Hiring in Industry related perspective – Hospitality

 


Since the epidemic struck, Organizations, employees and the whole industries faced difficult challenges, and no industry escaped unharmed. There is one sector that has been hit particularly hard and is still struggling to regain its footing and expand on a foundation that is getting shakier: hospitality ((Dodds, R., & Butler,R., 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unexpected changes to the hospitality industry, highlighting specific workforce liabilities that impact of technology adoption, shrinking labor pools, and workplace risks are likely to be accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and the current projections suggest that 24% of COVID-induced layoffs may be permanent (Altig et al., 2020).

Nyhetsrummet (2020) stated that in Sweden, the average lodging occupancy rate dropped 34% from August 2019 to August 2020, resulting in a financial loss of $182 million USD and the US lodging occupancy rate showed a year-over-year decrease of 30% (Shapoval 2020).

Candidate volumes increased following the lockdown, but the pendulum soon swung the other way. Due to the current tight labor market, there are a staggering number of open positions and a low unemployment rate. The hospitality sector is eager to resume its full-throttle operation, but the lack of candidates is holding them back and become increasingly of a reason for concern. Additionally, a conflict in Europe has replaced the COVID19 upheaval almost instantly, illustrating how unpredictable and unstable the present work economy is (Dodds. R., & Butler. R., 2019). The demand for a flexible, agile recruiting process that can be scaled up or down with ease, as well as a complete service of talent achievement methods, is greater than ever for hospitality organizations engaged in high-volume hiring. The unemployment rate gradually decreased between 2014 and 2019, which resulted in a predictable labor market and, thus, predictability in hiring. However, the epidemic struck like a meteor that no one could have predicted, causing an unpredictable series of employment rate peaks and valleys (Dogra, 2020).

The future employment market is wildly unclear, and organizations need agile recruitment systems that allow enterprises to flow with the constantly shifting market. This is because the labor market has seen four significant upheavals in the past two years. Organizations doing it wrong if designing the hiring procedure with a steady job market in mind.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of February 2022, the overall unemployment rate was 3.8%, and there was broad job growth, driven primarily by expansions in the leisure and hospitality sectors. To put things in perspective, the unemployment rate in February 2020 before the epidemic was 3.5%. Between November 2021 and January 2022, there were 1,298,400 job openings in the United Kingdom, and the unemployment rate is 4.1% just 0.1 percentage points lower than it was before to the epidemic. However, compared to just 13% across other industries, 30% of U.K. hospitality organizations stated vacancies were harder to fill than usual between August and September 2021 (Jameson, 2022).

Many people who previously worked in the hotel business before COVID have sought job stability in alternate industries as overall unemployment rates slow, with employers providing little to no incentive for them to return. Prior to the pandemic, the hotel sector had the luxury of receiving more applications than hotel could ever use (Dodds, R., & Butler, R., 2019). As a result, ineffective recruitment procedures went ignored. But now that the large candidate pool has shrunk, the consequences of these enduring inefficiencies are vividly apparent. Candidates who apply for jobs but never hear back, are required to fill out their information again on different systems, or must wait weeks for an interview are turning away great talent.

Candidates now have more choice in the job search due to a tight labor market, and candidates are no longer ready to accept low-paying jobs with inflexible schedules and ordinary working conditions. Matching the pay rates to industry standards is consequently no longer sufficient. Restaurants must devote the same resources time, money, and attention to attracting candidates and staff as to attracting customers in this new candidate-driven economy (Jameson, 2000). An excellent place to start attracting fresh talent is by updating employee perks, pay, and the recruiting process. Describe the positive aspects of working in the restaurant and hotel industries (flexible schedule, fun work environment, career growth). Create referral bonus programs to encourage the present staff to find new hires for restaurants! To encourage an employee to put in the effort, make sure the referral bonus is attractive enough.

But this is just the beginning. Early attrition and turnover rates are still high, so the businesses have to stand out from the competition and foster a positive workplace culture where workers feel valued and motivated to stick around.

The repercussions of a pandemic economy have been felt by the younger generation, much like the effects of the financial crisis in 2009. Young generation observed how the pandemic affected dining establishments and the hospitality sector, and this generation are wary about beginning their career in what the generation observe to be a dangerous sector (Hospitality Recruitment and Covid-19, How do we maintain the human touch, 2020). Although this reputation won’t last for very long, the business will nevertheless need to counter it by emphasizing the advantages of restaurant and hospitality jobs for young people. The younger generation will eventually come back if there are flexible scheduling, strong benefits, and fantastic work experience (Fox, 2021).

The focus for 2022 will be on fixing antiquated hiring systems and processes to deliver a transparent, frictionless hiring experience that is prepared to pivot or scale in response to unanticipated changes in the market, despite the fact that the labor market for entry-level hospitality roles continues to change and is a complex issue to address (Jameson, 2022).


List of Reference

Altig D., Baker S., Barrero J. M., Bloom N., Bunn P., Chen S., Davis S. J., Leather J., Mever B., Mihayloy E., Mizen P., Parker N., Renault T., Smietanka P., Thwaites G (2020) Economic uncertainty before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, J. Public Econ. 2020;191[online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7480328/ [Accessed 16 August 2022].

Dodds, R., & Butler, R. (2019). Overtourism: Issues, realities and solutions (Vol. 1). De Gruyter Oldenbourg. 

Dogra.S., (2020), COVID-19: Impact on the hospitality workforce, EHL group, Switzerland [online] Avaialble at: https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/covid-19-impact-hospitality-workforce [Accessed 16 August 2022].

Fox, J.T. (2021). AHLA predicts hotel industry job losses for 2021. HM Hotel Management. [online] Available at: https://www.hotelmanagement.net/operate/ahla-predicts-hotel-industry-job-losses-for-2021 [Accessed on 16 August 2022]

Hospitality Recruitment and Covid-19. How do we maintain the human touch? (2020), [online] Available at: https://www.instituteofhospitality.org/hospitality-recruitment-and-covid-19-how-do-we-maintain-the-human-touch/?fbclid=IwAR3QVpfiiGLlCtABO0kHWQpXfdZXenAd5OPIIQc3LlzdhsBgiGvZx1e-K8k# [Accessed on 16 August 2022]

Jameson, S.M. (2000). Recruitment and training in small firms. Journal of European Industrial Training, 24(1), pp.43–49. [online] Available at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03090590010308255/full/html [Accessed on 17 August 2022]

Shapoval.V., Hagglund.P., Pizam.A., Abraham.V., Carlback.M., Nygren.T., Smitha.R.M., (2020), The COVID-19 pamdemic effects on the hospitality industry using social systems theory: A multi-country comparison, National Library of Medicine [online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8631802/ [Accessed on 17 August 2022]

 

  






Comments

  1. Dilki Ishara VidyaniSeptember 16, 2022 at 2:38 AM

    For instance, Marriot International Inc. a hospitality giant in the world, recognizes that they have a huge competition with other companies for talented people and if they failed to arrange a proper recruitment process and a training program, they may suffer higher turnover in future and also will face decreased guest satisfaction, low morale, inefficiency and internal control failures (Marriot International, Inc. 2018).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shanaz SamseerSeptember 16, 2022 at 9:51 AM

      To make hospitality industry more attractive in the labour market, the organizational recruitment policies and functions should develop its surrounding to KPIs of recruitment to facilitate the searching and motivating functions of recruitment. Hospitality organizations should practice time befitting recruitment process to create positive stimuli for the future workforce due to encourage them to join hospitality industry and by this more sources of recruitment will be created to balance the HR supply and demand of hospitality work force (Huda and Khan, 2014).

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