The curse of the unskilled worker is to be misconstrued and under-appreciated. Your hard work is often thought of as of little value and offering little challenge. In short, it’s easy, and anyone can do it.

When the ugly issue of Brexit came upon us, that falling portcullis prevented migrant workers from being able to work in the UK and take up jobs in many walks of life.

As a result, we find restaurants and cafes only opening on certain days of the week as they can’t get enough staff and people leaving certain industries because the work required now has the stigma of not being seen as an opportunity to develop skills.  After all, how can you develop skills when your training and experience is for an unskilled role?

I have been an ice cream man, a kitchen porter, a fast food maker, a till operator for Burger King, a waiter, a barman, and a shop assistant. I fail to see where the perceived lack of skill comes into it as all these roles needed skill and commitment.

It leaves me with the sneaky suspicion that those who decide these labels such as Government policymakers probably haven’t actually had any of these jobs at any point in their careers so have no idea what the roles actually entail.

When the doors opened to Eastern Europeans our industries benefited from a wealth of new talent. There were cries of ‘they are taking our jobs’ but, in reality, there was enough work for all. Our homegrown talent just didn’t seem keen to work in an industry with long hours and perceived hard labour. Now our Eastern European colleagues have all but left us all those jobs ‘they were taking’ are back and open for all those disgruntled British to take. But, guess what, they don’t want them. So we are left in that situation where cafes only open a few days a week, venues open later or close earlier to take account of the difficulty in staffing, or service is ‘simplified’ such as slighter menus so that qualified chefs are not required. 

So if hospitality, leisure, retail, and tourism are to be viewed as staffed by unskilled employees how can we succeed in attracting quality talent? Retention is a key win but many workers now choose to have portfolio careers as the old concept of a job for life is long gone. Talent retention is essential or we risk losing that all-important tacit knowledge. 

The principal way to retain employees is to give them the chance to grow and develop, the more someone is continuing to learn the more they wish to stay to build up that portfolio.  After all, why go somewhere else to gain new or additional skills when staying where you are right now will accomplish it?

Personal development plans give a staff member a clear view of their development and regular feedback assists them in seeing how they are proceeding.

Use the appraisal system, not just to review performance but to find where your employee wants to go with their career and what development or skills they want to work on or gain.

Use your levy money and look at apprenticeships, also in house development programs, and turn the perception of unskilled roles into jobs that have clearly defined growth and depth, so that people can enter our industry, gain qualifications, really reevaluate it and see it as a career. Not just gaining qualifications but gaining valuable experience and life skills that will help in any future role. 

The truth is the hospitality, retail, and leisure industries are not low-skilled, and we have to strive to remove that preconception, who knows maybe as a result even those blinkered politicians may wake up and realise.