Where have all the workers gone?
If one were to change the lyrics of the song ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’ to relate to the hospitality industry, it may well begin:
“Where have all the workers gone, long time passing? ‘Where have all the workers gone, long time ago? Gone to other industries, every one! When will the industry ever learn… they may not return?”
We all agree that COVID-19 posed a massive challenge that left no one unscathed. People were left without jobs as businesses were forced to close and people left simply because of fear of working in some businesses that left them vulnerable, such as in hotels and restaurants.
The psychological toll of losing a job due to COVID-19 caused many young hotel and restaurant workers to consider changing careers. The intention to leave was particularly strong among women and younger workers. Many have done just that and we can see the consequences.
While there has been an enthusiastic return of guests and diners to hotels and restaurants, the same cannot be said of hotel staff. It’s a totally different narrative in the hospitality industry which is in recovery mode and is desperately scrambling to find the workers they want. There are many factors for their woes, but one may be that because of the pandemic, people think that hospitality is no longer an industry they want to work for.
An assistant professor in WSU’s school of Hospitality Business Management lamented that he’s seen some of his students look for really good jobs in other service industries and expressed mixed feelings about their decisions. These are students, he says, who are well-equipped to thrive in most positions in the service sector and when they leave, it is an irreplaceable loss for the hospitality industry.
Then there are those who joined the hospitality industry to work themselves up the ladder – only to leave after the pandemic. 28 year old Karl Summerfield now works at Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Swansea as a packer. Having worked in the kitchen for 12 years, he was made redundant overnight. Karl says he has no intention of going back, adding that he likes having more time to spend with his family and that he enjoys interacting with and meeting new people, learning new tasks and hopes to work his way up to manager level. There are thousands of young people like Karl who seem to have found their new calling.
What are the drivers that influenced hospitality employee turnover where employees changed jobs even prior to COVID-19? There are two primary drivers; those that are beyond the control of the hospitality industry (exogenous) and those that are within hospitality industry control (endogenous). Exogenous drivers include pandemics such as COVID-19 (related vaccine risks) and man-made calamities (e.g. recession) or Force majeure (e.g. earthquake). Endogenous drivers include job benefits, career satisfaction and quality of work life.
The hospitality industry faces a relatively low work condition perception. Without enhancing work conditions, the industry will remain challenged by high turnover rates as well as hospitality employees reassessing their work and not returning for work in the industry - even when the memory of COVID-19 fades.
It must work hard to enhance employees’ perceptions of the working conditions in the industry. Otherwise, turnover intention and employees’ ‘why continue to work?’ reassessment will remain high in the hospitality industry. Hospitality business managers will need to carefully determine how best to resolve the labor shortage for their business.
Historically, whenever industries have faced an acute labour shortfall in the workforce – especially in the bottom layer, a well known solution to lure labour employees to return to an industry was to raise wages. However, a blanket solution across the industry to raise wages it may not work for every organisation. In addition the ‘ripple’ effect it creates up the employee line may cripple many businesses.
Hospitality business operators must adopt innovative business strategies and solutions to improve the relationship between employees’ preferences with the job characteristics. An attractive fit at a minimum would mean improving hospitality employees work life balance, income, and ability to provide for family. That’s going to be a hard act to follow if businesses place maximizing profits far above that of choosing to balance capital, labor, and workplace environment, so as to entice young people to work in the hospitality industry.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
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