Horeca: workforce grows 9% above pre-covid levels
Last updated:
14/9/2022
Horeca: workforce grows 9% above pre-covid levels
What is driving the workforce growth?
After months of restricted social activity and closed venues, Belgian consumers returned to hospitality with an enthusiasm that has proven durable rather than temporary. Terrace occupancy, restaurant bookings, and event catering demand have remained significantly above pre-pandemic baselines in most Belgian regions and segments. This sustained demand has required operators to maintain elevated staffing levels permanently rather than simply managing a short-term reopening surge.
The crisis, paradoxically, created opportunities for new operators and concepts. Lower rents during the recovery period, available commercial premises in prime locations, and changing consumer preferences — outdoor dining, smaller intimate venues, takeaway-focused concepts, experience-oriented hospitality — fueled a significant wave of new hospitality business openings across Belgium. Each new opening adds permanent employment to the sector's total base and creates new competition for the available pool of experienced hospitality workers.
The post-COVID hospitality workforce looks meaningfully different from its pre-pandemic predecessor. There is a higher proportion of part-time and flexible workers, more student and occasional staff filling roles that were previously held by permanent employees, and a generally younger workforce overall — partly because some experienced older workers left the sector during the crisis and have not returned. This compositional shift creates new complexity in scheduling, payroll, and compliance management that operators who have not upgraded their HR systems are struggling to absorb.
Growing a workforce rapidly is significantly harder than maintaining a stable one. Operators who expanded quickly during the recovery period encountered a predictable set of challenges: recruitment bottlenecks in a tight labor market where experienced hospitality workers could choose between multiple competing offers; onboarding large cohorts of new staff with management capacity that had not grown proportionally; scheduling complexity from managing a larger and more diverse workforce mix with tools designed for a smaller operation; compliance risk from Belgian labor law requirements that apply fully regardless of how quickly the workforce has grown; and staff retention difficulties in a sector where working conditions have historically driven high voluntary turnover.
The operators who have managed rapid post-COVID growth most effectively share a consistent characteristic: they invested in digital workforce management infrastructure during the recovery period rather than after the problems it would have prevented had already materialized. By automating scheduling, time tracking, and compliance checking through integrated digital platforms, they freed management capacity for the human dimensions of rapid growth — training quality, culture building, and the retention conversations that prevent the departures that undo recruitment investment.
The post-COVID hospitality workforce looks meaningfully different from its pre-pandemic predecessor. There is a higher proportion of part-time and flexible workers, more student and occasional staff filling roles that were previously held by permanent employees, and a generally younger workforce overall — partly because some experienced older workers left the sector during the crisis and have not returned. This compositional shift creates new complexity in scheduling, payroll, and compliance management that operators who have not upgraded their HR systems are struggling to absorb.
Growing a workforce rapidly is significantly harder than maintaining a stable one. Operators who expanded quickly during the recovery period encountered a predictable set of challenges: recruitment bottlenecks in a tight labor market where experienced hospitality workers could choose between multiple competing offers; onboarding large cohorts of new staff with management capacity that had not grown proportionally; scheduling complexity from managing a larger and more diverse workforce mix with tools designed for a smaller operation; compliance risk from Belgian labor law requirements that apply fully regardless of how quickly the workforce has grown; and staff retention difficulties in a sector where working conditions have historically driven high voluntary turnover.
The operators who have managed rapid post-COVID growth most effectively share a consistent characteristic: they invested in digital workforce management infrastructure during the recovery period rather than after the problems it would have prevented had already materialized. By automating scheduling, time tracking, and compliance checking through integrated digital platforms, they freed management capacity for the human dimensions of rapid growth — training quality, culture building, and the retention conversations that prevent the departures that undo recruitment investment.
The operators who have managed rapid post-COVID growth most effectively share a consistent characteristic: they invested in digital workforce management infrastructure during the recovery period rather than after the problems it would have prevented had already materialized. By automating scheduling, time tracking, and compliance checking through integrated digital platforms, they freed management capacity for the human dimensions of rapid growth — training quality, culture building, and the retention conversations that prevent the departures that undo recruitment investment.
Practical tips for growing Belgian hospitality businesses
- Frequently asked questions
The fundamentals of the Belgian hospitality market suggest yes: consumer demand for hospitality experiences remains robust, Belgium has a deeply embedded café and restaurant culture with strong domestic loyalty, and demographic trends continue to support growth in the sector's active customer base. However, rising labor costs, intense competition for experienced workers, and growing compliance complexity will continue to challenge operators who do not invest in the operational systems that allow them to grow efficiently rather than just rapidly.
Effective hospitality recruitment in Belgium's tight labor market requires proactive rather than reactive sourcing — building talent relationships before vacancies arise, not after. Strong employer branding that communicates what distinguishes your workplace from the many alternatives competing for the same candidates is increasingly important. Employee referral programs, partnerships with Belgian hospitality schools and training centers, and early-season student recruitment that secures flexible profiles before competitors do are the most consistently effective sourcing strategies for Belgian horeca operators.
The four most operationally important labor cost metrics for Belgian horeca operators are: labor cost as a percentage of revenue, reviewed weekly against a target of 30 to 35% for most formats; overtime hours as a percentage of total scheduled hours, which is the most direct proxy for scheduling efficiency; absenteeism rate by team and by shift, which is a leading indicator of workforce health and upcoming voluntary turnover; and average cost per hire including agency fees, job board costs, management time, and onboarding costs, which quantifies the ROI of retention investment.
Scheduling software scales with the workforce without proportional increases in manager administrative time. A manager who could handle scheduling for 10 employees in a spreadsheet can manage 30 or 40 with a digital platform because the most time-consuming elements — building the initial roster, communicating changes, tracking attendance, monitoring student hours — are automated. This makes scheduling software a scalability tool as much as an efficiency tool, directly enabling growth that would otherwise require additional management headcount to sustain.
The four most operationally important labor cost metrics for Belgian horeca operators are: labor cost as a percentage of revenue, reviewed weekly against a target of 30 to 35% for most formats; overtime hours as a percentage of total scheduled hours, which is the most direct proxy for scheduling efficiency; absenteeism rate by team and by shift, which is a leading indicator of workforce health and upcoming voluntary turnover; and average cost per hire including agency fees, job board costs, management time, and onboarding costs, which quantifies the ROI of retention investment.
Scheduling software scales with the workforce without proportional increases in manager administrative time. A manager who could handle scheduling for 10 employees in a spreadsheet can manage 30 or 40 with a digital platform because the most time-consuming elements — building the initial roster, communicating changes, tracking attendance, monitoring student hours — are automated. This makes scheduling software a scalability tool as much as an efficiency tool, directly enabling growth that would otherwise require additional management headcount to sustain.
Ready to transform your workforce management?
Shyfter is more than a scheduling tool. It's a complete workforce management solution designed to save you time.