Hospitality employees asked to work longer hours during the holidays: report

Some employees had to work over 48 hours per week during December.

Hospitality employees were asked to work longer hours during the holidays with average work hours per employee increasing from 28 hours in October to 32 hours per week during the second half of December, a report by Bizimply revealed.

Top end restaurants made the biggest demands on their staff, with employees in this sector working an average of 48 hours per week in the run-up to Christmas and the new year, up from 40 hours a week at the start of December. In wet-led businesses, employees worked an average of 31 hours a week during the peak Christmas period compared to 28 hours at the start of December.

66% of employers surveyed said they did not have enough staff available in December, prompting them to ask existing employees to work longer hours. Many hospitality employers also do not expect any improvement in recruitment this year with 30% saying they do not expect front-of-house recruitment problems to improve whilst 60% do not believe kitchen recruitment problems to be better this year.

Having increased steadily throughout 2022, the number of active employees in hospitality was close to its post-pandemic high in December, matching the levels seen at the hottest parts of the summer of 2022 when customers were seeking refuge from the heatwave. This was particularly true in wet-led businesses, which saw an increase of around 10% in the number of active employees during December, compared to an increase of around 5% for the hospitality sector as a whole, Bizimply said.

The report also found that there has inevitably been a decrease in the number of active employees in the New Year. as hospitality employers plan for the traditional lull in trade to be compounded this year by consumers' reduced spending power and concerns about the economy. However,  after a sharp fall in the first week of January, when total active employees declined by close to 5%, and average shift lengths to 25 hours, there are signs of an upturn, with more active employees and longer shift lengths recorded in the second week of January.

"The recruitment challenge continues to be a key concern for hospitality employers. The real-time data from employees checking in and out of work shows that the hours worked by employees increased significantly across Christmas and the New Year. However, employers are also very aware that in the longer term, especially as the economy starts to recover, they will need to recruit new employees to expand their existing teams,” Bizimply chief executive Conor Shaw said.