ADVICE: How to hire and hold onto the right staff

Claire McCartney is Policy and Practice Manager at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development. She shares her advice on the best ways to recruit and retain staff.

An ongoing crisis

Whether you’re looking to recruit your next kitchen lead, or need temporary staff to fill the gaps running up to Christmas, finding the right team members is an ongoing challenge.

An industry-wide survey from CGA by NIQ and Harri found that 91% of hospitality leaders were worried about staff shortages. With 42% of current hospitality employees looking for a new career outside the industry. Finding the right skills and experience is a challenge.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. As pay is increasing and wellbeing is becoming a greater focus, 74% of sector employees are satisfied in their current job role, an increase of 13% since 2022.

By taking a few positive steps in your recruitment process, you can find and keep quality employees in your team.

“91% of hospitality leaders are concerned about staff shortages in the industry”

- Source: CGA by NIQ and Harri. 2023.

“69% of hospitality businesses feel leaving the EU is still impacting recruitment”

- Source: Public Sector Catering, 2024.

Perfect your job descriptions

The key with job descriptions is to make sure they’re inclusive and accurate. It’s important to make any requirements clear, specific and behaviour-based. For example, instead of asking for ‘a natural leader’ say that the ideal person needs to have held people management responsibilities.

Job adverts should be realistic and transparent about the reality of a role, It should cover any pressures the employee might face. Otherwise, it will be a huge shock to them when they arrive.

Be open about the salary you’re offering and try to offer flexible working terms where possible, as this is a huge plus for many of today’s candidates. If you’re readvertising for a role, make sure you reassess the description to see if it’s still accurate to your needs.

Maximise your outreach

To make your job advert appeal to as wide a talent pool as possible, check your description isn’t inadvertantly biased. Online ‘decoders’ from TotalJobs and Micheal Page will help identify any stereotypical language.

If you make the effort, you’ll stand out from the crowd, with equality being an important value for 35% of candidates looking for a job in hospitality.

Using sector-specific job boards such as Caterer.com and Hosco will mean your adverts are seen by candidates with the right skills for your role.

However, you should use a variety of outreach methods to get your role seen as widely as possible. Regularly evaluating your methods will help you target the right people and make the most of your efforts. Our research has found that an organisation’s website is a highly effective way of finding candidates so make sure yours is up to date.

Run structured interviews

Skills-based assessments such as a short trial shift are good predictors of on-the-job performance. But you’ve got to make sure the tasks they do resemble the real role. This gives the candidate an accurate understanding of what the work could be like.

When you’re running trial shifts, make sure you’re properly explaining what’s required and what support there is in place. We recommend managers make sure people understand where they can go to for support. You want to help candidates to succeed and perform at their best.

Although it takes longer to share and collect feedback, it’s important. Use checklists to make it simple for colleagues to do after an interview. Be specific about areas of improvement to help the candidate in the future.

More effective onboarding

It’s important to evaluate your whole recruitment process, with emphasis on getting the job description right and supporting new colleagues through onboarding so they are more likely to stay. Make sure you’re giving a clear understanding of a role, the support in place and who they go to for help.

Buddy systems and regular check-ins with line managers are helpful to deal with any issues as they come up. So problems don’t get bottled up and the colleague isn’t left feeling unsupported.

“Evaluate your whole recruitment process, with emphasis on getting the job description right and supporting new colleagues through onboarding so they are more likely to stay.”

- Claire McCartney, Policy and Practice Manager at the CIPD

Common recruitment mistakes

Inaccurate job descriptions can lead to high turnover
Biased language may put off valuable applicants
Using the wrong outreach methods wastes time and money
Inadequate onboarding puts staff under pressure
Failing to support new starters can damage team confidence

Top tips for successful hiring

The power of checklists

Give hiring managers checklists or templates so they don’t have to feel through the process alone. It also helps distil what you’re looking for into simple terms.

Put skills to the test

Running trial shifts and skills-based assessments is a good predictor of performance. Just make sure you explain what’s required and that the tasks resemble a real workday.