A recent research of Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that the hospitality industry is facing a big problem when retaining employees.
It is evaluated that the annual percentage rate of turnover in the nearest future will set around 74,9% (2018): a shocking number, considering that human resources world experts define acceptable a percentage between 10% and 15%.
This high annual percentage has a big impact on the budget financial aspect in many tourism companies; here below some details:
- higher costs for recruiting new employees
- lower recruiting quality, based on emergency and not more on attracting talents
- higher costs for training and on-boarding new employees
- lower performances from departing staff and, consequently, lower quality in providing services to the guests and their own perception
- lower performances from the staff, indirectly influenced from departing colleagues
A deep analysis of this industry clearly highlights the 6 main causes about this issue.
The following three offer a detailed study and some inspirations to turn out this trend and start to control the turnover problem.
1 – Unclear expectations
Based on Mercer research, the reason why one forth of employees that left their job within the first year was because of incoherence between their expectations and the real work experience. This reveals that some aspects of the employee-employer relationship are not clearly communicated and understood during the recruiting process.
It might be tempting for a company searching for employees to show only the positive aspects of a job and make its offer very attractive during the recruiting process; at the same time, how positive may this be in a medium-long time if this description doesn’t combine with the reality? It is fundamental, throughout recruiting and on-boarding phases, to declare clearly and with coherence the expectations.
The second step is to assure that employees know exactly what they have to do during their shifts and who is the person in charge in case doubts and uncertainties/hesitation arise during their working hours.
2 – Lack of gratitude
The O.C. Tanner Learning Group affirms, in a recent research, that the 79% of people leaving their job indicate “lack of gratitude” as main reason of their choice.
It is hard to work in the hospitality industry, often due to extra and irregular shifts. In this context, many employees have the feeling that their commitment, when working extra hours, is taken for granted from the management. This passive behavior can take, in a long-term, some collaborators to burnout and to believe that, due to this lack of gratitude, acting good or bad is the same. Probably, this will start a new process, that turn “passive disengaged” employees to become “active disengaged”, in the worst case scenario these employees will boycott with resentment the team and the company work.
In every of these situations the guests are paying the price and the quality of the offered service, the care and the whole experience with the company will be affected.
Gratitude is often a genuine thank you, a recognition of a high level performance and the focus on what is done properly, that sometimes is taken for granted.
Before elaborating money incentive system, focus on developing a recognition system that motivates with coherence the team, taking care of the human relationships within it.
3 – Work life balance
The hospitality industry is among those industries with the highest growing percentage in the 21st century. However, due to its working hours and its 24/7*365, working in the hospitality often assumes the meaning to cancel the balance between working and private life. This job erases the lines of ferial and festive days, weekends, and whoever has worked in this field knows the feeling of ignoring next week shifts. This aspect creates a lot of stress, that sometimes reduce the ability to plan and enjoy the life and, if overturn, will get the 55% of workers to ask if they want to leave their job in this industry. But how to start doing it? A fundamental suggestion is that today the workforce is mainly combined of millennials, that, compared to baby boomer who sacrificed silently their personal life for working, require the ability to express their own opinion. The hospitality industry has two choices: be inflexible and look at the turnover percentage increasing year by year or start the game to enhance the quality of life of their employees.
Here below some suggestion to get this aspect concrete:
- Encourage the HOD to do the rota almost 2 weeks in advance, in order to give the chance to plan and organize
- Support the team to manage internally some modifications to the rota, with self-managing shift changes and without the direct intervention of the HOD. This will avoid jealousy among the team members, preferences, and will encourage team affinity in an impartial and responsible team
- Promote personal life related benefits, for example free or subsidize assistance for the babies of working mothers or the possibility to access to gyms, cinemas, libraries and spa
What kind of other strategies exist to prevent the turnover in the hospitality industry?
The second part of the article will be relased in December.
Have a nice day,
Hospite Team