According to a recent report from the workforce management company, Quinyx, the hospitality sector risks losing out on 448m a year unless it fully embraces flexible working.
The report suggests that by fully embracing flexible working, output and productivity can be greatly increased.
At the moment, UK Hospitality workers don’t feel enough effort has been made to facilitate their needs. 16% said that a lack of flexibility made them feel isolated from friends and family, while 11% said it had a negative impact on their mental health.
But interestingly, 12% said they would be more productive if they were given more flexibility in their working.
The idea of flexible working in the hospitality industry is a contentious one. As a forward-thinking industry, most bosses know that their workforce is modernising and working practices should modernise with them.
However, due to the nature of the work, flexibility isn’t always possible. Unlike an office job, where emails can be read anytime and anywhere, customer-facing hospitality jobs require staff to be in a certain place at a certain time.
According to caterer.com, the hotel industry is leading the way in embracing flexible working. 40% of hotel employers say they’ve seen an increase in people asking for flexible working over the last three years. And their response has been to change traditional shift patterns.
In a sector where employee retention rates have often been low, the effort being made to fit work around the employee’s life rather than the other way round seems to be working.
The new attitude from hotels seems to be that as long as their hotel is staffed 24 hours per day by properly trained people, it doesn’t matter when those individuals start or finish.
Whether that method can translate to other areas of hospitality remains to be seen. Venues with a 6 hour opening time, for instance, would be less profitable if they staff couldn’t start at opening and finish at closing.
We’re interested to know your thoughts and to learn how your venue is embracing flexible work. Is it working for you? Have you seen an increase in productivity from flexible working?
Let us know by commenting below, or replying to our post on Facebook and Twitter.
