In fact, there are several realities:
1) The professionals who, despite the pandemic, always worked,
2) The professionals who went home or were even dismissed and, to this day, have not resumed their activity.
3) Those who continued to work, maintaining their pace, and their day-to-day more or less within the current reality we live in (working in hospitality during the pandemic), maintaining their salaries.
4) Those who went home on layoff, receiving a percentage of their salary, working only one or two days a week
5) Those who were dismissed – which was the majority of people.
With this scenario, some reinvented themselves, others discovered new professions and stayed there until today, thus leaving many vacancies in hospitality in addition to those that already existed before the pandemic.
We still have people who, to this day, are receiving unemployment benefits and do not want to return, for various reasons. Others maintain a parallel economy to earn “a few coins at the neighborhood restaurant” at the end of the day. We also have another reality: those who, fearing that the recovery in the hospitality sector is not yet a reality, and that from one moment to the next they might be unemployed again due to the current market situation, hold on to the benefits and do not take the risk.
Amidst this turmoil between those who do not return and those who reinvented themselves, the truth is that everyone who left for one reason or another lost their rhythm… The rhythm of the hustle and bustle that the area brings: 24/7 with start times, but no end times… nights, weekends, and holidays.
With this, we are experiencing the most severe crisis in the hotel industry in recent years: and now, what to do? We have a shortage of the workforce we need to keep the business running, and in parallel, we have a shortage of qualified people who, in one way or another, are entering the hospitality industry.
Pay more to have people or pay more to have good people?
The equation seems to have no possible solution, as with the crisis we have experienced in the hospitality sector in recent years, with units that were “at zero” for a long time, all the investment made to maintain a structure, not only human but also of the properties themselves, and now need to recover the investment, and still pay people adequately who are there, and those who will be…
This topic, if you allow me the expression, “gives plenty to talk about”!
The question that seems simple is:
How to solve this equation? As we try to solve it, it keeps having more and more variables, which seems to have no solution in the near future.
In my opinion, obtaining a positive result, and in a simple way, involves being able to pay people better who are there, those who want to return, and those we need to return. Not just monetary salary, but emotional salary.
Emotional salary…, but does that exist in this area?
It has to start existing. We have to start treating people properly, providing consecutive hours instead of split shifts, providing health insurance, paid vacations for the worker and their family, among many other things… think about it!
It is necessary to be objective in looking at the results – without people, we do not have hotel units.
Portugal is a country with strong tourism that knows how to welcome its tourists well. Therefore, we need people for people, in an era where artificial intelligence is already in some units, replacing people with robots, it is necessary to humanize hospitality. I will develop this topic another time.
In summary and speaking from person to person, it is necessary to pay more to people in the hospitality sector, humanize, train, provide better employment conditions, and above all, demystify the prejudice that has been created around this area.
It is necessary to make people fall in love with this fantastic and dynamic area again.
There is a famous quote from Richard Branson that I share for inspiration: “Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business”.
By Dora Grilo, Business Manager – Hospitality / Talenter™