The Recruitment Crisis in the British Hospitality Industry

Abstract

The scarce supply of labour and of a competent workforce in the hospitality sector has been researched and debated for decades. Although the sector is important to the UK economy contributing £130 billion pounds to the gross domestic product, the inability of the sector to attract and retain the best talent remains an age-old problem. This chapter is a commentary of the current debate on the recruitment crisis based on an examination of the most recent academic literature. The research finds that although many recommendations have been proffered by researchers to solve these problems, the issues and mistakes made by hospitality employers appear to remain the same. Possible best practice solutions are explored. Reviews of scholarly journals, books, and materials from the domains of marketing, human resources, hospitality management, and organisational behaviour were used to find evidence about the current trends of thought, research findings, and best practices in this field. The chapter concludes with three conceptual models that summarise the critical issues and possible solutions.