Recruiting and retaining people has long been a challenge for the hospitality sector. The sector faces a number of misconceptions, such as low pay, long unsociable hours, limited opportunities to develop and not offering long-term careers.

HATS Network, along with our key partners, is keen to support industry in attempts to change this perception and highlight the diverse opportunities and fantastic careers available and to show that the industry is changing for the better. This can only be done if industry works together and commits to being an ‘employer of choice’, providing good quality training, work-life balance and support to their people.

To support this, we are inviting industry to sign up to the Wellbeing and Development Promise.  The Promise seeks to ensure that team members are well supported in the workplace and feel valued in an environment that allows them to reach their full potential and flourish as an employee in the sector.

The Promise

• Ensure that you create a working environment that facilitates respect between all team members

• Implement a diversity & inclusion policy

• Support a team member on their wider life issues, if appropriate, and provide assistance where possible

• Ensure that team members are well-rewarded for their work, considering a wide range of pay and benefits, communicated through a clear pay policy

• Where tips are received have a clear policy for their distribution and keep deductions to an absolute minimum and only to cover costs

• Identify training and development opportunities for team members at all levels, and promote these to your workforce along with provision of all necessary compliance training to keep our teams safe

• Be open to flexible working where you can and offer a range of shift patterns with reasonable notice on changes

• Produce and maintain a health & safety policy

• Be aware of the mental health challenges associated with working in hospitality and minimise these

• Enforce a policy of anti-harassment in the workplace

Why sign up?

The Promise sets out the key recommended steps for all employers in the sector to follow to help support employee wellbeing, focused on promoting employee development, mental health and wellbeing, and fair compensation.

It provides guidance for employers on key areas such as tipping, flexible work, diversity and inclusion, and in-work progression, and is designed to galvanise action within the sector to achieve higher standards of employee wellbeing throughout the industry, helping to attract new applicants to the sector and improve retention.

Signing up grants your business access to the resources, to share with team members, and also to provide guidance to managers on areas they may not currently provide support to team members on.