Women’s Safety in Hospitality: Keeping It on the Agenda
Hospitality businesses play an important role in creating welcoming spaces where people can meet, socialise and enjoy themselves. For many businesses, looking after the safety and wellbeing of customers and staff is already a fundamental part of day-to-day operations.
Women’s safety is an important part of this. While businesses across the hospitality sector already have a range of measures and procedures in place, it is always worth taking the opportunity to review what is working well and consider whether there are further ways to support customers and employees.
This is not about suggesting that businesses are not already doing enough. Rather, it is about recognising that good practice continues to evolve and that keeping women’s safety part of the conversation can help businesses remain responsive to the needs and expectations of their customers and staff.
Why Does It Matter?
Hospitality venues are places where people come together to relax and enjoy themselves. They can also be busy environments, particularly during evenings and late-night periods and involve alcohol, crowded spaces and customers travelling home at different times. For some women, these circumstances can create additional concerns around personal safety, unwanted attention or vulnerability.
Creating an environment where customers feel comfortable and supported is therefore an important part of the overall hospitality experience.
It is also about maintaining a positive reputation which so many hospitality operators work hard to establish. Customers want to feel confident that, should they need assistance, there will be someone available who will listen and respond appropriately.
Supporting What Businesses Already Do
For many venue operators, measures around customer safety are already incorporated into their normal procedures. Staff may already be trained to deal with difficult situations, security arrangements be well established, and businesses may have procedures covering incidents, safeguarding and vulnerable customers. The purpose of regularly reviewing these arrangements is not necessarily to introduce more work or create additional layers of procedure.
Instead, it provides an opportunity to ask whether existing arrangements continue to work well and whether there are any simple improvements that could be made. Sometimes a brief conversation with the team, a refresher session or a review of what is happening locally is all that is needed.
Keeping Staff Informed
Staff are often an important part of creating a safe and welcoming environment. They are the people customers interact with throughout their visit and are often best placed to recognise when somebody may need assistance. It can therefore be helpful to ensure that staff remain familiar with how to respond if a customer says that they feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
Training may cover areas such as:
- Recognising vulnerability.
- Dealing appropriately with unwanted attention or harassment.
- Safeguarding.
- Drink-spiking awareness.
- De-escalation.
- Active bystander intervention.
- Appropriate incident reporting.
- Knowing when to involve a manager, security or the police.
This does not necessarily mean extensive or regular formal training. A short refresher, discussion at a staff meeting or reminder about existing procedures can all be valuable.
There Is Help Available
Local authorities and police teams often provide links to training packages, guidance and practical resources through their websites, particularly in relation to licensed premises and the night-time economy. It is therefore worth having a look at what is available in your local area.
Depending on where your business is based, you may find resources covering:
- Women’s safety.
- Violence against women and girls.
- Ask for Angela.
- WAVE training.
- Safeguarding.
- Drink-spiking awareness.
- Vulnerability.
- Active bystander training.
- Night-time economy initiatives.
There may also be useful support available through local licensing teams, Pubwatch schemes, Business Improvement Districts and community-safety partnerships.
Ask for Angela
Many businesses will already be familiar with Ask for Angela, which provides a discreet way for someone to indicate that they feel unsafe or require assistance. For businesses that participate in the scheme, it can be helpful to ensure that employees understand the process and feel comfortable responding appropriately.
The response will naturally depend on the circumstances, but may involve moving someone to a quieter area, involving a manager or security colleague, helping arrange transport or contacting someone they trust.
The important principle is that the individual feels listened to and supported.
Where businesses already have an established procedure, a periodic reminder can be a useful way of keeping the initiative familiar to staff.
The Journey Beyond the Venue
It is also worth remembering that the customer experience does not necessarily end at the door. For someone leaving a venue alone late at night, the journey to a taxi, car park or public transport may form part of their overall perception of safety.
Depending on the nature and location of the business, simple measures such as clear transport information, well-lit entrances and exits or appropriate taxi collection arrangements can be helpful.
Looking After Your Own Teams
Hospitality staff can work late, close premises and travel home after shifts, and many businesses already have arrangements in place to support employees working these hours. It can nevertheless be useful to check in with staff periodically and ask whether there are any concerns or improvements they would suggest.
Employees are often very well placed to identify practical issues because they experience the premises and its operation on a daily basis. Creating an environment where staff feel comfortable raising concerns is therefore valuable in its own right.
Keeping Women’s Safety in Focus
Women’s safety is best considered as an ongoing part of good hospitality management, rather than as a separate initiative or a response to individual incidents.
For businesses that already have appropriate procedures and training in place, this may simply mean keeping those arrangements under review and ensuring that staff remain familiar with them. It may also mean taking advantage of new guidance or training as it becomes available, particularly through local authorities, police teams and other organisations supporting the hospitality sector.
A periodic review can be a useful opportunity to consider whether existing measures continue to work effectively, whether staff feel confident in responding to concerns and whether there are any practical improvements that could be made.
Importantly, this is not about creating additional burdens for businesses or suggesting that there is a single approach that will suit every venue. Each hospitality business is different and the appropriate measures will depend on its premises, customers, staff and operating environment.
The focus should instead be on maintaining good practice, learning from experience and ensuring that women’s safety remains part of the wider conversation around customer care, employee wellbeing and responsible hospitality.
By keeping the subject in focus and making use of the guidance and resources already available, hospitality businesses can continue to build on the positive work they are already doing to provide safe, welcoming and enjoyable environments for everyone.
If you would like support in developing or reviewing your approach to women’s safety we would be happy to assist. Whether you are looking to develop a new policy, review your existing policies and procedures or simply have a fresh pair of eyes look over your current arrangements, an external perspective can be a valuable way of identifying opportunities to strengthen good practice.
Heidi Lawrance, an Ask for Angela Ambassador is particularly well placed to provide practical guidance and support to hospitality businesses in this area. We can work with you to understand your existing arrangements, identify any areas that could benefit from further consideration and help you develop practical, proportionate measures that work for your business and your premises.
If this is something you would like to discuss, please do get in touch with Heidi – heidi@woodswhur.co.uk