3 Measures to Tackle The Shortage of Hotel Staff
Attracting well-trained hotel and restaurant professionals has been a challenge for some time. Both the pandemic period as well as the loss of overseas workers due to Brexit exacerbated the shortage of skilled workers in the hospitality industry, with many employees taking jobs in other industries to compensate for financial losses due to short-time work benefits.
So now that tourism demand has returned, the question for hoteliers is: how do you address the staff shortage to continue to meet demand? There is no simple answer to this question, but there are several successful approaches. Read this article to find out what you can do to address the staffing shortage in the hotel industry.
Find out:
- How severe is the staffing crisis in the hospitality sector?
- Action 1: Attractive working models and benefits
- Action 2: Score points in recruitment
- Action 3: Embrace digitalisation and outsourcing
How severe is the staffing crisis in the hospitality sector?
Let’s face it, staff shortages in the hospitality industry were reported long before the pandemic and Brexit. Despite this, the number of people employed in the sector increased in the decade leading up to the pandemic. However, according to research conducted by the workforce management firm “Fourth” more employees are exiting the hospitality sector now, than during the pandemic.
The British Governement has published their own research, showing that vacancies in hospitality have also risen to levels well above pandemic times.
We all know how complex the problem is and that there is no quick and easy solution. However, there are measures that hoteliers can take to address the skills shortage in the long term.
Action 1: Attractive working practices and benefits
Why do people leave you as an employer? Find out what the real reasons are and whether you can influence them. Once you know where the pain points are, you can adopt targeted measures to combat turnover and increase retention. Here are some questions to ask yourself as a company:
- Can you offer benefits such as access to fitness and wellness facilities or childcare?
- Can you improve the working environment? How can you ensure greater appreciation and cooperation within the team?
- Could the 4-day week become a feasible working model for more part-time workers?
- Can you reduce opening hours in combination with models such as multiple table occupancy per evening to make working hours more attractive?
- Are wage increases appropriate and economically feasible?
The more attractive you are as an employer and the happier your staff are, the better your chances of attracting and retaining good staff. So start a dialogue with your team and, if possible, with former colleagues to find out what you need to do.
Action 2: Score points in recruitment
If you are actively recruiting, look where your potential employees are. Are you looking for younger temporary workers or trainees? Use platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to promote yourself as an employer. People of different ages are on Facebook or may have subscribed to your newsletter. Advertise on as many portals and job boards as possible.
We are not a recruitment agency, but recruitment marketing and revenue management have one thing in common: reaching people at the right time via the right platform with the right offer. So, in both recruitment and revenue management, the key is to define your target audience and try to understand them as well as you can.
You can also do well in your job advertisements with a clear description of the benefits of the job. Paint a realistic, attractive picture of your hotel as an employer and of the tasks involved in the job. It is also helpful for applicants to know how your application process works.
Action 3: Embrace digitalisation and outsourcing
In the long term, you should also consider how you can compensate for the lack of staff in other ways. Look at your internal processes, firstly how you can make jobs with a lot of routine work more attractive, and secondly how you can use digitalisation and outsourcing to make yourself less dependent on the shortage of skilled workers in the hotel industry.
Routine work is for the machines
The targeted use of tools and technology can reduce the workload of employees and make their workplace more attractive at the same time. For example, if a front-office employee no longer has to manually enter numerous values, but only one or two into a program that automatically calculates the rest, this can simplify a tedious task and sometimes speed it up considerably.
Are your revenue management processes already streamlined? Are you already using tools that do the hard work for you? If not, we have something for you ? Including the all-important expertise to use the tools correctly and draw revenue-optimising conclusions from the data. Just get in touch.
Outsourcing for more independence
You may ask yourself how outsourcing in the hotel can lead to more independence. Let’s take the example of revenue management: Nowadays, it is difficult to find a qualified revenue manager and keep him/her in your own hotel in the long term. If you rely on high-quality external partners, you are not dependent on the skills and knowledge of one individual.
Ideally, when outsourcing services such as revenue management, you rely on a combination of state-of-the-art tools and expertise. With HotelPartner you get this synergy of a qualified team, proven expertise and modern technology to raise your revenue management to the highest level.
Hoteliers should look into where outsourcing can streamline processes and ensure, that they are not dependent on the acquisition of qualified specialists themselves. To discuss the possibility of outsourcing your revenue management, feel free to get in touch!
