Before I landed on research and insights as a career, I ran a recruitment company in Surrey. I was often amazed at how many job vacancies we were given without mention of salary and only scant descriptions of benefits. Surely, I thought, nobody applies for a job without this most basic of information? Fast forward 16 years (yes, I am that old!) and we are still seeing this irritating practice in hospitality. But that was then, and this is now.

 

We used to only know things about companies that they wanted us to – but now there are a plethora of ways to swot up on a company, its management team, its culture, structure and salary/benefits schemes – and not making this information transparently and publicly available simply isn’t good enough. In a time when our industry is facing a recruitment and retention crisis, shouldn’t we be doing our best to woo the best candidates rather than hiding (very important) information from them, and then doing our best to keep them?

 

Confirming my suspicions, recent KAM research, conducted in partnership with Growth Partners, shows us that hospitality businesses are still not effectively communicating many things when they’re trying to recruit, including employee benefits. A total of 75% of employees we spoke to couldn’t find information about employee benefits while researching their hospitality job, while 20% said they only found out during their interview, and 15% had to wait until after they’d started in the role. 

 

Hospitality employees also told us that when in a role, their current employers need to do a better job of communicating the services available to them. Many don’t have a clue what benefits are available (or where to find information on them), despite the clear impact they can have on staff retention. A total of 79% would use employee engagement services more if they were made aware of what was available.

 

Claire Clarke, people director at Flat Iron, recently pointed out the app fatigue that employees are suffering from. She said: “We are expecting our employees to download apps on personal phones, unless they are head office. The perfect solution would be you join; here is your company app; it’s going to give you engagement, communications, rotas, pay; it’s a single sign on.” If you don’t know it’s there, you can’t use it, and it’s not because these benefits aren’t available. So many hospitality companies offer phenomenal employee engagement services, but very few are using them to attract potential candidates. 

 

We know from previous research that one in two hospitality job candidates won’t apply for a role if it doesn’t have an advertised salary, so anyone not making renumeration clear is missing out on 50% of an already scarce pool of talent. The research showed us that the majority of employees (75%) believe offering employee engagement services makes a business a more attractive place to work, and there is an expectation for businesses to offer services that look after their physical and mental well-being as well as their financial well-being. 

 

So why oh why aren’t we shouting more about it? I liked what Anne-Marie Sarantis, head of people at Gusto, said on the topic. “Everything has changed since covid, and there has been a shift towards better engagement and usage of benefits. It’s all important, but equally, many employees don’t even use it when we give it to them. It’s important that we, as a business, signpost them sufficiently.” It’s also important businesses are aware that the types of benefits wanted by employees are changing – not just with the times, but also from one employee to the next. We need a less “cookie cutter” approach and more of an individual understanding of what matters to our team members. 

 

But, if you want to look at an overview from our research, with regards to health and lifestyle, the most popular benefits among hospitality employees are gym discounts, flexible shifts, healthy eating programmes and medical healthcare (no surprise that this is particularly popular among older employees). The most sought-after financial benefits are 24/7 online access to payslip documents, the ability to receive pay earlier than pay day, and an online chat service to query or sort out issues with pay slips.

As an industry, we need to realise that we have to be competitive with other industries when it comes to salary and benefits – and we have to shout about it. Otherwise, aren’t we just stuck in a 2007 state of mind? 

 

Progressive entrepreneurs, operators and brand teams have been conducting research trips (sometimes covertly and sometimes not) for years, so that’s not news. The process is a fundamental reference point for development investment, market mapping and competitor analysis, which as a result can highlight your operational advantages or competitive weaknesses.

 

These trips can be both a sobering and an enlightening journey of discovery, but they are always an invaluable health check on just how relevant you really are to your target consumer, and how close, or not, you are to delivering an elevated guest experience.

 

More often, they are conducted within the UK and focus on metropolitan cities, which does provide marginal benefits depending on your style of operation. But equally, it does continue to provide a stimulus for continual brand iteration, or the quest for the “holy grail” of optimised operational delivery and service standards. Operational teams can inevitably focus on “known knowns”, whose sample point of reference might be a well-trodden path that represents neither challenge nor innovation.

 

A study tour, on the flip side of the coin, is a treasure trove of “unknown knowns”. The alchemy is a cocktail of inspiring operations, and key insight from influential operators and industry disruptors, coupled with an innate knowledge of the chosen destination, which is always an international location.

 

I have recently returned from hosting such a tour in Las Vegas, where over the course of three days, the group of 30 attendees gained access to more than 45 different operations across every sub-sector of the hospitality landscape. In three food halls alone, we were presented to 36 different vendors, all with a compelling back story. We also visited three very different nightclubs to look and review production and content; and “day clubs” to experience high volume, high energy atmosphere and optimised guest spend per head through elevated delivery styles.

 

The group were delivered a masterclass on the casino model of old to the current day, covering brands that operate under licence, joint venture and owner-operated models. There were also a good number of speakeasies, some with superb entertainment behind improbable exteriors; a doughnut stand, a barber shop, a fast food joint, a fire exit and a “secret pizza” operation with no signage doing incredible sales with very long lines daily.

 

There was also the awe-inspiring sportsbooks (sports bars to you and me), on a scale that has to be seen to be believed. Add in vibe restaurants, a supper club in the most decadent environment, bars, a brewpub, experiential venues on another level of imagination, rooftop bars and the biggest buffet in the world. Not only was the itinerary ambitious, it was inspiring – no matter what corner of the hospitality sector you operate within.

 

The insights we were shared were invaluable, and the access to both front and back of house during peak trading was unprecedented, and I’m sure at times somewhat overwhelming for the attendees. It is well documented that the hospitality sector is a strong community. That community comes together on a global scale on a study tour, and our colleagues in Las Vegas welcomed us with open arms.

 

International travel can be inspiring. Add in the recipe of the most desirable operations with incredible insights from industry titans, and you have the incredible alchemy of a study tour. I have been delivering international incentive programmes and study tours for more than two decades, and I always return to the UK inspired by the experience and ready to implement the fruits of my labour.

Laxman Narasimhan is the new chief executive of Starbucks. He may be Lax by name, but he is certainly not lax by nature. Once a month, he will put on an iconic green barista apron and work a full shift behind a Starbucks counter. That’s brilliant. If I had one of those Starbucks branded baseball caps, I would put it on just so I could take it off again, doffing it out of respect.

 

To all the pub company chief executives and operations directors reading this, put your hand up if you are confident you can take a glass in one hand, hold the handle of a cask ale pump in the other, and with a smile and reassuring professional ease, pull a pint absent of any careless dribbly foam running down the side of the glass, yet perfectly poured to the correct head-to-beer ratio. Then could you make a passion fruit martini and a flat white? I see a few hands going up, but not many. A regular back-to-the-floor session would fix that and teach you so much more.

 

Pub sector senior managers approach back-to-the-floor sessions in one of three ways:

 

They wholeheartedly approve of and realise the tremendous value they bring but have never done one, and will forever be too busy to take part in one.

 

They wholeheartedly approve of and realise their tremendous value – the PR value that is. They turn-up half way through their agreed session because something more important happened, but they are, of course, “terribly, terribly sorry”. They awkwardly pull a few pints that for some reason they find hilarious. They have a painful Rishi Sunak-style chat with a regular who they then distance themselves from when the regular makes their feelings known about the last price rise.

 

They patronise a couple of staff members by talking down to them, then try recovering the conversation by saying how they have just started using Snapchat. They pose for a photograph pulling a pint so they can get it in the company magazine. They then make their apologies and head off in a pre-booked Uber to a networking dinner that they couldn’t possibly be late for. Next day, they tweet the photo of themselves pulling the pint, adding some sanctimonious drivel about how humbled they were to have worked with such a brilliant team of people, blah blah blah. 

 

They wholeheartedly approve of and realise the tremendous value of a back-to-the-floor session. They deliberately pick a busy weekend evening shift. They arrive for their shift early and in the same way team members arrive – if that’s public transport, then it’s public transport for them. They get themselves behind the bar, constantly looking for the next customer. Nothing is beneath them – if a bin needs emptying, they will empty it, and they clear tables and sweep up the fag butts.

 

While all this is going on, they find time to have proper banter with customers and converse naturally with their fellow team members. They take the whole experience bloody seriously, because they realise that while the board meetings and the senior leadership team briefing calls are important, what is really important, what really matters, is what goes on behind that bar or in that kitchen – and they really want to understand how it all works. After their shift, as they take their bus or train home, their first realisation is their legs and lower back are aching, but it’s been worth it because they have learned things like:

 

* What makes a Generation Z team member tick.

 

* The order and pay app is brilliant but the delivery process needs a tweak.

 

* Blimey, I poured more pints of alcohol-free beer than I thought I would.

 

* Delivering the right beer in the right branded glass was really tricky when we were going full pelt.

 

* That “card only no cash” diktat I signed off really didn’t suit that group of Generation Z regulars.

 

We don’t need to read the latest Allegra World Coffee Portal report to realise the coffee shop sector continues taking share from us. Starbucks knows the importance of its core products to millennials and Generation X, but is also well aware of the importance of personalised drinks to Generation Z customers and how it must deliver to them combinations like iced hazelnut latte with sweet cream foam and caramel drizzle – the current TikTok-fuelled trend. And full credit to the chief executive who not only knows about them, but can also make one. 

 

The future at Starbucks? I predict Laxman will engage first-hand with staff, customers, systems and processes to really get to the nub of what direction Starbucks food needs to go to get it firing on all cylinders, at which point he will start stealing further share from us. Better book your back-to-the-floor (approach three) session sooner rather than later if you really what to know what’s going on in your business.

For more than a decade, the retail industry has led the way when it comes to collecting customer data, using it to create personalised experiences and driving brand loyalty. As an industry, we’ve watched in awe at the likes of Tesco and Amazon as they storm ahead in the world of personalisation.

 

To me, personalisation is the tailoring of an interaction or experience based on learned information about an individual. From Spotify to Netflix, we’re surrounded by personalisation every day, so as consumers, we’ve come to expect this same level of personalisation from companies of all sizes.

 

A recent study carried out by McKinsey & Company found that 71% of people expect companies to deliver personalised experiences, and 76% of people get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. More interestingly, they found that 78% of people are more likely to make a repeat purchase, and 78% of people are more likely to recommend the brand to someone they know if their experiences are personalised.

 

In the hospitality sector, we’ve started to see a positive customer relationship management (CRM) shift over the last few years. Data is so much more accessible to hospitality brands now thanks to more integrations and more accessible CRM platforms. CRM is no longer just seen as email marketing, and the conversation around using segmentation and personalisation to drive customer lifetime value is becoming more widespread.

 

All of this is positive news, but I now worry that we are talking the talk and not actually walking the walk. We speak a lot about personalisation and using customer data to create tailored communications, but who can put their hands up and say they are actually doing this to its full potential? I can’t think of many examples where I’ve felt like a form of communication is really directed at me and my wants and needs. Now, more than ever, it’s essential that we maximise our business assets – in this case, our CRM platforms – to create memorable and personalised experiences for our customers.

 

I know the challenges that marketers in the industry face: lack of resource, time and budget. But if there is one thing to invest in right now (whether that’s your time or your marketing budget to get someone else in to help), it’s understanding your customers and their behaviour to drive acquisition, engagement and retention through personalisation.

 

“Okay, but how?” you’re probably thinking. As long as you’re starting with a single customer view where all your data from a range of sources is collated, you’ve got so many ways to personalise your comms. Ask yourself: do I know what my customers are interested in, what they like and what they buy? Do I know why, when, where and how regularly they visit? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, that’s a route to personalising your communications. Say they haven’t visited in a while, why not use their favourite dish to try and tempt a visit, e.g. “Are you missing our Massaman Beef Curry?”

 

The beauty with technology today is you aren’t just limited to email personalisation – think websites, apps, online ads, push notifications, in-venue and brand communications. All these channels can facilitate personalisation. For example, I know they like steak, so I’m going to tell them about our new Chateaubriand via email, hero it on our app and then target them with paid ads if they don’t book within a week. Or I know they usually visit for after-work drinks, so I’ll send them a push notification or an SMS at lunchtime shouting about our happy hour offer.

 

Not starting with a single customer view or collecting some of the information described above? Integrations and rich data capture – more importantly, proof of presence data – is crucial for understanding your customers. Think Wi-Fi, booking, feedback and loyalty data. The rise of order-and-pay, pay-at-table and digital loyalty schemes have drastically improved the data we collect about a customer. We can now link transactional data to an individual and understand what they like, buy and when they dine, and use this to inform our communications.

 

There is so much potential. Take the time to look at the data you’re collecting, what it’s saying and what you can do with it. The personalisation opportunities are there for the taking, and the results will speak for themselves.