway.
So both demand for labour in the hospitality sector, and the supply of staff to meet this need, will likely remain unpredictable. Travel has seen a continuing trend of late booking, with rooms filling only as people make a final decision on where and when they want to go. Such flexibility is good for travellers, but less welcome for accommodation providers waiting to know how many guests to expect and needing to resource their properties with appropriately sized teams of reception, cleaning and kitchen staff.
However, technology is breeding opportunities for certain sectors, such as hospitality, to better navigate worker shortages and rising wage costs as travel begins again. It will also provide business owners with the tools to succeed the next time critical shortages occur.
Technology is at the heart of the UK’s largest, award-winning staffing platform, redwigwam, which has helped over 5,000 businesses, both small and large, with finding and managing high quality temp staff to fill their roles. redwigwam’s scalable, AI-powered recruitment platform works in real-time to provide a temporary workforce of additional staff when and where businesses need them. They operate across a wide range of industries, although hospitality is a particular focus.
We are therefore particularly pleased to welcome redwigwam to our long list of hospitality partners. By working together, eviivo and redwigwam are doing their part to help during these troubled times of unpredictability and worker shortages. With eviivo automating many of the time-consuming tasks involved with running a hospitality business and redwigwam providing flexible staffing solutions for hospitality businesses, at least some of the many pressures on hard working hosts and hoteliers can be eased, which means more time freed up for what they do best – looking after guests.
Need help with recruiting needs? Contact redwigwam to find out about the latest in flexible staffing for when and where you need it.
