People 1st to help operators develop career progression tool
The aim of the project is to enable employers to benchmark themselves to ensure they are offering career progression and increasing staff retention opportunities.
Hospitality employment charity People 1st has partnered with AccorHotels, Hilton Worldwide, Mitchells & Butlers and Whitbread to secure the funding from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) to develop the project.
The aim is to look at data from the Whitbread’s WISE apprenticeship project in terms of the impact it has had on retention, pay and progression. Then, a sophisticated profiling tool will be developed to identify people with the ability to progress; people in lower skilled roles will be helped into a broader skill set while the plan is for existing part and full-time roles to be redesigned to be more multi-skilled.
Simon Tarr, managing director of People 1st, said: “Currently 870,000 of the 993,000 people required by 2022 are to replace existing staff. The hospitality industry needs to attract and retain staff with the potential to progress – something which, at the moment, is just not happening.
"As much as the retention and skills deficit needs practical, workable solutions, it also requires partnership, which is why we’re delighted to be working with some leading lights to help affect change.”
Last week, Rocco Forte Hotels revealed it had also received funding from UKCES for a career development app called ‘Map my Future’ which has been created by People 1st.
