The comments back up a statement issued by chief people officer for McDonald’s Europe, David Fairhurst, earlier this week. Fairhurst urged UK businesses to focus on getting more young people into work, offer opportunities to older workers and invest in training and development for their people, or risk faltering economic growth, after European Commission figures indicated that the European workforce will begin to shrink by approximately 0.5% per year from 2021 onwards.
“In hospitality in particular, we know that attracting and retaining women can make a huge difference to the workforce challenges we face,” said Women 1st director Simone Roche. “Our research shows that 310,000 women leave the hospitality industry each year. If they stayed, it would save the industry approximately £2.8bn in replacement recruitment and training, and there’s no doubt that it would go a long way towards addressing this rapidly approaching ‘workforce cliff’.
“One of the biggest barriers for women is the difficulty in balancing work with caring responsibilities, so offering flexible working options can have a huge impact. Lack of visible female role models is another barrier, so running mentoring schemes with senior women can be a brilliant way to make sure women feel supported and aspire to stay in our industry.”
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