A boss at a top seaside attraction has told of the on-going difficulty in
recruiting staff since re-opening the site after lockdown.
Billy Ball of Clacton Pier fears that it is likely to be a similar problem
across the leisure and hospitality industry – and will be hitting businesses
hard.
He said the issue applied to both full and part-time posts at all
levels.
“In the past we have never had a difficulty with finding people to fill jobs
– whether it be for our indoor facilities which run 364 days a year, or for the
more seasonal outdoor ride jobs,” said Mr Ball.
“We have also had a very high percentage of people returning for
seasonal posts year after year.
“The problem now is that they have seen that whenever there is a
lockdown it is the leisure and hospitality sector that is the first to close
and the last to re-open.
“This has had the effect that people are looking for jobs in other areas
where they feel they have more confidence in continuity of employment. And once
they do that you have lost them.”
Mr Ball added that the problem is a knock-on effect of what has been
happening over the past year or more due to the Covid pandemic.
“It was tough to survive while were closed as we still had the majority
of our normal overheads without money coming in,” he said.
“We were grateful for the Government grants and furlough pay for the
staff we had on our books.
“But since coming back we have found that we have been unable to recruit
new staff and bring seasonal staff back.
“It is a worry going forwards as the remaining restrictions lift and we have
more visitors at our attraction and need more employees. It is just another
consequence of Covid!”
Mr Ball said that the Pier has worked hard over the past 12 months to restructure
staffing requirements and is now in a stronger position to support employment
and offer both full-time and part-time long term career opportunities.
All the posts available are on the Pier’s website, www.clactonpier.co.uk under careers.
They currently include an arcade service engineer, ride maintenance
engineer, food and beverage manager, arcade shift manager, chef, cashier,
kitchen assistant, ride customer service assistant, arcade floor staff and bar
attendant.
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