Hospitality Rising is a collaborative movement within the hospitality industry. Established in 2021 and led by former Pret a Manger and Yo Sushi marketer Mark McCulloch, their goal is to address the chronic labour and skills shortage that has left the UK hospitality industry reeling in its worst ever crisis. But before doing that, it requires a change in perception around working in hospitality.
THE SCALE OF THE CRISIS
• Hospitality is the 3rd biggest employer in the UK
• Currently > 400,000 UK hospitality vacancies
• Only 1 in 5 UK adults would currently consider a
job in hospitality*
• Only 2 in 5 UK adults would recommend a job in
hospitality to others*
• 42% of current workers considering leaving the
sector*
*Data provided by KAM Media.
The challenges are deep-rooted and have been growing for some time, turbocharged by the pandemic when lockdowns enforced shutdowns and people looked elsewhere for work.
The current crisis has emphasised the need for a fresh approach, one that can effect lasting change. This campaign will kickstart a new era of hospitality recruitment. As well as support from UKHospitality, the BII and BBPA, Hospitality Rising has the backing of the Hospitality & Tourism Skills Board. Support also comes from industry figures such as Kate Nicholls OBE, hotelier Robin Hutson OBE, Soho House founder Nick Jones MBE, Chefs Tom Kerridge and Angela Hartman, and Anglican Country Inns Managing Director James Nye.
Large companies have already backed Hospitality Rising and by June 2022 Hospitality Rising had raised more than £700,000. That money will fund a nationwide B2C advertising campaign to attract new people to the industry, designed by the creative minds behind the British Army recruitment campaign. A new Hospitality Rising jobs board will give investors access to a bank of interested candidates generated from the B2C advertising.
But more is needed and smaller industry players need to be engaged at a time when every business is facing rising costs from energy to ingredients and a recession looming. The fabl stepped up to the plate [pun intended] to help Hospitality Rising with the B2B communications, looking at messaging, visual designs and creating marketing collateral.
Looking to engage SMEs in the pubs, bars, restaurants and hotel sectors, we created visuals that spoke in their language. Inspired by traditional pub signage and using a generic, popular pub name – The Ship – this became the cover design for a B2B digital booklet, with the added twist of The Ship Relaunched. The pages inside were inspired by chalkboard promotional messaging. Using the existing Hospitality Rising logo, we took the rays of sunshine as a branded design element.
The tone of voice became one of support, collaboration and camaraderie – three elements that define successful operational teams in hospitality. The aim was to present Hospitality Rising as a lifeline to one of the industry’s biggest challenges – recruitment.
The digital brochure formed the foundation for a suite of communication items that would be displayed at industry trade events, such as a pull-up banner and table-top miniature tent card the size of a business card that is placed on seats, tables, plates or hung on glasses.
To find out more or join the campaign, visit www.hospitalityrising.org
Campaign Highlights
(1) KAM Hospitality Rising Nat Rep Survey March 2023. (2) Monster.com. (3) Audience figures provided by Smithfield. (4)TikTok audience figures provided by Antler Social . (5) Combined results from Fleet Street and Tiger Bond.
Hospitality Rising helps boost appeal to work in sector: New research from sector recruitment initiative Hospitality Rising, in partnership with research consultancy KAM, has demonstrated a positive shift in the way the industry is perceived. More than one-in-three (35%) UK adults now consider hospitality an appealing industry in which to work, up from one-in-five just a year ago. Progress has been driven by activity across the industry – from operators, trade bodies and suppliers – plus the positive impact of the Hospitality Rising initiative and its #RiseFastWorkYoung campaign.
The research also highlighted that, of those who currently don’t work in the industry, the consideration to work in hospitality has increased from 52% to 81%. When benchmarked against other industries, such as education, retail and construction, hospitality has experienced the biggest increase in consideration to work over a 12-month period. The success of the inaugural “Rise Fast, Work Young” campaign, which recently hit 105,000 job applications, is such that nearly half (46%) of the target 18 to 30-year-old demographic had seen and remembered the campaign and 76% of this group said the campaign would encourage them to work in hospitality. Encouragingly, the results were similarly high for slightly older job seekers with 75% of 31 to 40-year-olds saying the ads would encourage them to work in hospitality too.
Mark McCulloch, founder of Hospitality Rising and campaign director, said: “It is incredible to see this transformation in the way hospitality careers are perceived in less than six months of launching our first campaign. We are so proud of what the Hospitality Rising team have achieved, proving the power of what we can achieve as an industry when we truly come together to tackle important issues. This is why we will continue to champion the hospitality industry far and wide. Without new talent coming into the industry we will continue to struggle. The needle on total vacancies will take time to move, so we are calling on all operators big and small to invest in the campaign for year two, starting in September. We’ve come so far in six months with 300 investors imagine what we could do with 1,000. Let’s not take a step back but keep up momentum and build on this fantastic start.”
Hospitality Rising is backed by some of the biggest names in the UK, including Whitbread, Pret, Welcome Break, Hilton, Soho House, Prezzo, Revolution Bars Group, Parkdean Resorts, Buzzworks, Claridge’s, JW Lees and The Pig. On the supplier-side, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, hospitality tech supplier Zonal, and guest WI-FI Wireless Social based marketing solution, are platinum sponsors.
Celebrity chefs including Nathan Outlaw, Tom Kerridge, Thomasina Myers OBE, Angela Hartnett OBE and Raymond Blanc OBE, have also generously given their time and support to the initiative.