Training in 2021

Training in 2021

by | 1 Mar, 2021 | Hospitality

Training in 2021

It’s been a strange year for everyone, particularly a lot of us in hospitality and every area of our businesses have been turned upside down by Covid. As we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts on how training is changing and what we are doing in S4labour to adapt. 

 

With pure classroom training interventions becoming a thing of the past prior to the pandemic, more organisations were using a blended learning approach, not only because of the cost saving but also the time saved on traveling. The beauty of online learning is that it can be applied straight away, putting it into action as soon as you wave goodbye and find the exit button to the online room. We have always offered online launches at S4labour but it’s been almost a year since I stood at the front of a group of people and delivered our launch workshops or refresher sessions. Since the pandemic however, our online workshops for bigger teams have been a great success and our users have responded really well to implementing their systems into their business. Emily Grenville, Head of H.R. at Tossed said “it’s the most support we have been given by a supplier”.Jacques from the Big Smoke & Morgan Groups is also impressed, commenting “[our] launch was a great success and given the choice of face to face and remote I would choose remote again” 

 

The Rise Of Capabilities Over Skills

Back when I was in operations we always hired for attitude and trained for skill, it didn’t matter to me if they hadn’t done the job before, what mattered  was that they wanted to learn, wanted to push themselves and had the right attitude. I knew I could teach our service cycle, our menu, our cocktails and systems to anyone that wanted to learn. One of the shifts in focus L&D teams have had over the last couple of years is towards    capabilities rather than skills, with short sharp training interventions,providing learners with the ability to search for content and learn something in real time. This style of learning ensures individuals can learn in the flow of work tying in learning directly with the workers abilities to perform their jobs and to produce business outcomes. At S4labour we have strengthened our resource library so users can access content on any device when they are faced with a knowledge gap at any time. We have also made our training bitesize and loads to choose from: 15-minute online modules, 30 minute webinars and 1 hour one-to-one remote training and group workshops. We also engage with our customers to find their pain points and ensure we discuss the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ to use our software, taking our training further and deeper into the habits and behaviors that are needed by users to get success.

 

Learning in the flow of work 

One of the biggest frustrations learners tend to have in the workplace is the amount of time that is wasted, employees just want to get the work done and do it right. Just-in-time learning enables employees to improve efficiencies and gain new capabilities with hands on, just-in-time and just-for-me learning. Following our launches, each General Manager gets the ability to spend two one-to-one sessions with a system expert ensuring just that – it’s at the time they need it, it’s just for them and improves efficiencies and reduces the frustration that comes along with change. You’ve heard about HIIT workouts but what about relating that to workplace training, high intensity interval training, short sharp impactful interventions.  

 

Project based learning 

Posing a problem, or changing and allowing a team or individual to research and collaborate through  researching and discussion leads to a lot of learning. This reinforces capabilities and allows individuals to gain new skills. Motivation at work can be low at this time of year but add business closures into the mix along with furlough and teams could be left feeling very demotivated and uninspired. As a manager, having a few projects in mind to dish out is great for your team’s wellbeing too,allowing them to focus and get re-engaged. A phrase one of my Portuguse friends shared with me translates to “when we are not in war, we polish our guns”. This is what we have been doing at S4labour over the last few months, to ensure we give our customers and users the best onboarding experience possible when the industry opens up again. Suggested project topics could be related to service style, maintaining ‘hospitality’ in the masked environment, fun team bonding online sessions, inclusion and diversity or something as simple as create your own cocktail ideas. A lot of our customers are also taking this time to retrain/refresh their teams on S4labour and our free webinars were a great success to support this after the first lockdown. 

 

Emphasis on Communication and Collaboration Skills

More and more teams are now meeting in virtual and digital environments. Even after the pandemic this will remain the case. Something we have implemented in S4labour for our teams is a ‘Friday Huddle’ where we catch up socially, chat about our week over a cuppa and take it in turns to organise a quiz. We also share regular feedback and thank colleagues with praise and pass it on email. I recently took to the kitchen and posted out brownies to our team. We have been more deliberate with our communication because we are all working remotely. We are actually stronger as a team for it, something I’m sure will continue. department managers have been utilizing our Shift Success feature to share updates with us and the shift review function has been even more important to measure our teams happiness and wellbeing.

