The latest research report by People 1st shows the challenges faced by employers in recruiting staff with the right range of soft skills.
Soft skills such as customer service, teamwork and dealing with complaints are worth £88bn to the UK economy and almost £8bn to the retail and food services markets alone. Despite these figures, four out of five skills that employers report missing in job applicants are soft skills.
Existing staff also
The report also shows that the problem is also found amongst existing staff, as 61% of hospitality and tourism businesses experience a lack of skills in customer handling and 26% of these businesses believe that they have lost business to competitors as a result.
Martin-Christian Kent, executive director at People 1st, believes that the hospitality and tourism sector is struggling more than other industries to attract staff with these skills.
He commented: “The impact the lack of soft skills has upon hospitality and tourism businesses is huge. We are a people-oriented industry and, if staff don’t have these skills, it can be highly damaging. It can result in loss of business, difficulty meeting quality standards and overworking the existing workforce.
Recruitment and training
“We need to compete better when it comes to attracting more able applicants into the industry or, alternatively, find more effective ways of developing these skills.”
The report also suggests a number of ways in which employers can address the soft skills crisis, including a greater emphasis on pre-employment training.
Martin added: “Employers should consider recruiting people who have proven themselves to have the required skills through participating in a work-ready programme, such as the Employment 1st pre-employment programme. They can also ensure that soft skills are developed and enhanced during their induction programme and are continuously monitored.”
The report can be downloaded or viewed free here