The hospitality sector in the professional world is a competitive place, bust it’s one of those rare professions that teaches you life lessons, that can help with your growing career as well.
1. You’ll develop a hard exterior
The restaurant environment is tough, and you’ll soon develop thick skin and essentially a hard exterior.
You’re bound to come into contact with difficult customers, but it’s a good way of training to deal with similar situations in your everyday life, by ignoring petty comments and working hard at your job.
2. You’ll learn to be respectful
Whenever working in a restaurant, even for a short period of time, you’ll have gained respect for those around you.
As whatever role you were assigned, whether it be waitress or chef, patience and trial and error are recurring factors within those roles.
3. You’ll learn to cooperate
Teamwork is a huge element when working in a restaurant, as you need to know where your colleagues are, and what they are doing so to work together as a unity, and avoid spillages.
You’ll learn to leverage this skill in the rest of your life and in you other job roles.
4. You’ll teach yourself to be disciplined
Putting aside your current needs, and addressing the situation at hand will enable you to work any job role.
You’ll be learning to work quickly, effectively and efficiently, all the while maintaining a positive attitude.
These are the types of skills every employer wants.
5. You’ll understand what it is to be a brilliant manager
In order for a restaurant to be successful, there has to be stellar management behind it.
Ensuring that your employees are working within time slots, are interacting and engaging with the customers in the appropriate manner and that they all respect one another, will surely build a healthy environment for your business.
For more information on working within the hospitality sector, visit hospitality recruitment website!
Social media is here for everyone, but how can you utilise it?
Social media is a fantastic tool that can now be enjoyed by billions of people worldwide. The likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest are all being used by businesses across the world in an effort to further their marketing efforts and make them more discoverable to the online community. So, after you’ve set up your social media profiles, just where do you go from here?
In this blog, we’ll look into the benefits of social media for business and just how you can use these fantastic tools to further your hospitality business at the click of a button!
Setting realistic goals
Given that this is your first time using social media for business, just as it will be for a number of you reading this article, you must remember to set realistic goals for yourselves to achieve. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your social media profiles won’t attract hundreds of thousands of followers in such a short time either. Be realistic in the goals you set for yourself and your business, as you may become frustrated when you do achieve optimistic goals, something which can put you off using social media if you don’t see the rewards of it.
Here are some examples of the benefits social media can offer your business:
Brand development: One of the greatest benefits available to your company through social media is the constant development of brand awareness, sociability and trust. You can now have conversations directly with your followers and answers any questions they may have for you directly from your Twitter home feed. Be sure to engage with your loyal followers in order to get a level of brand loyalty flowing, which is great for finding new business opportunities on the web.
Reaching new customers: Social media is a fantastic tool that can help to promote your business for FREE! Have any news you want to share with your audience? Share it on Facebook and Twitter! Want an opinion of a potential new choice of menu? Reach your audience through Instagram and Pinterest! The possibilities are endless when it comes to social media, it’s the ultimate marketing tool for everybody!
Make the best of a bad situation: Say you have a sudden cancellation in your restaurant. Not the best, is it? You’re losing money and a table is going to waste… Or is it? With the speed that social media holds, you can share any news of cancellations on Twitter and Facebook, so customers can snap up that table and put money back in your pocket!
Don’t rush into it
One thing you must always remember is that social media has a strategy to it, just like everything does. You wouldn’t invite guests to a dinner party when you knew absolutely nothing about them, then not preparing any food or drinks for them to have, would you? Of course you wouldn’t! Also, it’s a good comparison to use when thinking of social media strategy. You wouldn’t invite a guest around to your house and spend all night telling them how great you are. Social media is so popular because it’s social! Ask questions, get into conversations and find out the opinions of your business from customers.
Social media needs you to do your research on your target market and existing audience. The fantastic thing about having a strategy implemented into your business is the evaluation opportunities you have, where as you can measure the success of your campaigns. Likes, followers, retweets, +1’s and comments are all easily measureable through each platform, as they all have unique tools available to each platform.
Take the time to listen
A great advantage of social media is that you gain the ability to hold conversations with your customers in an easy format, but it’s always good to remember that customers will talk about your business online, whether you’re around to see it or not. Conversations can take place regardless of your presence, so take this opportunity to monitor what your customers think of your business and act upon it!
