HOSPITALITY STAKEHOLDERS – A RETROSPECTION WITH MALICE TOWARDS ONE AND ALL.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance”. – Alan Watts

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Hospitality Recruitments and the long waits.

The recruitment needs in hospitality have risen in tune with exponential rise in business volume of all players in the industry irrespective of size, location, branding, etc. The attrition rates are all time high with maximum movement in Gen Z profiles. Hospitality Industry has to recognize the changing needs of this cluster that caters to highest percentage of employees. The need for an early acceptance into the systems, better pay packages and benefits, enough time for personal and social commitments, defined but non-stringent growth parameters and self-esteem.

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The recruitment processes that take weeks and months of document verifications, reference checks with no update given to the applicant makes the good candidates look elsewhere. The recruiters keep enquiring for confirmations and dates of joining from the students who are selected in campus drives much ahead of their completion of respective courses but seldom share the LOIs and location details. How does one decide on giving a confirmation when nothing is known except the verbal assurances delivered in the pep-talk prior to campus interviews? The silence on part of recruiters becomes deafening at times and a is major reason why the deserving candidates drop out.?

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The students swaying away from Hotel Management Institutions.

?The once glamourized image of the hospitality profession has plunged in the post covid times with a trained and experienced hospitality personnel sitting idle in almost every household in the neighborhood.

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It is time that hospitality management institutes transform the vision and align the programs with global expectations. The age-old syllabus which has only seen shifting of topics and subject within the same curriculum needs freshness. The institutes have to bring in modules that are niche instead of generalized content as the industry too needs talent with key specializations. Final years of academics should give a profound understanding of entrepreneurship mindset, opportunities to plan and execute events and get a clarity to choose a career path which is not influenced by the mentors.?

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The mushrooming of hospitality institutions with no standard parameters and monitoring by the responsible bodies has changed the perspectives of new entrants into the hospitality profession. Most of these institutions that have inadequate faculty both in terms of numbers and quality offer short term programs that lead to creation of a workforce that can only cater to low paying jobs.

The stricture of recognizing the institutions to be leading in the business of hospitality education just because they have been there since decades has to be cracked. There are institutes that have not changed at all in decades of existence and offer the same facilities that were path breaking in erstwhile times but have become redundant today. A student joining such an institution feels cheated and sends the same message to siblings much faster than expected; making them take a negated decision with respect to hospitality profession.?

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Questionable delivery of services in absence of qualified and trained manpower by Hospitality industry.

Hospitality Industry would have a challenging task delivering people centric services if the current trend of core hospitality professionals moving to other sectors continues. Not everything can be handled by AI based technologies. It may be understood by the fact that many leading hotels in India introduced self-check in and check out terminals long back in the lobby but to date most of these have either been removed or have remained dormant.

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Vending machines installed in self-service hotels have miserably failed to motivate the guest to use them and ultimately the hotel’s operational model had to be changed. The guest still cannot overcome the urge to be greeted and treated personally by the hotel professionals.

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The phenomenal growth of the hospitality industry post reopening after two years of gloom is visible to each one of us whether we are a part of it or not. The revenues and average occupancies, food and beverage sales, MICE, are on an all-time high. With this the expectations of all the stakeholders have also changed; be it the investors or the employees.

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The necessary modulation in remunerations, incentives, benefits, work schedules can be excellent give backs to this workforce that has worked tirelessly for centuries in revving up multiple brands become household names.

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?Students preferring retail and other service-related sectors after finishing Hotel Management.

?The new generation of hospitality students is smart to identify the growth potential in proportion to the number of hours being put in. The emoluments and related benefits are key identifiers in making a decision. The retail and allied sectors have realized that hospitality graduates are equipped with a defined set of client handling skills, a decent communication ability and empathy which is crucial to their businesses. The costs incurred to train a fresh graduate from other domains is reduced and gets incorporated in packages offered to hospitality students.

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The idea of waiting patiently for five to seven years to reach a supervisory position as has been promoted after having started at entry levels has gone for a toss. The traditional capsules of loyalty are no longer ingested by Gen Z. They are more focused on immediate possession of expensive gadgets and a happening city life which is duly addressed at a faster pace when they work in retail and allied sectors.

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The equilibrium equation pacifying Education in Hospitality that took a beating during Covid and the insufficient remedies.

?There is no disagreement to the fact that hospitality education has lost the sheen it once carried owing to the circumstances that usurped during and post Covid with maximized layoffs in the industry across the hierarchy. The confidence has to brought back to the new generation getting prepared to become a part of the industry.

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Most of the hotels are offering pay scales that are barely equivalent to the minimum wage offered as per the state regulations which has more to do with abiding the labor laws. A daily wage unskilled laborer earns a sum which is either equal or at times higher than what the trained hospitality graduates get after much longer hours and limited breaks.

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A very few of the hospitality brands have taken an initiative to reorganize and create excellent working environment for the employees and industrial trainees. The work-life balance, social well-being, adherence to scheduled work hours, curtailment of the usage of inappropriate language on and off the work areas, reduction in forced overtime, inclusion of decent accommodation and transport facility, creating an atmosphere of better learning and memorable experiences during industrial training, etc. are some great initiatives being adopted by these brands. The model needs to be emulated and refined by all the players in hospitality industry.

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The Governments’ intervention to create awareness in giving Hospitality Education the much-needed boost and exhibit the prospects it brings along.

?A much-needed push from the respective governments to boost hospitality education is due now. Hospitality education. Although a lot is being done in creating awareness in the overseas markets but the results would only come in from applying the same at multiple levels within the country.

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Reaching out to the right segments of the society and providing facilities to train and develop in the distant locations to create sustainable tourism business models like homestays without having to move out of parental residential places shall have far reaching impact. The trainers need to be identified preferably from the same communities and given adequate resources for inclusion of training modules in everyday routine thereby assuring the collective acceptability.

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Mega and Regional Events not clubbed with Tourism Festivals, focused on hospitality trades and practices only, shall enlighten the masses about possibilities after having completed an educational degree, diploma, certificate or special training in hotel management and its sub-trades. The umbrella of tourism events overshadows beauty of hospitality trades viz. being a chef, a bartender, a sommelier, a housekeeper, a front desk professional, a food blogger, a mixologist, an avid food photographer, a facility executive, an airline crew, and much more that is exclusive to this realm.

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There are numerous acts and regulations put in place by the State and Central Governments to make working conditions labor savvy and conducive but the on-ground reality and implementation is a much different picture especially when it concerns the hospitality industry.

The steps to truly organize the hospitality sector have to be initiated before it gets too late.

Look forward to the brighter days and reciprocated value addition amongst the stakeholders in hospitality domain. The silver lining is not far away.

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“Change takes Courage”. – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez