PHOENIX — The hotel industry has hundreds of thousands of jobs available, and filling those roles has been chief among its issues.
Danny Hughes, executive vice president and President of the Americas for Hilton, said during the "Leaders in Hospitality" panel at the 2021 Lodging Conference that it's the "single biggest issue we're all facing."
While the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to this issue, he said this problem began well before 2020.
"I do think there's multiple facets over the last 18, 20 months. We've had people worry from a health point of view, their lives have been disrupted from child care, and of course, there was some very well-intentioned assistance given by the jurisdictions that perhaps went on a little too long," he said.
Hughes said while there are multiple reasons for this issue, there are also "multiple ways we're going to come out of this."
"It's going to start with, I think, natural inertia," he said, adding all those factors above will naturally subside.
He stressed innovative and flexible efficiencies, for both customers and owners, must also be a driving force. This includes flexibility for staff, such as with schedules and pay.
"The last thing, and in my opinion, the single most important thing, is this is a damn great industry. ... If you believe in and buy into the concept that this industry is going to roar back to life, the opportunities for people to come in at entry levels ... we have got to create a great sense of excitement for this industry," he said.
Inspiring People to Work in Hospitality
Heather McCrory, CEO North and Central America, Accor, said when she came up through the ranks in the hotel industry, it would have been helpful before she reached five years into her career to have had someone show and tell her all the various things she could do.
"Taking that time in the beginning and actually explaining to the colleagues [almost like an orientation] ... we need to do a much better job capturing their attention at that stage, otherwise the turnover is crazy," she said.
Vinay Patel, the 2021-2022 chair of Asian American Hotel Owners Association Board of Directors, said inspiring future generations and those currently working at hotels boils down to creating the right culture.
It may seem like an easy answer, he said. But in today's labor market without the right culture and support structure, you'll lose out.
Patel suggested taking advantage of brand educational programs that help employees grow their expertise.
"If you help them, it can really inspire them to stay in this industry," he said.
Jim Alderman, CEO, Radisson Hotel Group, Americas, said to use the paths that people have chosen — whether it's management, ownership, operations — and help them fine-tune that and reach the top.
To help owners find employees and retain them, it's about taking care of them, said Liam Brown, group president, U.S. and Canada, Marriott International.
He agreed culture is the most powerful component, and pointed to Marriott's 94-year history.
There are three things that people want, Brown said: They want to know what is the job they're supposed to do, what success looks like, and if they have the tools and support to do that job.
Employees want to come to work each day feeling like they have a purpose, which will then trickle down to providing the best service.
"We are in service, not in servitude, and our mission is to provide the best possible guest experiences in order to further our brands, business and career opportunities," he said.
Leveraging Innovation
Hughes said 80% of Hilton's hotels have fewer than 50 employees. Conversations among Hilton team members include "bringing our enterprise closer to hotels, and our hotels closer to enterprise."
"If we can find ways to share what we do at an enterprise level, not just on the top line ... we've got to find ways to truly operate more at an enterprise-hotel level in greater ways than we have," he said.
Guests increasingly want personalization, he said, and the industry must reinvent itself get there. For example, room service is being reinvented.
"There's a whole industry of restaurants [that] deliver food better," he said, noting the concept now is not only allowing customers to order remotely but to also deliver it to them in high-quality, single-use packages that don't require staff to clean dishes after.
Radisson is increasingly using technology to automate certain systems while allowing staff to interact with guests, Alderman said. But training is also paramount.
"To improve the [property management system] ... it starts at the property level. A majority of our properties are select-service, so we don't have a ton of staffing, but you want to make that interaction meaningful and as fast as possible," Alderman said.
A majority of Accor's hotels in North America are luxury, and what's been helpful for McCrory's company is the adoption of innovation among customers is much stronger today. In the past, only a handful of guests would want to interact with hotel staff via mobile phones. Now, almost everyone does.
"It makes service so much faster, so much more efficient and drives bottom bottom line," she said.
However, the challenge for luxury hotels is deciding when to use mobile interaction.
"When does it become a little bit of a negative versus a positive? So we're working through all those pieces," she said.
For now, most guests don't want high-touch interaction, but McCrory said she doesn't anticipate that will last long and Accor will find its way back to those touch points.
Hiring in a Pandemic Era
Alderman said in Minnesota, where Radisson has its headquarters, there are about seven other major employers that were thriving during the pandemic. Because of that, Radisson had no choice but to be a flexible employer in the Twin Cities.
"Every search we've done recently with national recruiters, they said, 'You're going to narrow the list by 60% if you say it has to be Minneapolis-based,'" he said.
Radisson recently relocated its corporate office to a property that's about 50% of the previous building's size, and Alderman said he worries that still might not be small enough.
"I keep worrying that no one's going to show up, and right now the offices are reopened. We've, on a good day, got maybe a dozen out of 220 people there because we still allow people to work from home," he said.
Despite that worry, Alderman said this pandemic has allowed his company to focus on costs.
McCrory said employees have proven they can be productive while working from home, and this model allows for a whole new level of recruiting at the corporate level.
"People don't have to move anywhere ... it's opened up an entire new ability to recruit. It will make for hiring of better people," she said.
She added that hotels worked with companies like Amazon or Google to help its employees get jobs as they were forced to let them go, now the challenge is bringing them back.
"I think the work-from-anywhere component is actually one big component of it to actually make it easier for us [to get them back]," she said.