HR support for hospitality

How our employment law & HR solicitors can help in the hospitality sector

At Stephensons, we provide tailored hospitality HR support to hotels, restaurants, leisure venues and wider hospitality businesses across the UK. Our team understands the unique challenges of managing staff in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment — from high turnover and seasonal contracts to shift work and compliance with ever-evolving employment law.

We offer practical, on-demand hospitality HR advice that helps you make confident decisions around recruitment, performance management, disciplinary issues, grievances and redundancy. Whether you're dealing with day-to-day HR concerns or navigating a more complex situation, we’re here to ensure your business stays compliant and protected.

Our hospitality HR consultants work closely with employers to deliver everything from bespoke contracts and handbooks to full-scale policy reviews and workforce restructuring plans. We also assist with TUPE transfers, holiday pay calculations, and absence management — all crucial issues within HR in hospitality settings.

If you operate in the hotel sector, we provide specific hotel HR advice that reflects the realities of 24/7 operations and the importance of consistent, legally sound people management across shifts and departments.

For employers facing disputes or legal action, our experienced hospitality employment solicitors can represent you in employment tribunal proceedings and help resolve matters swiftly and efficiently.

Whether you're seeking short-term hospitality HR help or long-term hospitality HR consulting services, Stephensons is a trusted partner to many in the sector. Our goal is to take the pressure off your internal team, reduce legal risk, and support you in creating a professional, compliant, and high-performing workplace.

The role of HR in the hospitality industry

As with any sector, HR’s role in hospitality is to help businesses to manage their workforce and ensure compliance with any relevant legislation. A major issue with HR in hospitality, when compared to many other industries, is that there can be a high proportion of temporary or seasonal staff, which can add complexity to the way that employees are managed, whilst still being compliant with employment law and trying to grow the business.

Anyone who has experience in the hospitality sector will know that there can be a higher level of disciplinary and grievance issues with employees in this industry than most other sectors. Contributing factors to this can include:

• Many employees lacking previous work experience and having to deal with workplace issues for the first time
• A diverse combination of backgrounds in the workforce which can sometimes cause friction
• Comparatively low pay can lead to employee motivation issues

Effective HR in hospitality will take issues like this into account and enable to business to make policies and procedures that help to mitigate some of these potential problems, as well as ensuring compliance with employment law in every area.

Current HR issues in the hospitality industry

In addition to the challenges already mentioned, events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit also bring challenges for the hospitality sector that require consideration when handing HR. Pre-Brexit, around a quarter of the UK’s hospitality workforce was comprised of people originally from EU member states, and the Coronavirus pandemic has brought immense challenges to those working in hospitality which are yet to be fully realised, including many employees having been furloughed for long periods of time. Having expert hospitality HR consultants on hand to answer questions and help your business to deal with these challenges as they arise can be invaluable.

Why choose our services to assist with your HR duties in the hospitality sector?

We can offer specialist HR advice for hospitality businesses on a fixed-fee basis, meaning that you always have access to the expertise you need and can rest assured that all of your documentation, policies, procedures and other requirements are in place and compliant with all of the necessary guidelines.

Our service also includes employment protection insurance to cover the cost of defending employment tribunal claims in the event that this is required.

Get in touch to find out more about our fixed cost HR systems for businesses in the hospitality industry by calling 0161 696 6170.