Barriers to long-term employment
Just under a third of 16-24 year-olds (29%) said the cost of living crisis had made a long-term career in the industry unsustainable - with a huge proportion (68%) saying they’ve had to take on extra shifts as a result.
Some of the other main barriers for this age group were: low pay and benefits (39%), unsocial working hours (30%), high levels of stress and burnout (24%), better job security and stability in another industry (20%) and lack of progression and training opportunities (20%).
The main reasons people from the Gen Z age bracket gave for the lack of career progression were limited financial resources allocated to employee training and development (56%), no available roles more senior than their own (50%), managers are not invested in developing employees as there is such a huge turnover of staff (38%) and managers typically being time poor (31%).
Positive & negative perceptions
Almost two in five (37%) young people said they sometimes feel embarrassed about their career choice, with three in five (61%) saying they want a job that makes them feel proud. Likewise, a third (34%) said they’re passionate about their career but their friends and family don’t take it seriously.
On the flip side, there seems to be a lot of positives about a career in this industry. Well over half (56%) said they don’t want to leave hospitality because they’re accepted for who they are, with a third (34%) saying they can’t see themselves doing anything else but working in this industry.
Social enterprise Stay Nimble
Stay Nimble, which conducted the survey, is a social enterprise that helps organisations retain and develop great team members and supports thousands of people in their career.
Dominic Atkinson, chief executive of Stay Nimble, said: “It’s concerning to see from our survey that so many Gen Z hospitality workers said ‘lack of resources’ given by their employers are a major barrier to their career progression.
“There is clearly scope to retain younger staff in hospitality with almost a quarter (24%) of 16-24-year-olds saying career opportunities are important to them. However, these need to be made a lot clearer, with over half (54%) saying they have some idea of how to progress but need more information.
“Stay Nimble directly empowers hospitality organisations to support their staff progression, ensuring higher retention rates. Furthermore, with time constraints on managers clearly a huge issue, our Elevate service is a personalised plugin for businesses who want to support their staff progression but don't have the time or resources to do it themselves.
“It’s certainly not all doom and gloom when it comes to careers in hospitality for the younger age group. It’s really promising to see from our survey that almost half of Gen Z hospitality workers (44%) said they feel very committed to their role and always go above and beyond. This is where highlighting career coaching and progression opportunities can play a huge part in motivating staff to help them feel like it is worth working towards a longer term career.”