Enlisting the army as a hotel industry role model

Insight Comment Fixing the reputation of the hospitality industry is vital if staffing shortages are to be alleviated. The industry has an unfortunate association with long hours and low pay. But it’s not just the image that need buffing up. Schemes designed to enhance career progression opportunities may serve employers very well.

Methods deployed by the British army may provide invaluable clues for the leisure industry facing acute shortages in labour, delegates at the Annual Hospitality Conference (AHC) heard.

TV advertising by the army – and navy – portray the services as an inclusive and fair-minded employer. The marketing also emphasises the skills training – and eventual job opportunities – that come if you enlist.

Kate Nichols, CEO of UKHospitality, drew the comparison while speaking on a panel with three other industry experts.  

Stephen Cassidy, senior vice president and managing director for Hilton in the UK, Ireland and Israel, echoed the views of the whole panel saying that the staffing issues came with a post-pandemic “structural change” in the UK labour market. But he also expressed confidence that answers would be found. “We are an industry full of problems solvers,” he said.

Nicholls said the industry needed to use the pandemic as a spur to “reset” their employment priorities. 

Marc Crothall, CEO of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, observed that customer expectations had risen in the wake of Covid and were now “extremely high”. That, he said, underlined the need to give employees more thorough training.

He added: “You won’t get very far trying to micro-manage the younger generation of entry-level employees and in that sense what you need to give them is a great boss.” 

Nicholls said immigration policies may have to be revisited as part of finding a long-term solution for the labour market. 

More pressing, however, she said, is the need to collect and analyse reliable data. She said that the gaps in supply of labour were widely appreciated. Less is known she said, about how and why workers had left, or weren’t rejoining, the sector.

Speaking more broadly, Nicholls characterised three issues facing the hospitality industry as ‘grey rhinos.’
The metaphor follows on from so-called ‘black swan’ risks – in this case the pandemic – that were or should have been well appreciated yet still came as a surprise. 

‘Grey rhino’ number one is the shortage of labour, said Nicholls. She said that UK hotel operators were turning away as much as 25 percent of the potential current custom because of staffing issues. Grey rhino issues are recognised threats which become more powerful, persistent and dangerous than may at first seem. 

Rising input prices is grey rhino number two. Heavy levels of debt constitute Kate’s third ‘grey rhino’. 
Cassidy described debt in starker terms. He spoke of “shattered balance sheets.”

The panellists agreed that reputational improvements – and government support - are best pursued via channel created by trade associations. Delegates were encouraged to join and participate in the campaigning. Cassidy said: “Trade associations are only as good as the voices they are given.” 

The theme for the 2021 conference is ‘Change for Good.’ The in-person event is being held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex in the UK.