Why sustainability is key for attracting and retaining hospitality staff

It’s no secret that these are challenging times for our sector. Staff shortages, rising food costs and increasing energy bills are putting significant pressure on operators. However, according to the statistics in the latest report ‘Sustainability Matters: What teams want and how brands can win,’ in partnership with hospitality data and insights consultancy CGA by NIQ, implementing meaningful sustainability initiatives and involving teams at every level is a real opportunity to increase staff attraction and retention, and reduce staff turnover and hiring costs.

Sustainability matters to hospitality workers

Hospitality employees are incredibly eco-conscious. 94% of the staff surveyed in the report say having an environmentally friendly lifestyle is important to them – notably more than the 70% of general consumers who say the same. 

Traditionally, a competitive salary, recognition and job satisfaction have been key motivators for employees to consider accepting or staying in a role. Now, nearly all say that their employers’ commitment to social and environmental responsibility is a significant factor in deciding where to work. What’s more, half (50%) have accepted one job over another partly because the company was more sustainable. Operators demonstrating they share the same concerns are therefore clearly at a competitive advantage in the people market. 

A significant number of hospitality staff are looking for work environments and cultures that reflect their values. 84% say they would be more likely to stay in their job for longer if their employer has, and continues to create a positive environmental impact, a trend which is only expected to continue, as younger workers enter the job market.

The opportunity for operators

With so many potential areas of focus, it can be difficult for operators to know where to start when it comes to sustainability. Our report highlights helpful insight for starting points – the areas which matter most to hospitality workers. 

Recycling, reducing food waste, and sustainable packaging (91%) emerged as the top priorities, so better stock planning and menu management, making recycling facilities easy and visible, cutting the use of plastics, and identifying recyclable alternatives, are ways in which an employer can demonstrate their environmental commitments.

There is also a real enthusiasm for staff training and education (87%). This is important, because not only are staff a key part of making green initiatives work in the operation, they are also an essential part of communicating with customers what the outlet is striving towards on its environmental journey. Plenty of online or in-venue training packages are available, to help staff understand more about net-zero and cutting carbon footprints. 

A further 85% want to work with sustainable suppliers, while 84% favour local or sustainably sourced ingredients, highlighting the opportunity for businesses to work with suppliers and demonstrate responsible sourcing and labelling, both on menus and back-of-house.

Make sure you’re not in the ‘action gap’

The ‘action gap’ is a common theme that shows there is currently a gulf between what staff think is important, and what happens in practice. For example, while 82% of team members think that links with community sustainability initiatives are important, only 21% observe them at their business – a huge gap of 61 percentage points. 

More positively, the gap between importance and action on recycling is just 9%, and it’s relatively narrow on food waste reduction too. 

But these figures are conclusive proof that team members are not seeing nearly enough progress on the sustainability issues they care about. Operators can grasp this opportunity to engage their people and bring them along on their sustainability journey. Businesses that give their staff the freedom to suggest and deliver initiatives can accelerate meaningful change. In doing so, current staff will feel more involved in wider business success by driving these initiatives, something that can be measured and highlighted during annual reviews, ultimately encouraging staff retention.

Looking forward

What’s clear from the findings is that hospitality staff are highly engaged in the wider environmental agenda but their employers need to do more to implement the initiatives that matter to staff, and to engage them in it.

We all know that motivated and satisfied staff make for happy guests – so it’s with a business’s team where change needs to begin.

Ultimately, operators who act now and take their employees with them on their sustainability journey will not only ‘be doing the right thing’ but improve staff attraction and retention – a double win.