During the run up to Christmas, both retail and hospitality industries are warning that staff shortages could certainly arise due to increasing inflation costs and the struggle to recruit extra manpower, especially in terms of overseas workers.
With the continued impact of Brexit, the UK government is investigating a relaxation to its rules for overseas workers, however this cannot come quick enough for UK businesses. Subsequently throughout the Christmas season, there is an estimated shortfall of 250,000 staff shortages in the hospitality industry alone according to UKHospitality.
The pressure is also being felt in the retail industry, both behind the scenes in warehouses and call centres and in store. Pick and pack warehouses and fulfilment centres require extra support to meet delivery targets. Whilst bricks and mortar stores require extra customer assistants to support customers with face-to-face help, out on the shop floor. In call centres where good English skills are essential to assist customers with orders, deliveries, and enquiries, recruiting staff can be trickier as this kind of work is less appealing to the likes of EU workers.
Planning is essential to reduce staff shortages
For businesses requiring a particular extra level of assistance, planning to meet the demands of staff shortages is essential. Most retailers, for example John Lewis, will begin their recruitment programmes as early as August. For those businesses who don’t have that level of recruitment resources, then there is help at hand in terms of managing UK customer service on your behalf, from our team at WeAnswer.
If your business is looking for extra manpower throughout the Christmas season, here at WeAnswer we provide short-term contacts to retailers who are looking for call centre and contact centre support. With highly trained employees who take the time to understand individual business brands, we represent companies as if they were our own. Not only does this provide an excellent service to customers, but also relieves the pressure on companies to temporarily recruit throughout the busy period. To find out more about outsourcing customer services, please contact our UK customer service experts or see our website for further details.
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