‘Excellent Employers’ Key to Recruitment

Fáilte Ireland has announced a range of initiatives to address the industry’s immediate recruitment efforts, including support focused on accessing local and international talent pools, practical supports on implementing a comprehensive recruitment strategy and ‘onboarding’ for the long term with one in three employees now new to the sector.
Central to the plans is a new Excellent Employer Programme to support tourism and hospitality businesses to demonstrate their commitment to being rewarding and appealing workplaces that can compete for and retain skilled employees. Through the programme, businesses will have access to HR and people management training as well as the opportunity to become certified as a top employer through an employee survey.
Fáilte Ireland will also provide participating businesses with tailored supports to action the key development areas. The aim is to support businesses to continuously improve their workplace and enhance their appeal to existing and potential employees.
Jenny De Saulles, Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Sector Development (pictured), outlined Fáilte Ireland’s response to the acute staffing and skills crisis:

‘As the economy fully reopens, competition for skilled workers is at an all-time high, so our industry needs to drive immediate changes to retain existing and to attract new staff. There are three key action areas where Fáilte Ireland will support industry. Fundamentally they are about getting the people, keeping the people and upskilling the people – and each of these go hand in hand. If you have good retention and development programmes, people are more likely to want to work for you. Staff shortages existed pre-Covid, but the pandemic and its impact on the stability of the sector along with the universal changes in working patterns has compounded the issue.'
‘The package of supports announced today will help businesses in their immediate recruitment efforts and help them to commit to driving long-term change to make the industry an appealing and rewarding workplace that can attract and retain talent. Our new Excellent Employer Programme will support businesses to do that and ultimately give the wider industry a platform to build back bigger and stronger, creating a fundamental shift in employee perception that will support the long-term repositioning of the tourism and hospitality industry and ensure a future pipeline of talent.’