Leisure and Hospitality Practice: 2021 review of the year

2021 Overview: Devil in the detail in a difficult environment

The leisure and hospitality sector weathered another tumultuous year in 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic prompting more conservative consumer spending and behaviours, largely defined by the great switch to all things local and domestic. From holidaying in the UK, eating in and spurning the gym for online fitness options, for many consumers 2021 was the year when there really was ‘no place like home’.

Operators faced multiple challenges in addition to this: increased safety restrictions, workforce shortages, transitioning to online service models, with post-Brexit obstacles amplifying an already difficult environment.

In 2021 we were constantly reminded of the importance of having an exit strategy from the current post-pandemic challenges, and the need for leisure and hospitality businesses’ risk and insurance partners to provide ongoing support as they recalibrate for the post-COVID-19 landscape.

2021: The year in leisure and hospitality insight

Throughout the year, we continued to provide actionable thought leadership through our program of leisure and hospitality-focused topical seminars and news articles, distilled below.

1. 01

   What could the new Protect Duty mean for the leisure and hospitality sectors?

   This insight examines the proposed Protect Duty and sets out measures impacted organisations can take to identify, evaluate and manage the relevant risks.

2. 02

   Identifying and disrupting terror threats

   This insight explores what businesses can do to disrupt terrorist information-gathering and how they can build protective security cultures using existing resources.

3. 03

   How could the Protect Duty impact your business?

   This insight assesses the implications for businesses and what they can do to defend potential claims in light of the new Protect Duty.

4. 04

   Protect Duty: Is my organisation ready?

   This insight discusses the implications of the new Protect Duty in terms of organisational culture and physical security.

• Return to work guidance for leisure businesses
  This practical checklist provides suggests factors for operators to consider as they resume business following lockdown.
• What COVID-19 has taught us about national preparedness
  COVID-19 has highlighted the need to develop a more resilient society. This insight examines how organisations can improve their societal preparedness and national resilience

You can discover the latest insights, thought leadership, and resources on climate change from WTW’s experts at our Climate and Resilience Hub (CRH). Here are some highlights from CRH’s 2021’s outputs:

• TCFD: Coming, ready or not?
  The UK’s move to mandatory economy-wide climate disclosure in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), is a significant milestone. How ready are major global insurers to report on their response to climate change?
• Climate liability: A risk for every corporate not just the big emitters
  Our roundtable in collaboration with Airmic and Minter-Ellison looked at the current relationship between climate change and environmental, social and governance risks and explored the key drivers of physical climate-related risks and liability.
• Navigating to net zero
  Thought leaders shared their insights on what it takes for investors to implement net zero targets, how climate strategies must integrate stewardship, how risk quantification methods developed in the insurance industry can be applied to climate and adopted by others in the financial sector, and the importance of culture and mindsets, not just datasets, in the low carbon transition.
• COP26: A planet in the balance
  November 2021 saw heads of state, climate policy experts, negotiators and observers, development finance institutions, humanitarian agencies, private sector

• Are you ready to leave OHSAS 18001 for ISO 45001?
  From 11 September 2021 organisations need to have their entire management system reaudited and will no longer be able to display their 18001 certificates. We talked through the challenges around this transition and offered practical guidance.

With mental health costing employers up to £45bn¹ each year in absenteeism, staff turnover and lost productivity, and stress, depression and anxiety accounting for 51% of all work related ill health cases², it makes good business sense to invest in creating a mentally healthy workplace and manage psychosocial risks to reduce exposure to workplace stress.

¹ https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/poor-mental-health-costs-uk-employers-up-to-pound-45-billion-a-year.html

² https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh1920.pdf