Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

UK Staff shortages: small restaurants forced to offer £1,000 sign-on bonuses

UK Staff shortages: small restaurants forced to offer £1,000 sign-on bonuses

Jobs site says ‘new phenomenon for the hospitality industry’ shows no sign of abating as Christmas looms
Independent restaurants are being forced to offer hefty sign-on bonuses of £1,000 or more for chefs and other kitchen staff as the shortage of skilled workers tightens in the busy festive season.

Small businesses such as Angie’s and D Grande, both restaurants in Chiswick, west London, the Coniston Hotel in Skipton, and Galeta, a bakery in Hackney, east London, are offering sign-on fees of between £500 and £1,000. Larger rivals are offering even more: recruits at Harry’s Bar, the Mayfair private members club owned by the hospitality entrepreneur Richard Caring, will get £2,500, while the Côte bistro chain is dangling dangling £2,000.

The job search site Indeed said that less than 1% of hospitality job ads currently mentioned a signing-on fee but the number of posts in the industry offering such a bonus had soared fivefold (443%) since the end of May.

“This is a new phenomenon for the hospitality industry that doesn’t show signs of abating, despite Omicron, as we head into the Christmas season,” a spokesman for Indeed said.

Steven Whibley, the operations director of Galeta, said he was offering a sign-on bonus of £1,000 after three months in the job on top of a salary of up to £40,000 in order to secure a head of bakery. The business is also offering £500 bonuses for less senior roles such as chefs de partie and drivers, posts which are also proving difficult to fill.

Whibley said: “We currently have 20 vacancies and our fully staffed team would be 60 people, so that is about a third missing. We are filling that with overtime and agency staff where we can. The problem has been there since the summer but it’s got tougher as the business has expanded with the opening up of the economy. We’ve got busier and busier, and the staffing needs more acute, and we have lost staff as other people are offering more.”

Whibley said the business had already upped basic pay by 10% as well as offering the bonus but will still be struggling to recruit staff. “It doesn’t seem they are there.”

Angie Steele, the owner of Angie’s in Chiswick, said she was offering a £1,000 bonus for chef roles as she faced the prospect of shutting two days a week, ending dinner service and laying off serving staff as she was struggling to replace three of her six chefs who are about to leave the business.

She said that even with the bonus, the restaurant had attracted only two applications, neither of whom showed up for their interview.

“Two years ago if a chef left I would put an ad out and get four or five CVs and we would have gone to [kitchen] trials next day and I would have a choice. Now there are no CVs and no one is walking through the door. It is pretty extraordinary.”

She said that Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic had had a “huge impact” on the UK hospitality industry, with staff going home to mainland Europe when restaurants were forced to close and not returning to the UK.

Steele said she had been forced to offer a sign-on bonus because so many other restaurants were doing so in the battle for staff. “It is not a very nice atmosphere,” she said, with rumours that some restaurants are offering customers free food in return for recommending staff from elsewhere.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Germany Seeks Taliban Deal to Deport Afghan Migrants
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Qatar Airways Clears Backlog of Passengers Following Missile Threats
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
G7 Leaders Fail to Reach Consensus on Key Global Issues
Mass exodus in Tehran as millions try to flee following Trump’s evacuation order
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
Iran Conducts Ballistic Missile Launches Amid Heightened Tensions with Israel
Iran Signals Openness to Nuclear Negotiations Amid Ongoing Regional Tensions
Shock Within Iran’s Leadership: Khamenei’s Failed Plan to Launch 1,000 Missiles Against Israel
UK Deploys Jets to Middle East Amid Rising Tensions
Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi Urges Overthrow of Khamenei Regime
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
×