Hospitality Rising receives over 7,000 job applications in two days

Recruitment campaign Hospitality Rising has announced it received over 7,000 applications within two days of launching its jobs board last month.

Over 100 people from the industry, including British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) chief executive Emma McClarkin and UKHospitality’s public affairs director David Sheen, attended a campaign event, held yesterday (2 November) at London’s Brewdog Waterloo.

The official campaign has been in the making for 18 months and specifically targets under-30s. It began with the release of a 30-second recruitment video on 24 October, headlined ‘rise fast, work young’.

The track to the launch video was sung by a 21-year-old rapper, who herself has a background in hospitality, and the team has plans to officially release the song so that it can circulate on music charts.

Hospitality Rising said there are around 400,000 vacancies across the industry, and it is hoping to address the ongoing staff shortages by changing young people’s perception of the industry.

The campaign has received backing from over 300 businesses, including Hawksmoor, Claridge’s and Fortnum & Mason, as well as chefs such as Tom Kerridge, Angela Hartnett, and Raymond Blanc.

At this week's event, Mark McCulloch, founder of Hospitality Rising and former Pret A Manger and Yo! Sushi marketing chief, said the campaign had secured 40m impressions and 130,000 clicks on TikTok since its launch.

Hospitality Rising has raised £850,156 in funding and is looking to reach its £1m target. It stressed that investment from one big casual dining group or brewer could make a huge difference.

McCulloch told The Caterer that fundraising is crucial to the campaign, adding: “The only thing that’s going to make us not work is cash flow. If more people don’t invest, it will end and that will be a real shame because it’s the best brand we’ve had in 30 years.

“We’ve got the start of something – the best people in the world are working on this. We’re so lucky they chose to spend some time with us so we hope everyone sees that and jumps on it.”

He said that the team had to tackle challenges ahead of the launch, which were beyond their control.

“The day we launched, we had a new prime minister, which screwed our news cycle. We launched our [initial] branding in the colours of the Ukraine flag, a couple of days later, Ukraine gets invaded. Just complete freaks of nature.

“But everyone’s been so kind with their time and effort. It’s our industry and it’s up to us to make it a better place, so I feel like that will keep us going and motivate us to make it work.”

Speaking at the event, McCLarkin said: “We have the biggest challenge in front of us when it comes to recruitment. Hospitality Rising is helping us come together to get more people coming into the industry. We all need to become advocates to this campaign.”

To view the Hospitality Rising jobs board or get involved as an employer visit hospitalityrising.org/.