With the world slowly getting back to normal after an unprecedented pandemic, businesses are trying to get back up and running after 18 months of lockdowns, furlough and changing government advice.
Some sectors have managed to bounce back relatively easily, whereas others are still struggling to find their feet in the post pandemic world.
One sector that has been hit particularly hard by Covid is the hospitality sector. Lockdown meant that most hospitality businesses had to close completely and many employees moved sectors to find more secure work.
Those that didn’t move sectors have now returned to work only to find they are understaffed and overworked. The shortage of chefs, waiters, bar managers and front of house staff means wages are going up as companies try to attract new talent to their business, whilst also attempting to retain the staff they have.
In the run up to Christmas, these issues aren’t going to go away for leaders in the hospitality sector, if anything they’re going to get worse. Christmas is the busiest time of the year for hospitality and most restaurants and bars will take on seasonal staff to help with the demand. This is going to prove tricky this year as there’s already a staff shortage.
Compiling all these problems together means Christmas for the hospitality sector this year isn’t going to be easy. But one thing bars and restaurants can do to help ease the pressure on them, is outsource their payroll function.
By sending your payroll to payroll experts, like Phase 3, hospitality leaders and business owners give themselves one less thing to worry about, so they can focus on doing what really matters for their business, serving customers.
In this article, we’ll explain how outsourcing payroll can help the hospitality sector during the busy Christmas period and we’ll list 4 benefits an outsourced payroll solution can give a busy bar or restaurant.
If you’re curious to find out how managed payroll could help your business this Christmas contact us at Phase 3 to hear how we can help improve your payroll processes and reduce your stress. Letting you focus on what matters most, running your business.
As we’ve already mentioned in this article, hospitality is undergoing a bit of a recruitment crisis. The sector-wide staff shortage is putting pressure on a lot of businesses with staff having to work more days and longer hours than they normally would.
The ongoing difficulty with recruitment has created an “all hands on deck” mentality across hospitality, everyone needs to be behind the bar or in the kitchen to plug the gaps in the shortfall of staff.
This goes for all people in an organisation and if you can outsource your payroll process to another company, you’re gaining another member of staff who doesn’t need to spend their time doing payroll internally. They can then be placed in an area of your business that’s in desperate need of help.
The combination of the pandemic and Brexit, has sent costs spiralling for many hospitality businesses. In April, Simply Business estimated that covid restrictions cost companies £40,000. Add to that figure the rising food prices due to Brexit uncertainty and you can see that restaurants and bars are going to be paying more than ever before on stock, as well as wages.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict and control these costs. With things fluctuating so much it’s important to focus on what you can control and manage. Outsourcing your payroll functions lets you keep control over one cost in your business. Using a third party payroll team gives you a fixed monthly cost that you don’t need to worry about managing, you can just pay it and let them do the heavy lifting for you.
This will free up your time to plan and manage the other parts of your business that aren’t so cut and dry.
With the hospitality sector in such a volatile place at the moment, you need to be doing everything you can to keep your staff happy and engaged at work. There is no shortage of other jobs and with business leaders desperate for staff, the wages they can receive somewhere else are competitive.
In such a candidate-driven market, keeping your team’s morale high is a must. Paying them on time isn’t going to make them super happy but it is one less thing that might make them consider another role. The same can be said for paying staff correctly, especially with the amount of overtime most hospitality staff are doing at the moment.
Outsourcing your payroll guarantees your employees get paid with no fuss. Doing simple things like this correctly is essential if you want to create a company culture that retains staff. Something that’s especially important right now with the current shortages in the hospitality sector.
If you’re looking to outsource your payroll services Phase 3 can help. We provide partially and fully outsourced payroll services to companies of all sizes. You can review our service offerings here: Outsourced Payroll Services
Running payroll is a niche skill, not everyone can do it, and running payroll correctly requires training and an analytical mind. You might have one person in your business that can do payroll, or maybe a couple if your company is large enough, but it certainly isn’t something anybody can do.
When your resident payroll expert decides to leave your business it can be stressful. Finding a replacement isn’t easy and when you’re dealing with staff shortages, the extra stress is something you can do without. By outsourcing your payroll function to a third party you can rest easy knowing that your payroll is being done by professionals with zero danger of leaving and putting you into emergency mode.
If you’re struggling to find someone to help with your payroll in the run up to Christmas Phase 3 can help. We’re an outsourced payroll provider and HR consultancy who specialise in working within businesses to help you get the most out of your payroll processes. We help businesses of all sizes and can partially or fully take over your payroll functions. If you’d like to know more about how we can help you contact us here.
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Laura’s role as Head of Marketing sees her continually looking for new opportunities to tell the world how great Phase 3 is.
