Months into what is claimed to be the world’s biggest hospitality recruitment drive, the organisers of Hospitality Rising have highlighted the 55,000 job applications it has generated, alongside a huge social media reach.
The group’s inaugural campaign, ‘Rise Fast, Work Young’, was launched last October, since which there has been an average of over 4000 applications each week for the 37,000 roles posted to its jobs page to date.
The founder of Hospitality Rising is ex-Pret a Manger and YO! Sushi marketing chief Mark McCulloch, who said: “We are blown away by the reach and success of this initial campaign push. Some 55,000 job applications and counting is an incredible achievement and the TikTok results show we are hitting the mark with our target audience.
“We’re launching a second wave of advertising and social media now and fully expect to see another surge in traffic as a result.”
The initiative has official backing from the Scottish Hospitality Group and Institute of Hospitality, Hospitality & Tourism Skills Board, UKH, BBPA and BII.
“We clearly couldn’t have achieved any of this without the support of our partners and we need to ensure we maintain momentum and build on these great results,” said Mr McCulloch.
“To achieve that we need even more businesses to join us and would urge any operators or suppliers not already involved to grab the opportunity to come together to help tackle the workforce crisis that is threatening our brilliant industry.”
Hospitality Rising is also backed by some of the biggest names in the UK, including Whitbread, Pret, Welcome Break, Hilton, Soho House, Prezzo, Revolution Bars Group, Parkdean Resorts, Claridge’s, J W Lees and The Pig. On the supplier-side, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, hospitality tech supplier Zonal, and guest WI-FI based marketing solution, Wireless Social, are sponsors.
Celebrity chefs including Tom Kerridge, Angela Hartnett and Raymond Blanc OBE, have also lent their time and support to the initiative.