SOME cafés and hospitality businesses are having to scale back operations this summer as a result of the escalating recruitment crisis.
Although the current half-term break and Platinum Jubilee holiday should be signalling the start of a busy summer season, some business owners have told the JEP that recruitment challenges are restricting their ability to trade at full capacity.
The Island is struggling with a shortage of qualified staff, coupled with a high number – almost 900 at present – of positions vacant. The issue is affecting all sectors, but has been felt particularly in seasonal hospitality operations, which would normally be building towards a summer peak.
Chris Lister, who runs Kismet Cabana at Ouaisné and has also moved into outside catering over the past two years, said he had little option but to suspend the latter operation.
He said: ‘I’m the only trained chef at present, although I’m looking to train up other members of staff.
‘The outside catering had been going well, but we can’t run it at present – I’ve had to turn down lots of business and when I am committed to events such as weddings it means Kismet has to be closed.’
Mr Lister said that while £15 per hour had been enough to employ a chef in 2021, this year he had been turned down by applicants who he was offering £17.
‘Wages and the cost of ingredients are going to cripple some businesses,’ he said.
Kismet is currently open six days per week, in common with other businesses where owners have realised that staff need to be given time off in order to survive the summer.
Mike Hunwin, of the Breakwater Café at St Catherine, said that while he would like to be trading every day, this wasn’t realistic with reduced staff numbers.
‘I’ve been looking for a chef since the end of 2021, and fingers crossed have someone starting soon, but you can never be sure – there have been people interested before and then they’ve had better offers,’ he said.
Students are expected to take up some of the vacancies during the course of June, with operators saying that many would be returning to the Island slightly later than usual as a result of Covid-19 pushing back their term dates.
Emma Machon, from Colleen’s at Grève de Lecq, said that accommodation remained the biggest barrier to recruitment.
She said: ‘If accommodation was more readily available and affordable, staff would come over.
‘We’ve had two people who we interviewed who then changed their minds after difficulties with accommodation and some of the stupid red tape that’s necessary in order to move here – Jersey’s not very inviting for people in that position.’
Margaret Russell, who runs the Driftwood Café at Archirondel, said the Island had lost a lot of good staff during the past two years.
‘Unfortunately some people have become dissatisfied as a result of the cost of living,’ she said.
Mrs Russell said it was essential to pay a decent wage and treat employees fairly in order to retain staff – this approach, plus management working 60 to 70 hours weekly, had enabled her businesses to remain open every day, she added.
Lee Madden from recruitment business GR8 said that hospitality still suffered through not being regarded as a desirable career path by Islanders. This had led to the recruitment radar being widened to other parts of the world, such as the recent initiative by the Jersey Hospitality Association to establish a three-year partnership with Antigua and Barbuda, which has seen staff move to Jersey from the Caribbean in recent months.
Mr Madden said his business also operated in Guernsey and the Isle of Man, two jurisdictions which were also experiencing very similar challenges in recruitment to those being experienced in Jersey.
