One of Bristol’s leading city-centre hotels has backed a call to employ more people aged over 50.
The initiative is being headed by the Government’s Business Champion, Andy Briggs from Aviva, who alongside UK charity Business in the Community’s Age at Work team, is pushing for all employers to publicly commit to employ 12 per cent more workers over the age of 50 by 2022.
With 14 per cent of its team already aged 50 or above, bosses at DoubleTree by Hilton, Bristol City Centre have now pledged to make sure they hit the additional 12 per cent target.
John Dowling, general manager at the hotel said: “Our team members who are perhaps a little older have as much energy and enthusiasm as a lot of the younger staff!
“We’ve got a really healthy mix of younger and older members of staff which is perfect when it comes to making sure our guests’ experiences are first class.
“The hospitality sector across the UK constantly needs to recruit tens of thousands of people each year and that’s not taking into account demand for staff to work in many new and extended venues.
“It is also perceived in the sector that older workers will be vital to filling expected skills gap. Here at the hotel, they bring experience and maturity which is ideal as we have such a varied range of requests to deal with.
“We’ll now aim to employ more and more people from this age bracket in order to hit the target but also make sure our own service levels are maintained.”