Popular restaurant chain offering £2,000 bonuses because no one is applying for jobs

A major restaurant chain is offering workers bonuses of up to £2,000 in a bid to help plug a shortage of staff as the hospitality sector reopens across the UK.

Restaurant group Hawksmoor is offering £2,000 incentives to staff who recommend friends for jobs.

It comes as the hospitality sector faces a jobs crisis that threatens to hold back its recovery.

Hawksmoor co-founder Will Beckett said the industry is “struggling” to find workers.

It comes a week after indoor venues reopened to diners and pub-goers last week with the UK said to be on target to reopen fully by June 21.

Beckett told the BBC: “Hospitality is struggling with recruitment at the moment. It’s a little hard to tell whether this is because there aren’t enough people due to them leaving the country or leaving the sector, or because everyone is recruiting at the same time.”

Whatever the reason, he said, Hawksmoor needed to “turbo-charge” its recruitment efforts.

Workers will get a £200 bonus for the first person who passes their probation period, followed by £300 for the next friend, and up to £2,000 for five friends.

Beckett said he wanted to re-direct the recruitment budget “at our own staff, who’ve had financial problems while on furlough.

“So instead of a huge amount spent on recruitment websites or agencies, we did this policy,” he said.

Pub chains Marston’s and Mitchells and Butlers are amongst major firms that have warned they are struggling to keep up with public demand.

They blamed the stop-start nature of lockdown forcing people to give up on the sector.

Another restaurant chain, Caravan, said it was offering £100 gift vouchers to customers if they successfully recommend someone for a job.

Since the 22 February roadmap announcements, recruitment website Caterer.com said it has seen job adverts increase by 84% as businesses prepare to meet demand for people eager to make up for lost time.

Data from the job board reveals that there has been significant rise in vacancies right across the UK, with the fastest growth in vacancies coming from Wales with a 103% increase between February and March, followed by the South East (97%), North West (94%) and South West (83%).

Neil Pattison, Director at Caterer.com, hospitality’s online recruitment solutions partner, said: “Hospitality businesses have been unfairly subjected to tighter restrictions than other sectors throughout the pandemic and our research shows just how eager people are to get back into hospitality venues.

“The recovery of the sector is crucial to the wider economy of the UK and at Caterer.com we’re already seeing green shoots appear with more jobs being advertised as businesses gear up for reopening and the prospect of a busy summer.”

UK Hospitality has estimated that more than 52,000 venues employing about 900,000 people were planning to reopen last week in England, Scotland and Wales. That’s on top of about 26,000 venues that opened in April for outside trading.