VIENNA — Investing in staff is equally as important as earmarking capital expenditures, although the return on such investment might be harder to quantify, hoteliers said at the Hotel Investment Conference, Central and Eastern Europe, better known as HOTCO.
On a panel centered on human capital and return on investment, speakers said when money is tight, it's usually to the detriment of talent development. But now that the global hotel industry is largely recovered from the pandemic, that investment cannot be overlooked.
Sabrina Westphälinger, senior director for talent and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Accor, said there is a value proposition in what hotel firms can offer employees.
“We don't talk enough about career stories. We do celebrate them, but we and the industry still do not talk about this enough,” she said.
Daniela Wakefield, director of human resources in Austria at Hilton, said: “Growth is important for [Hilton], and this starts with staff.”
Ronald Egelman, senior director of development in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Nordics at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said staff management needs to start on the first day of employment.
The hotel industry gives “people entry-level jobs, likely their first job, and then we never manage them again, and they often decide to never work in hospitality again. A comparison might be the army; and even the armed services do a better job at this,” he said.
Panelists said the issue became heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when 30% to 40% of the workforce left the industry for good.
“They now are at Amazon, and I like to believe we offer a more exciting place to work. [Staff] is looked upon as a cost line, but it is always the interaction with staff that customers remember,” Egelman said.
“Without happy staff there will not be happy guests. Yes, we talk about brains, but it is the heart that has to be there first,” said Andrea Róna, group director of development at Danubius Hotels.
For the international branded hotel firms, the necessary culture needed to manage, improve and retain staff has to be replicated but also adapted across numerous flags.
“There is a different service culture for each brand within the same hotel firm, so that needs to be manageable,” Westphälinger said.
Information technology can help and is not the destroyer of talent, panelists said.
“AI can support those things that we already do well, and that is the key. Have those initial processes be as best-in-class as they can be before you start to introduce efficiencies,” Westphälinger said, adding she studies staff feedback, scores and self-analysis not just once or twice a year, but constantly.
Egelman said some brands will be able to staff with fewer employees, but that can often lead to a better environment for both staff and guests.
“There definitely is a demand for limited service, and that can derive from the guest or the investor. The answer is probably a little of both,” he added.
Westphälinger said the hotel industry is some distance away from getting that balance right.