Tunbridge Wells based Elite Leisure Collection (ELC), which runs One Warwick Park Hotel, Salomons Estate, Bewl Water and is also owner of One Media, which publishes the Times, is facing recruitment issues for its hospitality businesses.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that vacancies grew by 269,300 (35.2 per cent) between June and August this year, with the hospitality sector reporting the largest increase rising by 57,600 (75.4 per cent). The ONS commented that ‘labour demand has increased rapidly while staff availability has fallen’ with the hospitality sector currently having the highest ratio of vacancies.
A number of restaurants, bars and other hospitality businesses in the town have struggled to recruit enough staff since lockdown ended earlier this year.
Unable to recruit using the normal routes, such as job adverts in the newspaper and using employment agencies ELC is targeting the younger sector of the market with short films, starring current members of staff, to help fill its vacancies and attract the resources it needs. The short films, which last around two minutes, were created by West Kent based video production company Snelsky Studios, and will be distributed across a variety of social media and online channels supported by Google and Facebook advertising campaigns. It is hoped the mediums will help the group engage with a younger online demographic.
Nick Moore, Operations Director of ELC, comments: “At a time when bookings are returning to pre-pandemic levels, like most restaurants and hotels, we’re struggling to fill some vital vacancies across our venues.
“Traditional recruitment methods aren’t having the impact required, so we needed to get creative to appeal to our target recruitment market.
“The team at Snelsky Studio really understood the brief and have helped us create some engaging and effective content which we’re confident will help with our recruiting”.
A key aim of the films is to creatively illustrate the variety of career opportunities within the local hospitality sector, whilst positioning Elite Leisure Collection as a place all staff are supported and can develop to their full potential.
The films are released at the same time ELC have completed a salary review of all roles to ensure their staff are in the top 25 per cent of pay bands, for the local hospitality sector.