 

We have seen some amazing things our customers have been doing and are inspired by how passionate the sector is at supporting and training their people for success. It is such a win win, for the employee and the business. If you want to have a chat about training in your business, or think your teams would be more impactful with a bit of a refresher, then get in touch.

Hospitality suffers 540,000 jobs in 2020

by | 19 Feb, 2021 | Blog, COVID-19 News, Press & News

Hospitality Suffers 540,000 job losses in 2020 and is on the verge of losing a significant amount more.

There are many industries that have suffered throughout 2020, but hospitality has been near uniquely placed at the forefront of every conceivable damage the pandemic and social restrictions could throw at it. That’s not to say that other sectors have not had it hard, but few will have to had to navigate the never ending variations of restrictions and closure hospitality has.

Analysis from S4labour shows that the result has been 539,000 job losses; circa 20% of total hospitality employees, during the full calendar year. By contrast, every other year (we looked back to 2010) has had positive growth of hospitality employees.

Hospitality employment has always had peaks and troughs, however, last year, we can quite clearly see figures align, not with the usual seasonal trends, but with government policy announcements. The first spike in job losses occurs in weeks 11-13, in March 2020 where 91,000 employees were let off in a three-week period, just as the crisis hit and hospitality was shut; government support was not foreseen at this point. There was another spike of job losses that occurred of 42,000 in one week just as the government announced the November restrictions and all but cancelled Christmas.

The only occurrence of a positive new starter rate since March 2020 occurs in the week 3rd August; the start of the EOTHO scheme. However, this was just after two spikes of job losses in July, likely to have been caused by the end of fully supported Furlough, covering NI, holiday pay and pensions.

Trends identified in this research shows clear lack of foresight by the government, as has followed for the whole of this crisis; a lack of clear communication with the industry that accounts for 5% of UK GDP and 10% of UK employment. S4labour demands that hospitality is provided with a roadmap, a clear and concise mission aimed at the opening of hospitality, to prevent another huge round of job losses in the next few weeks, following the announcements on Monday. The lack of foresight and the suggestion of just outside pubs and bars opening, will bring yet another round of job losses to those pubs and bars with no option to serve outside. It simply isn’t enough to say that pubs and bars can only open with very aggressive restrictions, as this does not bring profit that is desperately needed at a time where the industry is run to the ground. Pent up demand and the knowledge that it is safe to go to a socially distances pub cries for pubs to be given a clear opening date on the 22nd Feb when we are to hear whether we sink or swim in the next few months.

Chief Customer Officer Sam Wignell added “It is crystal clear, it is not the viability of these hospitality jobs that is the issue, it is the lack of reasonable communication and clarity. If the government is serious about keeping jobs, when we are on the verge of losing a significant amount more, a clear road map and a stimulus package similar to EOTHO is required.”

The True Cost of Furlough

The True Cost of Furlough

by | 3 Feb, 2021 | Hospitality

Furlough costs the UK Hospitality industry in excess of £542 million a month during lockdown – The True Cost of Furlough

Furlough has been a lifeline for so many businesses in the hospitality sector and beyond, however despite all that the scheme has done to ease the mass redundancies and retain jobs in the sector, it is clear that Furlough is not the free lunch it is sometimes portrayed as. Operators using the scheme benefit from a grant that covers up to 80% of their employee’s average earnings (probably the most simplistic way of describing the behemoth of complex exceptions, limits and grey areas associated with the CJRS). For many employees, this money will see them scrape through the crisis, albeit uneasily. However, for the employer, the ability to be able to keep teams employed comes with a cost and it is no insignificant amount.

For a start, the employer continues to pay National Insurance contributions, holiday is still accrued, and pension costs are not included in the grant. The total figure for average extra employment costs per month per site, over and above government furlough support, comes to: £3,738 which means the monthly furlough bill for hospitality comes to £542 million.

