How hospitality, warehousing, and retail employers are solving the Skills and staffing shortage
Written by Martin Chandler from Pathway Group
Across the West Midlands, businesses in hospitality, warehousing, logistics, and retail are facing a common set of challenges: staff shortages, rising training demands, and time-consuming recruitment processes.
In sectors where customer experience, operational speed, and frontline delivery are everything, the pressure to find the right people—fast—is greater than ever.
Thankfully, there are practical solutions that make hiring and training easier, more efficient, and cost-free.
Filling vacancies with local, job-ready talent
Recruitment doesn’t need to be a struggle. By working with specialist employment and training providers, employers are gaining access to pools of job-ready, pre-screened candidates from their local communities.
Whether you need chefs, porters, warehouse operatives, delivery drivers, retail assistants or shift supervisors, support is available to connect you with people who are motivated, available, and aligned with the specific needs of your business.
This reduces time-to-hire and ensures you’re not wasting time sifting through unsuitable applications.
A simpler way to recruit and train
The day-to-day reality for many businesses is that recruitment and training can quickly become a drain on time and resources.
Writing job specs, organising interviews, handling onboarding paperwork, arranging training—it all adds up.
Fortunately, support is available to take this admin off your hands.
From sourcing candidates to delivering essential training (like health and safety, customer service, or manual handling), providers can manage the full process on your behalf—at no cost to you.
This gives you the freedom to focus on running your business and serving your customers.
Building a workforce with future-ready skills
The sectors of hospitality, warehousing, and retail are evolving. Digital systems, customer expectations, and new regulations mean the skills needed today won’t always be enough tomorrow.
That’s why more West Midlands businesses are turning to funded training programmes to upskill both new hires and existing team members.
From digital stock control and EPOS systems to barista training and last-mile logistics, the training available is hands-on, relevant, and tailored to your business.
Strengthening local businesses through collaboration
This isn’t just about recruitment—it’s about building stronger local economies. By working together—employers, job centres, and training organisations—businesses are creating real opportunities for local people and reducing reliance on costly external recruitment.
These collaborative efforts are already transforming how employers in Birmingham, the Black Country, and across the region hire, train, and grow.