While coronavirus takes its toll on the island’s hospitality industry, the Jersey Hospitality Association has been working tirelessly to find practical ways to support its members. Its hoping a new scheme, launched with recruitment agency GR8, can do just that.
‘Recovery will be key to our industry’s survival, and our members won’t be able to survive if they don’t have any staff when it’s time to return to business. So we wondered if there was any way we could find staff temporary work elsewhere, in other sectors.
‘Huge numbers of staff may be facing redundancy and many of our members won’t be able to keep employees on the payroll – yet they won’t be able to open again without them, when the time comes to do so. But there are industries that do need staff right now, sometimes just for a few hours.
‘Supermarkets, for example, aren’t allowed to employ people unless they go through an employment agency, so we approached GR8 to see if we could come up with a scheme. GR8 is going above and beyond to help our industry with this new creative solution and they have cut fees to cover costs only.
‘We announced the scheme to our members on Thursday and by Saturday morning we had 130 people in jobs. Sandpiper CI have requested staff for their outlets, and Waitrose and other major retailers and a lot of smaller, independent businesses have been in touch.
‘I am encouraging anyone who needs people to fill gaps in their workforce while their staff are self-isolating or have to look after their families to get in touch, even if it’s only for a few hours.
‘We’re also encouraging landlords to reduce rent – we’re hoping to provide staff 25 hours of work a week, which we think is sufficient to get by on.
‘This could make the difference between a hospitality business being able to re-open once this crisis has passed or whether it has to close for good. We are at the stage where some businesses are having to make that choice.’
Businesses who need staff are being asked to contact GR8 directly by email [email protected] or to call 488788.