An increasing amount of Americans each month are voluntarily leaving jobs. The labor market for the hospitality industry, in particular, is becoming tighter as a result.
As reported by the New York Times on Jan. 4, the number of Americans leaving jobs is at record highs. More than 4.5 million quit jobs in November, up from 4.2 million in October.
Hotel News Now reached out to management companies to gauge how they are coping with the labor shortage.
Gregg Forde, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Island Hospitality Management
"The current state of the labor market for our company and others is difficult. The simple facts at the moment are that demand for jobs outstrips supply of labor and that challenge is further complicated with COVID difficulties. Our teams are doing a stellar job in managing through this time, and we focus on the here and now, but the fundamentals in the labor market make hiring difficult across the hotel industry.
"Island Hospitality has responded to labor challenges with increased wages, benefits expanded to part-time workers, flexible schedule and ability to enroll in daily pay. Additionally, lack of recognition and burnout in positions are cited as two of the top reasons people are leaving jobs these days, so our team works on sharing the expanded mental health offerings to staff to avoid burnout and focus on employee recognition in both small and grand gestures.
"With hotels located in multiple jurisdictions and the policies and protocols changing as new information becomes available, we focus on communication with our hotel teams and leaders. Companywide calls [are held] twice a week on COVID protocols, addressing the policies in each location and making sure our human resources team members are active with the hotels to address questions and ensure team members return safely to work."
John Davis, Managing Director — Asset Management, Driftwood Capital
"The labor market for hospitality remains very tight and is becoming tighter as business rebounds and additional positions are needed. Open positions in our hotels are 20% to 30% higher now than pre-pandemic, despite less overall staffing in the hotels. As corporate demand rebounds, it will be challenging to find labor to service the increased business, particularly in catering and housekeeping.
"Business volume will need to rebound to pre-pandemic levels before staffing is back to comfortable levels. Where many leisure and resort hotels have performed well, business and group hotels remain well below prior levels. Given the low unemployment rate, our concern is that when — not if — these hotels rebound, there will not be labor to service the demand.
"We have increased starting wages 15% to 20% but that does not offset today's smaller labor pool. It is difficult to implement flexible schedules in hotels because it is specifically based on servicing that day's business demand. To offset less applicants, our industry will need to improve overall efficiency. This can be done through innovation, such as mobile key that allows guests to check in without the front desk, and modifying brand standards and job duties to concentrate labor where it is most impactful and valued to our guests.
"Food and beverage, specifically catering, is our biggest ongoing concern. Catering business remains well below half of pre-pandemic levels and accounts for a large portion of a hotel's labor pool. As this segment rebounds, hotels will have a very difficult time finding the labor needed to service it. As such, we will need to continue to improve efficiency to allow us to provide the same level of service with less labor."
Jason LaBarge, Senior Vice President, HP Hotels
"We’ve had more success in trying to find and keep employees through the fall and winter — with more candidates applying and being hired, and more people looking for jobs. It’s going to continue to get better from that perspective. Our teams have been creative in how they have worked around [the labor shortage]. By cross-training and utilizing people in different ways, we’ve been able to get by relatively painlessly."
Mark Hemmer, President, Vesta Hospitality
"We've become more resilient with dealing with [the labor shortage]. The associates we have are stars, but we're still short-staffed really across the board.
"If you go back to the beginning [of the pandemic], when everyone was feeling the lack of labor availability, there's always resistance to wanting to spend a lot of money. Everything has a top end. What we've done is focus on retention of existing associates. If we don't solve that, we're never going to dig it out. We've always put a lot of focus on our associates — treating them right, giving a lot of opportunities for growth.
"In some cases, [taking care of associates] has meant increases, and sometimes significant pay increases. That's the gatekeeper. ... You've got to pay a competitive wage and then you can put yourself in a position to be successful.
"For a while, we felt like a dog chasing its tail. We'd hire five and lose four. Very quickly, we drew the conclusion that we had to focus on retention. Once employees get in and understand the company and expectations and feel the love, they're the ones who will say, 'You want me to work a sixth day; I'm happy to do it, to go the extra mile to create guest experience that we need.'
"The hotel teams are feeling the pressure. They're all working harder — the general manager, the food and beverage director, everyone is working harder and doing jobs that maybe in 2019 they didn't have to do."
Sheenal Patel, CEO, Arbor Lodging Management
"[Staffing at our properties is] starting to stabilize, but the new normal is significantly more challenging than pre-COVID.
"[Staffing will be at a comfortable level by] fall 2022. Continued ability to not clean stay-overs and using our new labor model, ALPINE, [will contribute to an improved staffing model]. "