Even as they struggle to get by day to day, hotels are looking to recruiting efforts to stabilize their operations.
Patrick Berwald, senior vice president of food and beverage for Pyramid Global Hospitality, said Pyramid has 180 full-service hotels and operates almost all the restaurants in those properties. He said there was a pandemic period when many employees decided to change industries — seeking less stressful careers.
But now, there has been a shift in the dynamic and hotels are selling and promoting themselves as employers again. But he stressed that “this is a challenge we will experience for many years to come. What occurred compounded underlying issues with work-life balance.”
While restaurants try to work with current conditions, they are also seeking to rebuild cultures that makes working in a hotel restaurant appealing and worthy of career consideration. Danny Py, vice president of food and beverage for management company First Hospitality, said there is an enhanced focus on scheduling with some markets offering three- to four-day workweeks.
“We’re trying to do more work-life balance to avoid burnout,” Py said, adding that he has had bartenders making $500 to $600 per night not show up “because they’re tired.”
Devin Burns, vice president of rooms and food and beverage for Omni Hotels & Resorts, said Omni has hired many associates recently who don’t have much food-and-beverage experience, which means training from the ground up is the focus.
“We are now about training, retention and culture-building,” he said, adding, “the all-in focus for us is the service culture.”
While wages are skyrocketing, money is not always enough to keep talent engaged, said Charlie Palmer, the celebrity chef who is launching a hotel brand called Appellation.
“Enhancing our corporate culture has been a top priority,” he said, adding that extensive resources are put behind a benefits plan.
Palmer also tries to encourage group staff activities at individual outlets to keep morale high.
Berwald said while his team is bringing in people who might not have had extensive kitchen experience, Pyramid is looking for prospects who have a strong desire to go into hospitality and have the appropriate aptitude and attitude. He is also solidifying relationships with universities and trade and technical schools to find talent.
Stressing that Pyramid is not just “throwing people out there,” Berwald said the company is making an effort to understand that what happens outside the workplace is important. There is also added focus on training, continuous learning and onboarding programs.
“We make sure the individual has everything they need to be successful and thrive with us.”
Sean Largotta, a partner at the Gansevoort Hotel Group, said his company “has clear brand standards and values which makes it easy for a potential employee to assess whether or not this is the place for them.”
That approach also provides a level of trust, he said. The human resources team has a presence online and encourages word-of-mouth talent acquisition. In addition, the goal is to promote from within, provide opportunities to learn other skills — such as if a server wants to learn to bartend — and offer incentives based on sales and online reviews.
Jason Kycek, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Casa de Campo Resort and Villas, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic, said that as part of his property’s efforts to improve morale and create a positive place to work, it brought in the “Great Place To Work” certification program a few years ago. This effort further helped management focus on recognizing, empowering, and supporting employees to be the best that they can be.
Richard Garcia, senior vice president of food and beverage for Remington Hotels, said his company's preference with restaurant staffing issues is always to find its own employees, although Remington does work with a third-party shift-based platform.
Those services cost a 25% to 30% premium to use and are more useful as a stopgap. For the long term, there is a move toward going back to basics — using networks and relationships.
Gone are the days of logging on to Indeed and looking at resumes, Garcia said. Now the preference is to go out and talk to colleagues.
Garcia said he will “share” employees with other management companies depending on market situations and day-to-day needs. He also taps into a large freelance market of self-employed people that might come to work for Remington for a monthlong assignment.
Technology on the Menu
The kitchen would seem to be a logical place to deploy technology, but it’s not always that simple. Py said robotics have been tested for cleaning and other tasks, including a robot that serves cocktails.
The technology is there but it’s still hard to quantity the ROI, Py said. While restaurants in Japan have been successful in using these technologies, they don’t fit every situation.
Largotta said Gansevoort is looking at robotic solutions mostly for repetitive motion types of work. Managers are also looking at new prep equipment that might provide pre-programmed types of cooking.
Garcia said his department contracts with a supplier that delivers sous vide meals for large groups. He said that while it costs a bit more, the meals are of extremely high quality.
“We have gotten zero pushback on pricing since we rolled this out in October,” he said.
Appellation co-founder and a longtime Four Season executive Christopher Hunsberger said employees are trained to handle bookings across services. For example, if someone orders an espresso in the lobby and mentions interest in a spa treatment, the barista can book the spa appointment on the spot.
Centralized resources also create a briefer onboarding process so new team members can get up to speed and jump into their roles as quickly as possible, Hunsberger said.
There is an abundance of software available that makes it easier to control costs, Largotta said, including managing portioning for recipes, prompting an order of stock once at a certain minimum threshold and managing staffing schedules, thus eliminating the need for a proper chef. However, this can severely limit the creativity produced in the kitchen.
Steve Smith, chief operating officer of San Diego-based Eat. Drink. Sleep Hospitality, said his company updated its point-of-sales system, and new handheld technology has helped speed up order-taking and closing out checks, resulting in a streamlined guest experience.
Paul Lynch, vice president of food and beverage at Aimbridge Hospitality, said the hotel industry “must lean into technologies that allow the staffing resources we have to work more efficiently.”
He said hotels need to automate routine processes or remove mundane aspects of service and allow service staff to focus on meaningful connections with guests. In addition to using robotics for food running and busing, Aimbridge is looking at next-generation tools such as such as combination ovens, robotic fryers, rethermalization baths and blast chillers.
Thinking Positive
Many think that while the pandemic might have presented challenges, it also provided a crisis environment where novel solutions came into play that may provide benefits to hotel restaurants for the foreseeable future.
Garcia said the pandemic helped employees realize that “it isn’t about chasing the almighty dollar; it’s about taking control of your life.”
He also said the crisis gave the industry the opportunity to reset what it does in food and beverage. For example, before the pandemic some brands required hotels to serve lunch. That would often mean a four-hour shift with two cooks and not many diners. Lunch has not come back, he said, except in luxury resorts or experiential restaurants.
Py added that the crisis “has forced everyone to become more efficient and wear lots of hats.” He himself, as well as food and beverage directors, has been in the kitchen cooking or “pushing out’ a banquet.
Berwald agreed the pandemic forced the industry to think differently. Major events like the pandemic result in managers “ throwing everything up in the air.”
It’s disruptive, he said, but necessary to understand the best way to operate.
“We have moved on, and now it’s just about working smarter, not harder,” he said.