We’re an industry stretched. Physically there aren’t enough hands to divert the rudder away from this unprecedented talent crisis. Mentally, there’s no capacity to think bigger and reconsider our standard practices. Blue sky thinking is tough with so many clouds.

There’s no standard operating procedure for a crisis so complex; there’s no quick fix or silver bullet. So how do we effect true change? At Saira Hospitality, we believe that cohesive “movements” are our only way out of this. Sounds grandiose, doesn’t it, but what does it actually mean?

It means the adoption of new ideas. It means leaning into innovation. It means nurturing our teams and our candidates, more than ever.

When I reflect, 2022 actually was a year of hospitality movements. Initiatives like Hospitality Rising and Westminster Works launched, each creating a huge spike in hospitality job applications. Taking these two examples alone, a total of 25,000 applications were received, which is beyond impressive. 

Initiatives like these show that there is interest out there, but how many of these applicants will be accepted? Even if 30% of these applicants did find work in the industry, that leaves 17,500 candidates who have actively shown an interest in our industry but are turned away, or worse, never hear back from operators they apply with. Doesn’t that seem illogical in a time when headlines read of a talent drought?

I’m not suggesting that every candidate should be accepted, and I’m sure that many of these applicants are placed into talent pools for later consideration. But surely there must be a more creative way to nurture this interest in our industry, rather than discarding it completely? It’s true that not every candidate within this pool of 25,000 will be a good fit for the industry, but who’s to say that with the right training, motivation and development, a good percentage of these applicants couldn’t become our future leaders?

At Saira, we believe that everyone deserves the chance to be nurtured, so this year we’re harnessing this notion and creating a new partnership model that promotes a circular hiring process for the hospitality industry. We’re calling this movement Saira Connect+, and it’s an open invite for all hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars to refer their unsuccessful applicants to us, rather than rejecting them.

London is filled with innovative training programmes that take green shoots and nurture them with the right combination of soft and hard skills to better a candidate’s chances of moving into employment. By referring your unsuccessful candidates to us, we will signpost them to a relevant training programme depending on their needs.

At a time when employer branding has never been so important in our industry, creating a pathway for your unsuccessful candidates to benefit from free, expert-led training is a no-brainer. Not only does it provide support for budding new talent, it highlights your brand as one that truly cares about the development of talent – regardless of their barriers to employment.

Saira Hospitality is building a network of leading hospitality employers in London who want to change the way the industry retains interested candidates. To register your interest in partnering with Saira, follow the link below, choose “Saira Connect+” in the dropdown menu and leave a short message: sairahospitality.com/donate-contact

Saira Hospitality partners with hotels to create pop-up schools that provide local communities with the knowledge and skills they need to build a career in hospitality.