Co-Sourcing – stop the employee revolving door

The economic recession triggered by Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on businesses large and small. With our hotel sector undoubtedly among the hardest hit. 

For some organisations, the best way forward has involved operating with reduced staff numbers, and remaining employees assuming additional roles. The pandemic is amplifying a situation that’s long been a problem within the hospitality sector – staff turnover.

High employee turnover

Our industry operates at an alarmingly high 30% staff turnover rate. Each year, 3 out of every 10 people leave their role for another. With many differing reasons contributing to this figure, from issues around support or pay & benefits to a lack of career advancement or burnout

It’s clear hotel operators need to look at how staff turnover can be reduced, but the employee revolving door constantly presents many challenges. Two of the most significant are a direct result of having to regularly recruit, select and on-board new-starters:

•  The increased personnel cost and fees involved in recruiting
• The additional time and resources constantly having to be diverted from other tasks.

The hidden costs

Less obvious, yet just as significant, are the ‘hidden costs’ of high staff turnover, particularly in central functions such as sales, operations and marketing:

•    Expertise and knowledge that leaves your business and re-surfaces elsewhere.
•  Time and resources are invested in developing staff, only to see many walk out of your door into a competitor business, with all that expertise and knowledge.
•  Existing personal relationships.
•  Staff who leave have built personal relationships with clients. Your existing relationships instantly come under threat. Will clients move with the people who leave your business?

The co-sourcing solution

Combatting the threat of these ‘hidden costs’ is a challenge with a ready-made solution: Co-sourcing – a collaborative, partnership approach to building and running highly effective departments or functions.

Co-sourcing isn’t outsourcing. Outsourcing has been present in the hospitality sector for many years. Frequently used when hiring to fulfil a task, project or basic function when you don’t have the manpower, knowledge, or time in-house. Its’ typically used for frontline or housekeeping roles but brings with it added responsibilities including managing the people you outsource. As such, it’s seen as short term or tactical and associated with cost cutting.

Co-sourcing is a different kind of relationship. One where the client and co-sourcing partner build a dedicated team – an extension of existing departments – creating a longer-term strategic relationship. Skills, expertise and systems are brought in to fill gaps and create a robust structure. One focused not on cost cutting but on driving growth.

Key Advantages of Co-sourcing 

1.        Focus on core business: By co-sourcing dedicated experts, you gain access to business processes that deliver results. Lowering the cost of recruitment whilst securing the experience you need in the places you need it allows you to maintain focus on and control over your core business objectives.

2.     Instant Access to Expertise & Knowledge: With hotel sector and function expertise, a co-sourcing partner possesses the critical skills, knowledge and systems you need. They bring ready-made experience and access to intellectual property, meaning strategic or tactical plans are quickly executed with no ramp-up time required. 

3.     Synchronized Deliverables: Working towards shared goals leads team members to integrate fully, with everyone having a sense of ownership for both failure and success. Team structures, processes and systems are built to work seamlessly around standards and policies unique to your business.

4.     Minimize Sourcing Risks: Working with a co-sourcing partner to meet your needs and the challenges facing your business allows you to plug gaps, bringing in just what you need to grow. You remove the potential of a bad internal hire that becomes a drain on resources and a challenge to rectify.

5.     Increased Transparency: Developing a long-term relationship with shared goals encourages trust and open communication. Understanding the company’s objectives and vision, a co-sourcing partner develops an agile plan and builds the right team to support your business needs, working as one with your in-house employees.

Now is the right time for new perspectives 

The pandemic has been a catalyst for businesses offering new services or engaging new markets. And whilst pivoting brings the opportunity to generate more revenue, it takes manpower. On-boarding new full-time employees or temporary staff allows you to determine how working hours are spent, but it also requires you to ensure they’re the right fit for your company culture. And if you find your new hire isn’t, it’s a headache and costly to let them go. So the revolving door continues to revolve.

Co-sourcing is a model that offers an opportunity to plan for recovery without the threat of skills, knowledge and client relationships being lost when staff leave. But with the help of an experienced partner invested in shared goals that deliver results.

At APLBC our team of co-sourcing experts support independent hotel operators and serviced apartment operators across the globe with sales, marketing and operational support, strategic development and consultancy services.

At APLBC, we help stop the revolving door.