Operations
factors. Probably the most immediate trigger, explains the head of social responsibility at the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, is the pandemic. “I think with the build up of the gig economy, and other opportunities in other sectors, and ways of working that emerged [from] Covid, it attracted a lot of talent in other sectors,” she says. It goes without saying, Raza continues, that
Above and below: The lack of younger talent’s enthusiasm is having a real impact on how hotels run.
surely include the inability of hoteliers to entice people at the very start of their careers. Once again, the numbers are revealing. Consider, for instance, the fact that just one in ten British young people are willing to choose a career in hospitality, with 36% blaming the frequently low pay. Of course, these difficulties can also be viewed as opportunities. If, after all, barely one in 20 college-leavers are currently donning hotel uniforms, that leaves space for managers to snatch them up. Beyond the brutal vacancy data, meanwhile, there are obvious advantages to securing young talent, both for workers themselves and their new paymasters. At their best, young people can even become employees for life, imbibing a hotel’s culture and customs as they mature. It, therefore ,makes sense, at any rate, that so many operators are investing in internships and graduate schemes and online classes, all squarely aimed at the hotelier of tomorrow.
Having a staff
So how does one understand hospitality’s ongoing staffing crisis? For Anjana Raza, there are a range of
the hospitality sector has struggled to prove so appealing. Nor are these issues hard to appreciate. Whereas a career in hospitality often encompasses high stress and poor remuneration – research by the Living Wage Foundation in March 2023 found that 53% of hospitality jobs in London are low paid – the likes of Uber or Deliveroo all offer more independence and flexibility. Young people, for their part, are singularly
affected by these problems. Increasingly demanding hybrid work schedules from employers, and typically preferring to liaise with colleagues by Zoom, workers just entering the workforce are predictably reluctant to work in hotels: places where physical attendance and guest interactions are obviously key. It hardly helps, meanwhile, that industry internships are falling in popularity too. In Switzerland, to give one example, just 252 young people started hospitality apprenticeships in 2020, down from 379 nine years earlier. Once again, this decline can partly be
appreciated by the conditions. Though Europeans enjoy more protections than their US cousins in this regard, the hours are often long and the compensation often miserly, even as many apprentices are expected to trek long distances to work. No wonder a survey by the German Federation of Trade Unions found that only half of hospitality trainees were happy with their apprenticeships, a figure that rose to 80% among industrial mechanics. This lack of youth enthusiasm – coupled with
the tussle for jobs – is having a real impact on how hotels run. Now the pandemic is behind us, Raza warns that “some hotels continue to function not to full capacity”, even as services are cut back too. One example centres around housekeeping, with some properties no longer cleaning a guest’s room every night. To make matters worse, workers who do stick it out in hospitality have fewer colleagues to rely on, increasing pressure in a sector not reputed for calmness. That, in turn, risks sparking a vicious cycle, as unhappy workers abandon hospitality in search of pastures new, along the way leaving survivors in an even worse plight. And with 6% of hospitality staff resigning every month, it’s clearly not a problem that’s disappearing anytime soon.
42 Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
David Tadevosian; mapo_japan/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57
