Hospitality is the fourth largest private sector employer in Northern Ireland, accounting for 72,000 jobs. It’s an industry worth £2 billion and accounts for two-thirds of the £1.2 billion tourism spend in the region. For every £100 spent in hospitality here, £58 is retained in the local economy.
So by any metric, hospitality is an essential industry for Northern Ireland’s economy, and this carries a level of responsibility.
As part of Tourism and Hospitality Week, ending tomorrow, we have spent time drawing attention to the work of the Hospitality and Tourism Skills Board Northern Ireland Region (HTSB-NI) partnership, which has developed the Wellbeing Promise, a commitment by employers to develop their staff, provide a work-life balance, and support their mental health.
We have co-designed qualifications to provide both entry into the hospitality industry and career development opportunities, such as our Get Into Hospitality, Get On in Hospitality, and Hospitality Horizons courses.
We have also piloted initiatives that have engaged primary school pupils, the long-term economically inactive, and created employment pathways for ex-offenders and people aged over 50.
We have a responsibility to develop Northern Ireland’s workforce and were happy to co-design these initiatives, which is why we want to be involved in the co-design of the protection of that workforce. We have shown that we can help deliver the Executive’s growth plans, and we can help deliver their plans for worker protection as well.
The issue of zero-hour contracts is one that has been in Department cross hairs for a while, but this is an emotive term that is being used to include causal, flexible working arrangements for employers and employees for whom this option suits; this is an area that requires industry co-design.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but it should be generally accepted that industries like hospitality could not function as we do without them.
Hospitality is an industry that works through periods of high and low demand and it is important that employers have the flexibility to employ people on casual contracts to answer that demand.
Emerge and Belsonic don’t happen every weekend, wedding venue bookings drop off in winter, and there are seasonal functions across the industry.
The extra staffing needs that high demand creates cannot be replicated throughout the year. In attempting to fix a problem we can sometimes assume that the issues of one industry are the issues of all industries, but this is not the case with hospitality and casual, demand-responsive employment.
Nobody knows a given industry better than its operators; it’s imperative that any new initiatives designed protect them as well as their employees.
- Colin Neill is chief executive of Hospitality Ulster
