The Caterer Blog

Had an interesting chat with British Hospitality Association (BHA) chief executive Bob Cotton last week. Bob will be Caterer's guest editor on 28 June to tie in with the association's 100th anniversary.

Our meeting was to flesh out some of the ideas he had put forward for the issue. I was interested particularly on his take on what we term the skills crisis.

In this week’s Caterer and Hotelkeeper (17 January) we look at the thorny issue of staff poaching and find out if there is anything companies can do to prevent it.

Many hospitality companies are loath to invest in staff development because they think individuals will become more attractive to other companies who will start to circle like vultures and lure them away.

But holding back on staff development and having the attitude that you don’t want to invest in your staff for what could ultimately be someone else’s gain is a myopic one.

There's such fear around the issue of race that the hospitality sector has adopted an "everyone's the same" approach that's failing to see any true diversity in the boardroom.

Okay, that sounds deadly serious but hospitality has a race relations problem and the sooner it accepts it the sooner the industry can prosper from all the talent it's currently squandering.

I mean it's mad for an industry facing a seemingly never ending skills shortage not to be promoting more workers, regardless of background on merit, into management positions.

Given the massive diversity at entry level in the hospitality industry, which in the UK employs some two million people, I struggle to think of many members from minority backgrounds that aren't self made bosses such as Surinder Arora or Cyrus Todiwala at the top.

There's clearly a problem and research from consultancy and recruiter Chess Executive last year found just 2% of hospitality boardroom members came from minority backgrounds.

While many of you who attended the Cateys on Tuesday night might wish for a quick hangover cure as a superpower, apparently a third of hospitality workers want to be mind-readers.

It may surprise you to know that this enterprising survey was not conducted by a budget hotel chain, but is instead is the work of Learndirect, who for no other reason than to drum up a bit of publicity for its skills survey asked hospitality employees what superpowers they wanted - and which superhero they would like as a boss.

Apparently 36% of you want to be mind-readers - perhaps so you can find out if you had won a Catey on Tuesday night or find out what really happened as people danced the night away at the Grosvenor House in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Putting work firmly second 18% of you want the power to complete tasks in super speed, but managers in the business chose invisibility as their second choice superpower - perhaps in a bid to spy on their employees of the competition (or both).

Worryingly though Bruce Wayne was picked as the superhero most hospitality workers want as a boss taking 15% of the vote. Just remember Batman likes training young boys in tights to fight.

The comic book character you don't want to be your boss was the Joker, soon to be seen played by the late Heath Ledger on the silver screen in the Dark Knight. The Joker is a psychopath famed for his unpredictable behaviour - not unlike most chefs really.