On top of employment costs, operators have rent to pay, utilities and insurance payments; government grants based on rateable value are available and are aimed at offsetting a large sum of bills, yet leave operators constantly out of pocket. There are also variable costs to using the Furlough scheme, such as cash flow costs owning to the fact that the scheme pays in arrears: operators are seeing the money leave their businesses, before being able to claim it back. For most businesses who have little or no expectations of trading profitably for the first 4-6 months of 2021, funding is becoming more and more critical.

Rob Pitcher, Chief Executive of Revolution Bars and user of S4labour said that the scheme, while welcome, has cost the business £1million at a time it has seen revenue vanish.

Sam Wignell Chief Customer Officer at S4labour added: “With the current levels of government support, businesses are going to run out of cash before they get the opportunity to reopen. The true cost of furlough is much higher than one might imagine.”

As featured in:

2020 Full Hospitality Sales Report

2020 Full Hospitality Sales Report

by | 11 Jan, 2021 | Sales Figures

2020 saw revenue decline of 51.38% overall, characterised mainly by a 98.3% decline in Q2 driven by lockdown 1. In the first two months of the year, prior to the effects of the pandemic, revenue growth was 6.6%. As pubs and restaurants opened up on the 4th July, consumers were hesitant leading to low demand levels and revenue was down 50.9%. Overall London was more affected, at a revenue decline of 56.0%, whilst Non-London performed better, at a decline of 50.2%.

The past year has been a tough one for everyone, and we just want to say thank you to you all.

S4labour has supported it’s customers with repeated 50% discounts throughout the pandemic.

Please follow the link below to download the full report.

 

 

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A heavy decline in sales, and a 50% discount for S4labour customers for January.

by | 1 Jan, 2021 | Blog, COVID-19 News, Press & News, Sales Figures

Following a heavy decline in sales, S4labour writes to all customers promising 50% discount in wake of new low point for the industry. 

Analysis from S4labour shows that total hospitality industry sales were down 73.7% on last year for December. Food was down 63.7%, Drink was down 81.7% and Accommodation was down 71.4%. Given that December is usually hospitality’s busiest month, this is a hard blow for the industry.

To exacerbate the problem, New Year’s Eve sales were down by 97.8%, as all pubs and restaurants moved into Tier 3 or above prior to the 31st. The few takeaway sales that were left do not compensate for eating in sales.

In a communication issued today, S4labour has reassured all customers that they are “prepared to stand with them” shouldering some of the financial burden as new restrictions hit. All customers have been given a 50% discount on January’s invoices.

S4labour has offered the same discount to all customers during previous lockdowns and has always made available to those whose tiers had made it impossible to trade. However, as the vast majority of operators will have moved into tier 4, very few will be trading and almost none profitably.    

Sam Wignell, S4labour’s Chief Customer Officer commented: “As we enter the New Year, this is a dire time for our industry and it is the responsible thing to share some of the pain and to help our customers get to the other side of this crisis.”

Christmas takings in pubs, bars and restaurants fall almost 80%

Christmas takings in pubs, bars and restaurants fall almost 80%

by | 29 Dec, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19 News, Press & News, Sales Figures

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/dec/28/christmas-takings-in-pubs-bars-and-restaurants-fall-almost-80

Analysis from S4labour shows that total hospitality industry sales were 79.4% down on last year from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. Drink was down 84.2% and food was down 64%. Given that households were prevented from mixing in hospitality venues, it is no surprise that bookings were cancelled and sales plummeted.
 
Individually, total figures for the individual days were as follows: Christmas Eve was down by 71.5%, Christmas Day was down by 78.5% and boxing day was down by 88.1%.
 
During the festive period, sites often close for at least one of the days, however this year with the recent Tier 4 introduction, most sites have been unable to open this year the majority of sites were closed; 53.3% of sites were closed on Christmas Eve, 33.6% of sites were closed on Christmas day and 65.2% on boxing day.
 
Richard Hartley, Chief Product Officer commented: “this unpredictable year has ended in very suppressed Christmas sales due to ever increasing COVID restrictions, and it’s not looking likely to change for a while yet.”