Member Article

Be our guest - a REAL Living Wage can make a real difference in hospitality

Tom Waldron-Lynch, General Manager, Nottingham Venues on National Living Wage Week

Nottingham Venues is the brand behind meetings, events, hotel stays and a collection of venues across the University of Nottingham’s campuses.

We all know that these are challenging times for hospitality.

Rising costs, inflation, the lingering effect of the pandemic and consumer confidence are all combining and impacting the entire industry.

It is actually a year since we reopened fully post-pandemic and I am proud to say that we are back to the levels of business that we enjoyed before the Covid crisis.

Indeed, we are actively recruiting at the moment, with business bookings especially rising, as many organisations return with renewed vigour and confidence to the exhibitions and conference schedules that have been mothballed for so long.

Of course, recruiting and retaining team members to help us to deliver these experiences can be another challenge. One of many ways that we have approached this is by proactively and enthusiastically adopting the Real Living Wage.

This is the only UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by over 11,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage which meets everyday needs - like the weekly shop, or a surprise trip to the dentist.

We certainly agree and have been committed to the “Real Living Wage” ever since we relaunched as Nottingham Venues earlier this summer, as we believe that all of our staff deserve a wage which meets everyday needs.

It is most welcome to have our commitment to paying our talented and hugely valued team members recognised but for us that is the least we can do. There is so much uncertainty out there in the economy and a great deal of that is not something that we can control. This is one element that we can and are proud to offer.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mac Watson .