In the hospitality industry, the C-suite manages the business decisions. Yet, the hourly employees are the face of the company, as the most consumer visibility typically happens with the lower rungs of the organization chart. That level of transparency creates challenges that are in many ways unique to the sector, which comprises food and beverage, travel and tourism, lodging and recreation enterprises.
Employee attrition is a challenge for all human resources managers, particularly in the current era of what Gallup, a global analytics consultancy group, calls the Great Resignation: Nearly 50% of all employees across all sectors are dissatisfied with their jobs and want new ones.
Replacing a skilled hourly employee in a factory is usually as simple as finding another person who can operate the machine. Replacing a competent member of a restaurant waitstaff, on the other hand, requires a hire who can sell the experience — making customers feel valued — and not just take orders and put plates on tables.
Moreover, talent turnover in the hospitality industry, which Statista ranks as the fifth largest employer in America, can run up to 75%. This costly issue is five times higher than other sectors, generally due to the seasonal nature of the business, according to the recruiting firm, Joseph David International. It estimates that productivity losses due to turnover accounts for 52% of employee replacement costs.
What Are Best Practices for Finding and Keeping Hospitality Employees?
The Best Practices Institute refers to hospitality employees as “frontline brand ambassadors.”
Professionals in the hospitality industry must be detail-oriented people. Service and attentiveness to the tiniest details of customer satisfaction — whether it’s at a bowling alley snack stand or a Michelin Guide hotel — directly impact the brand’s image and reputation. Over thousands of impressions, those impacts will show up on the bottom line, for good or bad.
Given the sector’s seasonal nature, high turnover rate and employee replacement costs, hospitality businesses require special attention to human resources initiatives that attract, train and retain high-quality employees.
Among its 10 best HR practices for the hospitality industry, the Institute includes:
- Develop internal talent pools. This process improves employee morale by showing talent their paths to advancement, and the organization deepens its institutional knowledge by retaining employees’ experience and commitment to customer satisfaction.
- Establish and communicate customer service values. Ensure that every “frontline brand ambassador” is engaged and motivated and understands that they are a meaningful and essential part of the organization’s success.
- Empower employees. Implement policies that encourage employees to go “above and beyond” what they can do to add value to the customer experience — and listen to their input.
As a result of World Health Organization (WHO) guidance, government cutbacks and furloughs imposed on the hospitality industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a new strategy for solving the challenge of employee attrition: cross-training.
“Cross-training makes your team more flexible in their skill set,” Scott Samuels, CEO of Horizon Hospitality, told HR Today. He notes the example of training a front-desk clerk to help elsewhere during a lull in check-ins or check-outs.
“There are opportunities for companies to get creative with the evolution of jobs — the combination of tasks, skills and responsibility and the delivery of the hospitality experience around fewer, better jobs,” he added.
How do HR Professionals Prepare for a Career in the Hospitality Industry?
Managing operations in the hospitality industry requires strong decision-making and problem-solving skills that enable the development and implementation of policies that support employee recruitment, training, compensation and performance.
Business professionals can earn a Bachelor of Business Administration degree focused on hospitality management such as the online program offered by Southeastern Oklahoma State University, to strengthen those skills and gain expertise in employment law and environmental and safety matters.
Graduates of this program are well-rounded problem-solvers who understand the day-to-day operations of various hospitality segments, including Native American gaming, managerial positions at hotels, resorts, restaurants and in sales and marketing.
The online program is identical to the in-class instruction at the university’s John Massey School of Business, fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).
Learn more about Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s online Bachelor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management program