Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

UK Staff shortages: small restaurants forced to offer £1,000 sign-on bonuses

UK Staff shortages: small restaurants forced to offer £1,000 sign-on bonuses

Jobs site says ‘new phenomenon for the hospitality industry’ shows no sign of abating as Christmas looms
Independent restaurants are being forced to offer hefty sign-on bonuses of £1,000 or more for chefs and other kitchen staff as the shortage of skilled workers tightens in the busy festive season.

Small businesses such as Angie’s and D Grande, both restaurants in Chiswick, west London, the Coniston Hotel in Skipton, and Galeta, a bakery in Hackney, east London, are offering sign-on fees of between £500 and £1,000. Larger rivals are offering even more: recruits at Harry’s Bar, the Mayfair private members club owned by the hospitality entrepreneur Richard Caring, will get £2,500, while the Côte bistro chain is dangling dangling £2,000.

The job search site Indeed said that less than 1% of hospitality job ads currently mentioned a signing-on fee but the number of posts in the industry offering such a bonus had soared fivefold (443%) since the end of May.

“This is a new phenomenon for the hospitality industry that doesn’t show signs of abating, despite Omicron, as we head into the Christmas season,” a spokesman for Indeed said.

Steven Whibley, the operations director of Galeta, said he was offering a sign-on bonus of £1,000 after three months in the job on top of a salary of up to £40,000 in order to secure a head of bakery. The business is also offering £500 bonuses for less senior roles such as chefs de partie and drivers, posts which are also proving difficult to fill.

Whibley said: “We currently have 20 vacancies and our fully staffed team would be 60 people, so that is about a third missing. We are filling that with overtime and agency staff where we can. The problem has been there since the summer but it’s got tougher as the business has expanded with the opening up of the economy. We’ve got busier and busier, and the staffing needs more acute, and we have lost staff as other people are offering more.”

Whibley said the business had already upped basic pay by 10% as well as offering the bonus but will still be struggling to recruit staff. “It doesn’t seem they are there.”

Angie Steele, the owner of Angie’s in Chiswick, said she was offering a £1,000 bonus for chef roles as she faced the prospect of shutting two days a week, ending dinner service and laying off serving staff as she was struggling to replace three of her six chefs who are about to leave the business.

She said that even with the bonus, the restaurant had attracted only two applications, neither of whom showed up for their interview.

“Two years ago if a chef left I would put an ad out and get four or five CVs and we would have gone to [kitchen] trials next day and I would have a choice. Now there are no CVs and no one is walking through the door. It is pretty extraordinary.”

She said that Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic had had a “huge impact” on the UK hospitality industry, with staff going home to mainland Europe when restaurants were forced to close and not returning to the UK.

Steele said she had been forced to offer a sign-on bonus because so many other restaurants were doing so in the battle for staff. “It is not a very nice atmosphere,” she said, with rumours that some restaurants are offering customers free food in return for recommending staff from elsewhere.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
×