BERLIN — As the global hotel industry struggles to fill jobs, no potential solutions are off the table and company executives are eager to collaborate and share ideas and even failures.
“Wherever employees have gone, it’s not a blip; it’s a trend,” said Mark Essex, director of skills for KPMG in the United Kingdom, speaking on a panel addressing labor at the recent International Hotel Investment Forum. “This isn’t just Brexit or COVID or hybrid work; it’s basic demographics.”
External stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic have cast light on chronic problems within the industry’s general staffing models, which companies must take the lead on changing, speakers said.
“I see two big changes: First is that life-work balance is a top priority for employees,” said Laura Benoumechiara, chief human resources officer at Louvre Hotels Group. “It’s a big challenge for [hotel companies] and creates urgency for organizational change and it forces us to reinvent the ways to operate our hotels. It’s not a trend. People want work-life balance now, so we have to put energy here.”
The second big change is that “employees want to see change in corporate social responsibility” from their employers, Benoumechiara said.
Benoumechiara and Essex, along with Chris Mumford, managing director at Cervus Leadership Consulting; and Dimitris Manikis, president for the EMEA region at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, shared best practices around meeting expectations with new and potential employees.
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