Just a heads up here, I’m going to get a bit pedantic in this column.
After years of covering hotel industry conferences and listening to hotel executives speak about labor issues, I have to take issue with this overused sentiment: Our employees are our most valuable asset.
Look, I get it. From one perspective, it’s meant as a compliment as it implies someone is of use and has or creates value.
At the same time, "asset" also refers to literal things. In the hotel industry, we most often use it as a synonym for hotels or other real estate properties.
The industry has used the word interchangeably, and I worry that it gives the wrong impression.
The message hotel executives are trying to spread is that hotel employees are the ones who create the most value at their properties because of the hospitality they provide guests. In return, guests are happy and continue to spend their money at their hotels.
Yes, a hotel is a business, as are the companies that own and operate it, but as the industry is trying to evolve and improve how it treats employees and demonstrates that it recognizes their value, it would be better to go a little softer on the business terms when referring to people.
I know I’m nitpicking here, but at the same time, language matters. It can guide and reinforce mindsets. If used imprecisely, it can also send the wrong message. An asset is something that creates value for you, but an asset is also disposable.
Though the U.S. hotel industry has made progress in filling its job openings, don’t forget how it got all those openings in the first place. At the start of the pandemic, hotel companies saw demand take a nosedive, and they almost immediately turned to furloughs and layoffs of corporate and on-property employees. There’s no question the hotel industry faced a dire financial situation through 2020, but so did the employees who temporarily or permanently lost their jobs.
Right or wrong, when things got tough, companies cut people. In a labor-intensive industry, the greatest cost savings available was through layoffs and furloughs. I’m not arguing that was the wrong course of action, but it caught a lot of employees off guard how fast they were let go, almost as if they were expendable.
When hotel demand returned much faster than anyone expected, hotel companies tried to quickly bring back a lot of those same employees they had dropped just months earlier. Some returned to their old jobs, but clearly many did not. They stayed home or found other jobs, not wanting to go back to the same employers, the same industry that cut them loose so quickly.
The industry has to some degree put its money where its mouth is. Along with singing praises of its employees, executives generally increased pay for workers and have implemented other improvements to working conditions. Whether it’s enough is a topic for another day.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s a small change I’m asking for. No matter how useful they are or how much value they create, employees are first and foremost people. When we talk about them, it’s important to remember that and speak about them in a way that reflects that.
They have their own lives, inside and outside of the hotels and companies they work for. Don’t lose sight of that as you praise the work they do for you as their value extends beyond their labor. Don’t give them any reason to think you see them as anything less.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com and @HNN_Bryan.
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