Grant Hearn, the chief executive of Travelodge, is by his own admission “not a do-gooder”. Yet over the past 12 months the budget hotel operator has given jobs to 140 people under a government scheme aimed at getting the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged back into work.

Although Travelodge is not alone in signing up to the Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) unveiled in last year's Budget, Mr Hearn has readily embraced the concept and made a commitment to continue drawing on the LEP scheme for its future staffing needs.

Since joining the scheme a year ago, Travelodge, which is controlled by Dubai International Capital (DIC), has taken on 140 unemployed people from Jobcentres as “team members”, most of whom work in reception, housekeeping or in the café-bar. Of these, 88 came from the Jobcentre Plus priority group — those who have been unemployed for a long period and are characterised, in Work and Pensions Department terminology, as “hard to reach”. In practice, these are often single mothers and the disabled.

At some of Travelodge's new hotels, the majority of employees have joined via the LEP scheme. At its hotel in Southwark, South London, 34 of the 40 team members below management level are from the Jobcentre, of whom more than half are rated as priority group cases. At the Tunbridge Wells hotel all 14 team members were recruited from the Jobcentre, half from among the long-term unemployed.

Travelodge, which is opening new properties at the rate of about 40 a year, said that it would use the LEP scheme to recruit staff at all future openings.

Mr Hearn, who has run the company for almost six years, said that the key aspect of the scheme was that it was cost-effective for employers and provided good-quality employees. “If it's any hassle, people won't do it,” he said. “We're private equity-backed and can be difficult so and sos — we don't do this for altruistic reasons.”

He said that while staff turnover rates among LEP employees in London was in line with market norms, the rate in the regions was slightly better.

The former Whitbread and Hilton executive said that the industry's participation in the LEP scheme was also important in its wider dealings with the Government. “There's the bigger picture of the Government's attitude to tourism, which is lamentable. We have to talk to them about the impact of tourism on jobs and being involved in this means we're more likely to get a good hearing.”

The leisure sector has been among the biggest supporters of LEPs, with InterContinental Hotels Group, JD Wetherspoon, McDonald's and Whitbread among those to sign up. Retailers including Marks & Spencer, Asda, Tesco, Debenhams and Greggs have also joined the programme.

Mr Hearn said that it was important for employers who did not participate to understand that there was no obligation to hire those sent for interview - but he added that the quality of candidates, all of whom are put through a short training course to brush up their skills, was so good that Travelodge had found itself taking on far more than it had expected.

He conceded that the hotel industry, which suffers from the perception that it demands long hours for little pay, has a recruitment problem, but rejected any suggestion that staff recruited from Jobcentres were in any way second-class citizens.

“People say that because this scheme is free there must be something wrong with the candidates, but these are bright young people. Internally, we've committed to employ 25 per cent of staff through the scheme in new hotels, yet in the 12 hotels where it has been used it's been 67 per cent.”

Those who join Travelodge are given training as a matter of routine, with the aim of achieving at least a level two national vocational qualification. Those who show promise can find themselves being fast-tracked to a management development scheme that can lead to promotion to assistant hotel manager.

Mr Grant said that he appreciated the human side of the scheme. “There are some distressing cases,” he said. “We have one girl who had a heart condition and hadn't worked for some time and couldn't get back into work because of her time away. She's now doing very well with us and is a candidate for our management scheme.”

Travelodge has also launched a foundation degree in hospitality, budget hotel and retail management at Westminster Kingsway College, in London, and Mr Hearn said that he was hoping that some of those recruited from Jobcentres might go on to graduate. “You could end up in a reasonably short space of time running your own Travelodge.”

The Travelodge boss may be using the LEP scheme to his own advantage, but he is not oblivious to the wider impact. “I'm not a do-gooder, but a lot of these people deserve a break. Yes, it solves a staff problem for us, but if we can get people into jobs I'm sure it will reduce things like knife crime.”

Travelodge:

Launched 1985
Number of hotels 337 in the UK, with 23,320 rooms, plus eight in Ireland and three in Spain
Openings 17 hotels so far this year, with another 16 due to open in December. Average of 40 a year
Targets To open 4,000 rooms this year, putting it on track to reach its target of 70,000 rooms by 2020
Number of employees 5,330
Turnover (2007) £243.8 million
Ebitda £55.8 million
Number of guests 6.5 million a year — 87 per cent of bookings are made online
Current trading Grant Hearn, chief executive, says: “The first half \[of 2008\] was so strong, but the second half will, understandably, be more challenging, though we’ll still be there or thereabouts on our annual target"

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