The hospitality industry work force was significantly affected by the pandemic due to layoffs, furloughs, and the need to care for family members.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association reports an estimate of between 175,000 to 400,000 lost hourly employees during the pandemic as of last November, and, while these numbers improved in the previous 12 months, the hospitality industry is still below its pre-2020 numbers.
Despite the bleak statistics, there have been some encouraging signs in recent days, as our industry continues to rebound. In January, our nation’s leisure and hospitality sector, which is not exclusive to hotel properties, added 128,000 jobs in January—the most of any sector. While some of these job gains reflect seasonal adjustments, the good news is the strength in our industry sector, which substantiates what many of us have been experiencing within our own organizations. Many frontline team members, as well as property level managers, are returning to hospitality. In Vesta Hospitality’s case, we were able to bring some of our most valued managers out of retirement, restoring a wealth of experience and company loyalty.
Regardless, attracting, training and retaining our next generation of hospitality workers promises to be a daunting challenge.
Demographics are one key factor. As the post-World War II baby boomers move on to their retirement years, the American birth rate fell for a sixth consecutive year in 2020, a decrease seen across all ethnicities and origins. A year later, in 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the U.S. population grew by only 0.1%, the slowest rate in our nation’s history. Like Japan and some European nations before us, we are a maturing nation. Moreover, our nation’s civilian labor participation rate, a measure of the percentage of the civilian population actively working or looking for work, has been steadily decreasing for the past two decades and shows no signs of rebounding.
Certainly, we must also understand the changing nature of work in our society, including the gig economy, work from home and related trends. Moreover, a recent Washington Post article further suggested that many service industry workers have moved on to better paying, perhaps more rewarding, jobs in other industries.
What Are We To Do?
Last year, the AHLA Management Committee, which I have chaired for the last several years, commissioned a study of some of the factors affecting the competition for labor. One part of the study looked at what other industries, from retail and restaurants to call centers or health care, are doing to attract new workers, while another looked at potential talent and labor pools. Examples of the latter included veterans and military spouses, back to work caregivers, retirees, visa holders and refugees. While it is a complex subject that merits a separate article, clearly, regulated immigration to the United States could offer a substantial number of motivated new workers for our industry.
Overall, these AHLA-sponsored studies suggest a variety of solutions that will appeal to distinct hospitality groups based on property type and staffing needs, as well as the local economy and its own labor and population dynamics.
However, one area is worth highlighting. Across different industry sectors there is a strong push on streamlining the application process, to include much quicker employment decisions. This may mean no second interviews, as too many applicants fail to show up past a first one; and making an employment offer within one hour or on the spot.
In hospitality, streamlining the employment process starts with making it easier for a potential team member to find us and begin the application process, while making clear what we are looking for and how we will make our employment decision. Perhaps, most importantly, are hiring managers selling themselves and the company? Maybe the applicant didn’t feel a connection and didn’t come back for a second interview because we were drilling them with rote interview questions, instead of listening to their interests and motivations.
The next generation is about connection. If they don’t feel connected in the interview, workers will find it somewhere else. As an industry, we need to ensure hiring managers are trained well in the interview process of today. Moreover, we should understand that the first step in staff loyalty is a great hiring and training experience.
Don’t compromise your hiring/company standards or what you believe in, such as pre-employment personality screening, but be open to what is working in other industries. Also, technology is helping bring us closer to guests in new ways; we must further explore and expand its use in recruitment and training.
Be Alert and Creative
The biggest challenge and requests in today’s workforce is a flexible work schedule, as people are more focused on work life balance. Creative employers will find ways to address these issues, balancing them with scheduling needs, brand standards and employment laws.
As another example, in many locations, it may be difficult for staff to find affordable housing close to the assigned property. This may be the time to have rental homes nearby for your staff. Employees are closer to work, which helps with transit costs and getting to your hotel on time. We can think of similar strategies in areas like childcare, completing education or shared positions. Be flexible and willing to improvise.
There are talented, motivated people out there who are eager to find a solid career and become the next leaders in the hospitality industry. Let’s open our recruitment aperture some as we rebuild our labor force for tomorrow’s competitive environment while enhancing the work experience for our employees.
Rick Takach is chairman and CEO of Vesta Hospitality.
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