Corbin and King ‘loses 15%’ of workforce due to Brexit

Hospitality group Corbin and King says 15% of its employees have resigned following the Brexit vote.

Speaking at the DAM ‘Brand who: How to use your employer brand to attract the right people’ event this month, Corbin and King COO Zuleika Fennell said that a notable number of its European employees had not only quit but had also left the UK altogether.

The event, sponsored by the pensions provider, was attended by HR professionals and some of the UK’s leading hotel and hospitality groups.

Fennell said: “We have lost somewhere in the region of 15% of our employees as a result of the Brexit announcement, but the real number could be far greater as people may have declined to give us their real reasons for relocating.

We have also seen a decline in new applications from EU candidates, making vacancies harder than ever to fill.”

In a statement to Hotel Owner, Fennell went on to say the hospitality industry was unable to prepare for the changes after Brexit due to uncertainty. She said that with 75% of Corbin and King’s workforce being from the EU, there was a need to “shift to home-grown talent”.

Fennell added: “We feel passionately that influencers in the hospitality industry need to speak up. We must be open and honest about what it is going to do to businesses and to their people if the free movement of labour within the EU is stopped.

“It is not our position to set government policy but there needs to be an awareness that this decision will likely increase immigration levels dramatically not decrease them.

“Those in the health industry, public sector, retail and hospitality, to name but a few, will have to recruit from further afield just to keep operating. This will require the government and Border and Immigration Agency to remove the restrictions from allowing us to do so.”