Whenever I'm on the road, attending conferences and meeting with decision-makers in the hotel industry, there's one topic that is never the main focus of discussion but is always nestled deep down into the narrative to the point where someone will mention it in passing, everyone around will nod in agreement about how serious and pressing the issue is, then almost immediately move on to something else.
That issue is the seemingly shrinking pipeline of students into hospitality programs at colleges and universities.
Now, in fairness to the hotel industry, there are many, many pressing issues that need to be tackled and sorted out right now, not the least among them is the ongoing severe labor crisis, which it seems many are treating like a short- to medium-term issue, rather than a long-term fundamental risk to the health of the hotel industry.
But I'm here to warn you right now that if hoteliers don't take the dwindling stream of talent seriously, they'll be paying the price for decades to come.
I think everyone should be aware right now just about the reputational challenge the hotel industry faces when it comes to workers. You can't lay off the majority of an industry all at once and not pick up a bit of a stigma.
And as that happened and the depths of the employment risk became clear, it wasn't just the line-level employees that fled, but many of the folks who had skill sets that directly translated to other industries left, as well.
And honestly, I can't really blame them. If I imagine it's 2020 and I'm an accountant for a hotel company, why live with the sword of Damocles hanging over my head if I could go work in any number of other industries with more stable employment prospects.
Similarly, during the recent Hotel Data Conference, I had a source point out that many companies put internships and starts for new college grads on hold over the course of the pandemic. In other words, roughly two years' worth of fresh college grads ended up being chased out of hotel-related jobs into the open and waiting arms of other industries that will happily hire people such as young revenue managers for their data analysis skills.
Couple that with the fact that any college-bound, 17-year-old across the globe could look at the difficulties the hotel industry faced, so it's not hard to imagine why most of them chose different paths. And that's at a point where enrollment was already on a downward trend, so it just added fuel to the fire.
This all combines to present an extremely serious and pressing issue that if left to fester will grow from a kitchen fire to a blaze that engulfs the entire industry.
So what's the solution? Obviously industry organizations like American Hotel & Lodging Association will have to play a role in proving out to young people why they should come work in hotels and coordinate wide-scale outreach programs.
But beyond that, any individual hotelier and hotel company should be doing everything in their power to reach the young people near their businesses to try to chip away at the issue. We hear so often that the hotel industry is a street-corner business, and that's as true here as anywhere else.
So then the question you should be asking yourself individually is, "Am I doing enough? Who should I be reaching out to to try to sell young people on the exciting, fun life they have ahead of them working in hotels?"
Another interesting point I heard at HDC was from someone who said they don't fear a second wave of flight from the industry. Their point basically boiled down to anyone not fully committed to working in hotels or who might feel a bit skittish has already left. The people working in the industry now are the ones that have hospitality in their blood and can't imagine doing anything else.
Setting aside how much you may or may not agree with that point for the time being, that also begs the question: How can we hope to find the next generation of people who love hotels so passionately if they don't get that first taste?
This is a deep and pressing issue, and if you're not doing anything to address it, you need to change that right now.
Let me know what you think on Twitter, LinkedIn or via email.
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