Is there a customer that wasn’t happy with service they received? Don’t ignore it, it’s the worst thing you can do! As we see it, customers are bothered by your service; otherwise they wouldn’t have taken the time to tweet/post about it! Use this opportunity to give your apologies because sometimes this is all it takes to clear up the situation. Here’s a fantastic example from AirFrance:
@JESUISKADRA Hi Kadra, we are sorry to hear that, please DM us your booking reference and we will look into rebooking your flight. Thanks.
So, in summary, it’s good to remember our main three key points: Plan, listen, act.
Don’t jump into anything as this is a recipe for disaster! Relax, take it easy and just remember to talk to your audience and always listen to their responses.
Employee Value Proposition: Is it beneficial to your hotel?
An EVP can be potentially one of the best ways to improve the amount of commitment to your brand that you receive from new and old employees, increasing their performance and overall job satisfaction. Also, having such a fantastic structure could help you attract top end employees.
But what exactly is an EVP and how can it be of help to your hotel?
EVP, in essence, stands for Employee Value Proposition, something which measures the exact balance between how much an employee gives to the hotel, in return for what they receive. Doing this allows you to measure just how happy they are in their jobs, displaying how well they perform.
The major challenge for hotels is firstly finding and then retaining fantastic employees. Logically, you want the best team member possible running your establishment, as this will give a major boost to customer service, sales and overall recommendations and performance. If you have a team full of motivated workers, a fantastic workset is sure to follow. You want your team members to hold knowledge and experience, as this gives you great amounts of diversity in your business.
What you must understand is, whilst a team member may be currently happy in their job, if they were to receive a separate offer from another business that would give them higher benefits and base salary, they must weigh up the chances and do what’s best for their future. So, following on from this, how can you implement an EVP system to counter act offers from competitors?
EVP is itself a way of comparing reward and benefit, with job performance and reward both being viewed in an equal ground. It shows your employees why improving their job performance will give them higher benefits in future. Here’s a list of what benefits the business can reap from implementing your own version of EVP:
Have a positive impact on the application process for new employees
Improve the overall commitment of new employees
Increase job performance from your employees point of view
Significantly reduce problems in the workplace
Increasing the likelihood of staff brand advocation
Whilst all of these sound incredibly appealing to your brand, you must first implement an effective EVP into your business. Here are a few ideas into what you can do:
Give your employees better career opportunities available to them, whilst increasing the reputation of the company
Concentrate on the attributes of your employees that give them what they crave from their job
Must be displaying in a way that will please the audience
Have a consistent performance of job satisfaction from your employees through brand initiatives
What benefits can you offer to your workers as part of the EVP? Here are a few ideas below:
A high level of job security
Development opportunities
Training programs conducted in house
Better working conditions
Flexy hours
Team dynamics
Essentially, this will increase brand awareness, performance and most important of all: loyalty!
We all need a bit of career advice at times; it’s what carries us through some of the most important decisions of our life. Below are some great pieces of career advice.
Passion is important.
Listeners are successful.
You’re given one mouth and two ears. They should be used in this ratio. Remember that you will learn more by listening to others and their views rather than when you talk.
Know that people WILL take advantage of you.
This is a life lesson; just be sure to not do business with these people again.
Be likable.
If you’re likeable to those around you, you’ll become the very best you can be.
Be who you are.
In a group setting you should try to just relax and be yourself. It’s easy to tell people what they want to hear but it takes grit and honesty to give them the truth.
Make your own luck.
You only make your own luck by staying in the game, so do just that.
Just relax.
Overachievers are often passionate about many things. It’s important to learn not to always care too much.
You’re only as good as the people around you.
Media and culture celebrate individuals, but you should ensure that teams can succeed.
Be a humble employee.
Work is a brutal task to those who are arrogant.
Understand your weaknesses.
You should be sure to surround yourself with people and resources that can do these things well.
Practice self-discipline.
Set targets, have timetables, have clear, unambiguous goals. Life passes quickly.
You must give trust in order to receive it. Treat people as you would like to be treated.
Aim for the moon.
Be successful and don’t follow the pack. If you want to win, be your own person, create your own success.
With a recent surge of hospitality work becoming available in the UK, hiring is on the up.
Recruiters in the UK’s hospitality sector are to become even busier in 2014 as rates of hiring in the hospitality industry have risen in the last few months of this year. An upturn in hiring is plain to see in a survey publish by the Confederation of British Industry.
Despite the growth of hospitality jobs available to everybody nationwide, a worry for skill shortages has shined through with the new demand for staff.
