What do our future leaders want and need?
There have been many ‘unprecedented’ events over the last few years. From Covid-19 to Brexit, wildfires to floods via a whole host of societal shifts, the times they are a-changing.
This word has also been used to describe the ‘shortages’ of labour & talent in the hospitality industry and yes, things like the UK’s Brexit or global furlough policies have certainly squeezed the labour market tighter.
But could any of us really say that these issues in our industry are ‘unprecedented’? What the events of the past years have done is exacerbate something we knew already- the way we recruit in hospitality, particularly for leadership roles, is just not working the way it should.
Karina Coen, managing director at hospitality operations tech start-up Sprint says ‘"The recruitment and retention challenges have been around long before Covid… as an industry, I think we perhaps need to challenge some accepted norms on why retention is low."
Firstly, there is no shortage of talented people who would be incredible leaders. What there is, is a lack of trust in the industry to provide stable jobs with decent wages and clear career progression. A lack of access due to visas or lack of formal training. Essentially, we have created a gig economy where loyalty is not always built or rewarded on either side.
The road to here was sometimes paved with good intentions- one example being businesses attempting to address the work/life balance by reducing hours for the sake of wellbeing. But rarely in these cases are the wages adjusted to soften the financial blow of this loss of work time rendering the good intentions meaningless.
There are a myriad of reasons why we find ourselves here today and we have to be proactive and forward-thinking in our desire to attract the next generation. We need to futureproof the industry, passing the hospitality baton to those who will love being part of it as much as we do. For this to work, however, we need to understand what our future leaders want and need- it’s a two-way street after all!
Financial, Payscale & Working Hours
We start with finance as the most important of our future leader’s needs and a key factor in the decision on whether to take a job. In hospitality, this is often with good reason.
Minimum wage has become the standard with many relying on gratuities to top up salaries. As evidenced by furlough, this can have disastrous financial consequences for staff. There are no real incentives for driving revenue in the management teams and little to no ownership within current business models. The salaried employees are often exploited with overtime not being accounted for.
In some countries, the very fact of being a hospitality worker means no access to credit or mortgages due to the unreliable nature of their pay. The cost of living in major cities is not reflected in wages and unlike the old days, hotels rarely offer accommodation for staff anymore.
To attract the NEXTGEN, we need to take a harder look at exactly what we’re offering. Fair pay and benefits for good people are key to attracting future leaders who are all too aware what the shortcomings of traditional hospitality salaries are.
Experience & Flexibility
Whilst nobody would deny that having qualifications from a recognised culinary school or other formal hospitality training is a great addition, let’s not forget the most important thing you can possess in our industry- personality. For example, operations is such a key part of development, from the Barback to General Managers, BOH to FOH. When theory can only get you so far and operations skills can only really be learnt by working in operations, it’s clear what we need to do… take as much training as possible in-house and on the job.
Some great people come from non-traditional backgrounds, bringing with them life experience or management skills that just cannot be taught. To attract a diverse spectrum of talent, we need to focus less on prior formal training and more on what the individual can bring to the table.
Whilst hybrid working is generally not applicable in our industry, willingness to discuss flexibility in the role can also open up the floor to some fantastic candidates.
Sustainability
One thing’s for sure and that’s that the NEXTGEN want to work for a responsible company that takes sustainability seriously, in all its guises.
There is huge hospitality growth planned but we have no pipeline in place for these ‘shortages’. We rely more and more on agencies for training our future staff and stopgaps only make the problem worse. This is just not sustainable. To achieve the long-term goal of bringing in leaders with a clear vision of their future, maybe it’s time that our venues established fixed training pipelines.
The other side of the sustainability coin is sustainability training itself. There’s an awful lot of virtue signalling but a lack of actual awareness and action when it comes to making good on these promises. The knowledge that they are working in a business that genuinely wants to do good is a huge part of attracting our NEXTGEN to their future roles.
Development & Pathways
Our developmental offerings require a serious makeover- a reset to make this an
attractive industry in which to grow your career. Right now, our NEXTGEN looks at working in hospitality and see long, unsociable hours, low pay, no weekends, a disconnect to friends and family not working in the trade and little opportunity to achieve qualifications or training.
As hotels and restaurants rarely use recruitment agencies anymore due to associated costs, it is up to us to change this reputation. We need an emphasis on Diversity & Inclusion practices, we need to offer fair pay and we need to open these opportunities up to a wider pool.
We talk of hospitality as a global industry but this just cannot be the case when access to development opportunities is based on a candidate’s geographical location- this means that the perfect person for the role may not be considered purely based on the passport they hold. In places like Dubai, the UK or the EU, no visa literally means no job. We need to create transparent pathways to get the right people in the right places.
These pointers are just 4 in what could be an entire manual on attracting our NEXTGEN leaders but probably the most valuable.
Simply, we want to instill a passion for the industry in our recruits but that is only possible by ensuring a situation where the talent is promised (and delivered) job security, fair pay and career prospects with clearly defined pathways.
It’s time we opened up an honest dialogue amongst our generation to ensure that we create a positive environment to entice the next gen to, what we know, is one of the most rewarding industries in the world when done right.
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