Hospitality Rising's open letter urges hospitality CEOs to invest in recruitment campaign

The founder of Hospitality Rising has urged hospitality chief executives to invest in the UK’s biggest hospitality recruitment advertising campaign, which aims to raise up to £5m by 12 May.

Mark McCulloch, former marketer for Pret A Manger and YO!, wrote in his open letter: “We are asking every hospitality business and supplier to invest £10 per employee to help us hit at least a £1m target.

“These funds will be used to create the biggest hospitality recruitment campaign that the UK has ever seen. The aim is to showcase what we all know – that hospitality is a great industry to work in.”

Hospitality Rising is supported by Hospitality & Tourism Skills Board (HTSB), UKHospitality, BBPA, BII, Scottish Hospitality Group and other major operators and suppliers across the industry.

The endorsement from HTSB made the campaign the official industry response to the recruitment crisis this February.

However, it stressed that it now needs the backing of hospitality CEOs to lift the fundraising scheme off the ground.

Hospitality Rising revealed that a generous sum from one large restaurant group or large brewer could cover half of what is needed to hit the target, but most have not yet invested.

The campaign, which will be led by the Army’s lead brand strategist and Google’s lead creative agency, will require investment from hospitality businesses to “stop the recruitment crisis once and for all”.

The letter revealed that there are 400,000 hospitality staff vacancies and that 42% of the existing workforce have expressed desires to leave the industry.

It also stated that staff shortages are costing British hospitality businesses £22b a year, which is compounded by the fact that only one in five people nationally would consider working in hospitality, according to findings from KAM Media.

The Caterer also reported that staff shortages are contributing to incidents of poaching and managers having to think of creative – and often costly – staff perks.

Find out more about investing in Hospitality Rising’s campaign here.