The Culinary path has always been a high pressure, hard-work environment, but in recent years there’s been a new increasing heat in the kitchen – skilled labour shortage.
The 2015 State of the Industry report states that 69 percent of tourism and hospitality businesses have difficulty recruiting or retaining staff. The estimated shortfall of overall tourism employees is expected to be 123,000 by 2020.
This is a significant number, so it’s no surprise that even with that deadline several years away, we are already feeling the squeeze of the tight labour market, particularly for qualified roles such as Chefs.
The Federal Government recently lifted the age limit on working holiday makers to 35, a positive move for the industry as it could mean a higher flow through of experienced and qualified workers, in addition to the backpackers that have traditionally propped up the seasonal market through waiting and bartending staff in particular. Recent political instability in Europe and the US, other popular working holiday destinations, could also mean an increase in ready temporary workers for Australia.
But the issue of sustainable staffing levels remains. Initiatives such as Discover Your Career have been working with government, education providers, and industry to demonstrate career pathways to young hospitality professionals. Many of these students will get their start with agencies such as Pinnacle People, building valuable experience across the breadth of the industry before they graduate, and then transitioning to full time roles (in many cases, through their temp placements).
These channels of development will become increasingly important as the ‘old guard’ retire, leaving huge skills gaps particularly in the middle ranks as they await those coming up.
Meanwhile, government has stated its intention to “crack down” on 457 Visas, pushing employers to source talent locally. All well and good unless the talent isn’t there. Industry members know that the 457 route is a long and tedious process, and certainly prefer local sourcing when it is available.
It’s clear that careful and dedicated recruitment will continue to be an essential factor to the hospitality industry for a number of years to come, as we understand there is a rough road ahead, simply put we can’t and won’t be able to keep with demand.