Hoteliers with roles to fill, this may be an opportunity for you.
Having job openings in the hotel industry isn't exactly new. Even before the pandemic and recovery, the hospitality and leisure sector had nearly 1 million job openings to fill.
Last week, the American Hotel & Lodging Association shared the results of a survey conducted in February of 246 hoteliers. It found 42% of respondents said workforce shortages were among their top financial challenges.
"More than half of respondents report their properties are somewhat or severely understaffed. To recruit and retain employees, hotels are offering a range of incentives, including higher wages (70%), flexible scheduling (54%), hotel discounts (54%) and enhanced benefits (31%)," the AHLA news release states.
Well, the good/bad news to accompany this is a recent Gallup poll that found 72% of American respondents said it was a "bad time" to find a quality job. A survey of Americans from mid-2022 when 70% said it was a good time.
"More than half of workers are actively looking for a new job or at least watching for opportunities," Gallup writes. "And nearly half of those actively searching report it has been a negative experience, with many unable to land an interview."
So what does this mean for hoteliers? It sounds, at least initially, like a double-edged sword. Let's get to the good news first.
Of those surveyed, the most pessimistic respondents were college-educated and younger. Younger workers are also the most likely to be looking for a job.
Now, this of course doesn't mean everyone looking for a job is looking at the hospitality sector — but some of them will look, and this is an opportunity for hotel companies to highlight what they can offer.
We hear all the time in interviews and at conference panels about the need to find the right people for the job, show them the benefits and bonuses of working in the hotel industry as well as a career path that can take them from the property level on up.
Now's the time to make sure the word is out there.
Gallup also points out, however, that when people are reluctant to look for a job, they're more likely to stick with the job they have. That's not necessarily always a good thing.
"The shift has meaningful implications for employers," Gallup writes. "In a strong labor market, dissatisfied employees leave their organizations. In a tighter market, those corrections can be stalled. When workers cannot, or believe they cannot, leave, discontent can accumulate inside organizations rather than being corrected with turnover. This can create a quieter but more persistent drag on productivity, morale and culture."
The trick here, I guess, is to make sure that employees don't feel stuck and instead feel valued and professionally fulfilled. That requires making sure they're competitively compensated, given a path forward and listened to.
There's no one simple answer here, but the conditions provide hoteliers with an opportunity to maybe bring in some new talent while at the same time helping them understand that even if economic conditions make some wary of leaving their hospitality job, employers should still try to keep them happy to keep burnout at bay.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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