The global pandemic’s impact on hospitality industry is not understated. It pushed industry leaders to unlearn old habits and come up with new strategies, policies and practices in-line with the new reality.
These new integrations involve adopting new recruiting and training methods in accordance with changing trends, incorporating technological advancements, embracing innovative ideas at all levels of operations and making the right investments along with balancing the cost and profit ratio. It is a good time for organisations to assess and reflect upon their challenges and risks, and customise solutions by re-evaluating the same.
Besides solutions, organisations require smart strategies, a conducive growth environment, a healthy work culture, and regular training to succeed in all weathers. Here are the challenges organisations faced, and strategies that they can adopt, to move ahead in 2022 with a positive and growth mindset.
THE CHALLENGES
One of the biggest challenges that industry faces is finding and retaining a skilled workforce. The pandemic brought with itself a big loss of jobs within the hospitality sector. Not only did people lose jobs, but they also lost confidence in the industry. Many opted to move to alternate career streams, with a very less inclination towards returning to the industry. Young graduates fresh out of hospitality schools also started exploring other options and sectors to work in.
Another challenge was the change in consumer behaviour and spending habits. To bridge the gap between the supply of services and consumer demands in the post-pandemic world, the industry required a quick switch to a better game plan.
For instance, consumers demanded for more personalised and immersive experiences while travelling rather than merely seeking a comfortable stay. This raised the need for a skilled workforce equipped with skills to provide a great service experience.
Similarly, the need for hospitality industry to move ahead digitally and integrate technology into every service has become crucial. With every consumer experience now defined by tech, it is the only way forward.
THE STRATEGIES
As I’ve mentioned before, the first step organisations need to take is to embrace the ADR (Attract, Develop and Retain) strategy for sieving and retaining talent. The current times demand the industry to change the perception of being seen as an underpaid, overworked industry. To make it more employee-centric, progressive and adaptive, employers need to revisit salary structures and revise the same to make employees feel more valued and appreciated monetarily. It is important for organisations to recruit and retain the best of talent. This way they will not only retain them but also manage their expenses without bringing any exponential surge in their fixed costs on the payroll.
Along with salary improvements, industry players need to revisit their corporate and marketing strategies. They need to adopt advanced technologies to improve employee productivity, increase their ability to multitask, and deliver better services to guests. Virtual and augmented reality, cloud solutions, contactless features, and robotics can transform the industry’s daily operations and provide a more personalised experience to customers as well.
Technological prowess can eventually lead to enhanced employee experience and a low attrition rate in the hospitality sector. Employers can achieve high employee engagement and productivity by enhancing the use of smart technologies at the workplace. With the support of multiple digital touchpoints, channels, and devices, organisations can become accessible, engaging, entertaining, caring, and understanding the needs of both consumers and their workforce.
COMPANY CULTURE
Organisations need to pay as much attention to the work culture and environment as they do to their balance sheets and service delivery. Employee engagement and happiness has always been an important factor in achieving their commitment and retention, and these have become even more important in the post-pandemic world.
Unarguably, employees are the face of the hospitality industry, and if they are happy and satisfied, it will get reflected in their services to clients. In the hospitality industry, everything boils down to good service experience, and in providing so organisations need the support of their employees. When employees feel valued, they pour in extra effort to provide exceptional service.
Organisations also need to become less insular and more open to cross migration of talent between other service sectors with strong adjacencies with regards to customer-centricity. Building a strong culture based on transparent and effective communication and soft skills is another step in the row.
TRAINING & MENTORING
Workplace strategies, when implemented with empathy, compassion and growth mindset, can contribute to a positive effect on turnover and also help to attract more new employees. It is important for employers to train employees on a regular basis not only to retain them for a longer duration but also to increase their overall performance and efficiency.
Organisations can tie up with hospitality institutes to provide employees with the option of undertaking a sponsored education, like executive MBAs, without requiring them to leave their job. Incorporating a culture of regular training for upskilling of employees will keep them up-to-date with trends, skills and practices These training sessions could be both specific (catering to certain technical know-how) or generic with a special focus group or goal (such as enhancing women leadership, personality & soft skills development, crisis management, etc.)
Such measures will help employees at every level grow as better professionals and learn how to turn challenges into opportunities. To invite external experts and industry leaders for workshops and talks is always a great move, but companies can also go for sessions by their own leadership teams, inter-teams leaning and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing sessions. Cross-sector training is another equally important segment that hospitality firms can explore.
To thrive in the future, the hospitality industry needs to adopt both a customer-centric as well as employee-centric approach.