According to the survey by the Confederation of British Industry, a total of 151 firms in the UK, including restaurants, bars and hotels said that their staff numbers grew strongly for the third time since last year.
The evidence of a rise in UK employment for the hospitality sector and its associated businesses comes as organisation The National Forest says it will create up to 2,000 new jobs in six years thanks to an increase in the tourism levels that the UK is bringing.
The research, which was also carried out by The National Forest, has said that the organisation expects to hire a massive total of 6,500 people in the woodland based economy by 2020, which comes as a direct result of the economic value and visitor numbers brought to the area through tourism and local naturalists.
The National Forest are also said to be providing work opportunities for both training and work preparation for young adults in their local community as well as those who suffer from employability barriers, which will both aid the National Forest and teach young adults and alike valuable work skills.
A massive 21% of growth was since in 2014 for the uprising of the hospitality sector, as jobs advertised went skyward with their figures. A total of 34,000+ jobs were being advertised for a number of hospitality businesses through the Caterer.com website. The year on year growth was also considerably stronger, seeing a sizeable increase of 14%, with equalled to a grand total of 126,000+ individual job postsings being listed on the site.
So, what does this mean for the hospitality industry? Is it good that more opportunies are becoming available or is it going to be difficult to fill the demand with skills workers?
According to a survey by the British Hospitality Association, over 1.9 million people are said to work in the hospitality industry. Chances are though, that if you’re reading this article that you’re either one of two people; you’re already in the industry, or you’re considering it as a career option. Part of the beauty that working in hospitality gives is the joy you have from the role, but why else should you want to work in hospitality? Below we have compiled a list of eight reasons why hospitality is for you, and though shifts can be long and tiring at times, if you have a passion for the job then hospitality an incredibly rewarding career.
1. You can make someone’s day
Whether you’re a receptionist, a waiter, a bartender or a kitchen porter or any other hospitality job, your role doesn’t really matter in a sense of bringing joy to somebody’s day. Your presence makes their day a whole lot better; they come into your place of work for a host of reasons, whether its food, drink, service, relations or more, your job role is about people. Your job doesn’t revolve around the preparation of spreadsheets; it’s ultimately about the overall happiness of your customers.
2. It ‘opens doors’
Every single country in the world uses the hospitality industry, and it’s one of the world’s most common jobs as people worldwide are waiters and waitresses in their teenage years. The skills learnt in hospitality are easily transferable, with the personal skills that you learn i.e. customer service being needed in every single industry. You’ll constantly meet new people from new cultures, so you can always consider taking your skills abroad.
3. You can take on responsibilities
With the ever growing responsibilities in hospitality, this means you can make your way up the ladder very quickly in the industry. If you work hard and get on with customers and colleagues in a good manner, then very soon, you’ll find yourself in a senior position managing people and projects. You should always show initiative too, as this will always help your chances.
4. It’s a creative industry
Though hospitality is a people-oriented industry, hospitality is also an industry of creativity. You are creating a product and that doesn’t matter if it’s food, drink, a customer experience or more – there’s always a way to make your service more enjoyable for your customers.
The hospitality industry is diverse
5. There’s no need to get stuck
There’s enough of a scope in the hospitality industry for you to gain a level of diversity in your career, therefore you’re not getting stuck in one sector. You don’t even have to move employer, you can simply move from a receptionist to a concierge or waiter. No other industry offers this level of diversity.
6. It’s not a 9-5 job
The mundane thing about most jobs is the 9-5 routine that people learn to hate. Waking up at the same time, with the same breakfast, with the same outfit, then catching the same train into the same office isn’t for everyone. The beauty about hospitality is the amount of variety that it brings to the role, not only in the varied hours of work but also the work you do in those hours as it can change at any second.
7. It’s a safe bet
People will always need their basic human needs; food, drink and somewhere to sleep. So, even in a shaky economic climate like the credit crunch that has hit the UK in the past few years, the hospitality industry is a secure bet for a career.
8. Work can be a lot of fun!
Working in an office will often limit the perks available to you, despite getting a Christmas party with a few drinks, dire music and everyone looking a bit awkward. In the hospitality industry things are much, much different. After all, the function of your job is to be there to help customers have fun, so make sure you share some of that fun with each other.
9. Learn applicable life skills
The industry heavily revolves around food & drink – from purchasing stock & ingredients, to preparing them for service, and cleaning up afterwards. For young people especially, learning to feed, and clean for, others is more than helpful experience as you become more independent.
10. Perks of the job
The vast majority of pubs, restaurants and hotels will offer discounts or freebies, you can use these benefits outside of work or have a much more enjoyable lunchtime compared to your typical meal deal!
The hospitality industry underwent a healthy growth last year according to Caterer.com. The industry experienced a growth of 8% in jobs throughout 2013, with an increase of a massive 16% coming in the final quarter compared to previous years. Applications are said to have fallen by around 5% per job throughout 2013, so whilst this could actually mean that fewer people are applying for the roles they come across in their job hunt, it could also mean that hospitality candidates are becoming more and more selective in their job hunt, expressing more interest in the options available to them.
The trend has seemed to continue into 2014, with 12,000 jobs being advertised for the hospitality industry in the few months. The sectors included range from food and pubs to restaurants and hotels, outlining the need for numerous employers to continue their attempts in attractive new talent in the hospitality industry.
Hospitality jobs enjoyed a hike last year
The hotel sector may be experiencing some of its best growth in years as Scotland is enjoying a huge growth, where some job levels increased by a fifth last year, driving a huge 20% increase compared to 2012. Applications for each job were also at a high, potentially highlighting a recruitment drive paying off in the Scottish hotel industry. Scotland is also experiencing a considerable growth in their food service, with adverts for the sector rising by 22% when compared with last year. The East and South East of England, along with Wales, are experiencing a hike in recruitment activity, whilst London suffered a decrease of 14%. This figure could be down to big businesses moving from London, wishing to avoid the expensive costs of office space.
The hotel sector as a whole seemingly experienced a huge increase in finance as the hotel budgets grow along with the sector. This has led to pressures on the industry being hiked by investors and owners alike, so companies have had to change their talent strategies. Hotels are responding to the increase by boosting the strength of their employer bran identities, which makes talent the centre of their customer offerings. There’s an increased demand for specialist skills, such as chefs, as they grew 2.6% on their own, a move away from the traditional cook.
It is known now from studies that from the economic downturn the Hospitality industry is in fact due to have strong growth in 2014.
One of the hospitality business leaders ‘Stewart Campbell’ who is a MD of Redefine (hotel management company) believes he has early indication that the year 2014 will have massive improvements into the sector.
so what does this mean for the Hospitality Industry
This forecast from Mr Campbell was also reported by the global investment specialists who also predict a very strong growth compared to previous years. This growth will spread mainly across Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Shetland. This growth is formed more around the fact that travellers no longer are just looking at the pricing element and now wish to find hotels which are comfortable, high standard, reasonable priced and good customer service which is why there’s such an increase this year.
The growth of the hospitality industry this year means that hotels and BnB’s can focus more on delivering the quality of service people expect as well as work at bringing their hotels up to standard with better rooms, more attractive elements.
Many Hospitality industry related businesses have been focusing on getting by month-by-month with no real sight into how the industry will be in the future and at the moment whilst the predictions can be done for this year, many industry leaders are still questioning 2015 and beyond.
Yes it’s true thanks to a recent survey from Barclays, in early Jan 2014 they had questioned more than 684 businesses in the hospitality sector, They estimate that more then 2/3rds of the hospitality sector plan to increase wages.
So is there really an increase in wages in the Hospitality Sector?
Yes it’s very true so if you work in the hospitality sector then you may expect some wage increases this year from up to 69% of the businesses. Despite the rising living costs and inflation in the UK it’s said that over half of businesses in Hospitality & Leisure sector said that wage pressure from employees is not an issue..
Are you looking for a job in the Hospitality Sector?
Recently here at Gateway Jobs we’ve been analyzing the Hospitality business sector very closely with the amount of people applying and jobs posted. In the UK we’ve found that there’s a steady increase in hospitality jobs including the following roles:
Yes that’s right! We’ve found that towards the end of 2013 that hospitality jobs are on the increase! We have many hospitality jobs posted in many different sectors as well such as; Leicestershire, Worcester, Birmingham, London, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Suffolk and many other geo locations. Due to the specialties of the different styles of cooking we have found so many unique positions become available with many work benefits, relocation packages tips and many more.
Jobs in Restaurants or Hotels
Looking for a job in restaurants or even jobs in hotels? We have such a wide selection of different jobs which become available daily with salaries ranging from basic to up to 60k p/year! Contact us now to find out more!
The hospitality sector in the professional world is a competitive place, bust it’s one of those rare professions that teaches you life lessons, that can help with your growing career as well.
