Skinner, licensee at the Devonshire Arms in Marylebone, currently looks after four independent pubs with just under 60 staff across the estate.
He told The Morning Advertiser (MA) that rising labour costs had “massively” changed the way he thinks about staffing.
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“Labour has always been the biggest cost in hospitality, between that and cost of sales, and it’s just got bigger,” he said.
“Over the last five years, I think it’s gone up 30%. That’s been a combination of the increase in national minimum wage, national living wage, national insurance increases and the overall rising cost of employing people, pensions and all the other things that we have to do. It’s probably the biggest focus and it’s the biggest controllable cost on a weekly basis.”
He said the shift was not just about higher costs, but changing expectations around contracts and working hours.
Skinner is working more flexibly with younger team members, including students and part-time staff, while offering enhanced hourly rates and tailored benefits.
Recent research from The MA’s Labour Report found 95% of operators said rising wage costs had impacted their business, while 59% said they had stopped recruiting new staff entirely as a result of higher employment costs.
Bespoke packages
“They may get other benefits such as training, personal development, maybe live-in accommodation, health insurance, whatever else I can give them to build a bespoke package,” he said.
“They might work 25 hours one week and 35 hours the next week. That’s been a real game changer.”
Case study
Skinner said developing younger staff from scratch had become a key part of his approach, pointing to one former Devonshire Arms team member, Greg, who joined straight out of university as a bar team member on 30 hours a week.
“Within six months, he was running shifts. Within a year, he was running the pub day to day,” Skinner said. “He was with me for three years. He’s done his academy within Star. He’s now taking on his first pub business at the age of 28 in September, and I can support him through it.”
Skinner said he was investing more time and money into existing teams, including cellar management, food safety, first aid and supplier-led training. He is also looking at infrastructure and systems, including EPOS, labour forecasting, scheduling, reporting, CRM and bookings.
“We’re looking at how we can plug in our EPOS, our labour forecasting, scheduling, reporting, CRM, booking and everything all going into one,” he said. “That’s where the savings are going to have to come from, a lot of them.”
Skinner is also using gamified training through Attensi, which he said had helped make learning more accessible for younger staff.
“It used to be a handbook and maybe some videos, then it was very much video-based learning,” he said. “Now it’s gamified learning, which is doing a really good job of making it in bite-sized chunks that the young ones can get.”
The training could help new starters quickly gain confidence behind the bar, he explained.
“From somebody coming in at 18 years old, never been behind a bar, can’t look anyone in the eye, doesn’t know how to pour a pint, maybe hasn’t ever drunk one, they do the training, come in, work with one of our experienced team members for a four-hour shift, and then they’re good to get started. It’s amazing how quickly you can see the change.”
Cost pressures
Skinner said he had changed rotas and trading patterns from “day one” in response to staffing costs.
At the Palmerston, a food-led neighbourhood pub in East Dulwich, the kitchen now opens Wednesday to Sunday after the business found Monday and Tuesday food trade was not strong enough to justify the labour cost.
“It was clear that nothing was really happening on Monday and Tuesday food wise, and it was costing us a lot of money,” he said. “We closed the kitchen Monday and Tuesday, so it’s now open Wednesday to Sunday, which are our core trading hours.”
Skinner said he had also looked more closely at start and finish times, including moving shifts to better match peak trading periods.
Skinner said AI had a role to play in pubs, particularly around scheduling, bookings, marketing, local market analysis, demographics and data. However, he warned operators needed to be careful about using AI in guest-facing settings.
“Hospitality is people and that will never change,” he said. “We have to be very careful with how we make use of AI, because things like that could be a bit counterproductive. I wouldn’t want it to ever be guest facing.”
Skinner said culture and individuality were becoming increasingly important as employers compete for staff.
“Pay is an absolute standard. It’s baseline. That’s what everybody expects,” he said. “What I think is really important is culture and what you can give people individually.”
“What you can bring as an employer is just as important. It’s a two-way street. You’ve got to want to work with me as well, so I’ve got to sell what I can offer.”
