Hotel staffing in crisis?

The Middle East is not an easy market to recruit for, and the hospitality industry in the region is no exception.

With many Middle Eastern countries traditionally perceived as ‘hardship’ destinations, not to mention the recent spate of internal unrest in countries across the region, the hospitality market in the Middle East has had to work hard to find and develop reliable source markets for recruitment.

In recent years, recruitment in the region has seen an influx of staff from India, the Philippines and many other South East Asian countries; but as their economies have become more buoyant — with many now touted as emerging property markets — it is becoming much harder to find staff who are willing to re-locate to the Middle East.

This, coupled with a Middle East and Africa hotel pipeline comprising 474 hotels totalling 128,344 rooms, according to the May 2011 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report, means that recruitment in the region is set to endure increased competition from companies within the Gulf, as well as in traditional source markets.

And although many companies purport to have a global outlook when it comes to recruitment, there is no guarantee that staff members from new source markets will have the skill sets required to fill the more technical roles in hotels.

Recruitment
Many major hotel groups may have avoided the staffing crisis thus far, but as companies continue to expand in the region, there is no doubt that they will have to step up their recruitment programmes if they are to attract the right staff.

Hyatt International regional human resources director Ramjan Bhugeloo believes that the nature of staff recruitment has changed, and says hotels are expanding their search for potential employees into new source markets.

“It is definitely harder to recruit staff now economies in source markets are developing,” he confirms.

“So we continue to look at new destinations. Most of the hotels in Dubai recruit from the same countries, sometimes using the same recruitment agency. This is also a challenge.

Companies need to work on building their reputation as a preferred employer and should not “oversell” the destination during their recruitment trips. Over the years we have been able to establish ourselves, and this helps. We also take the opportunity of being an international company and internally transfer employees to our GCC hotels,” he adds.

But finding staff to work in the GCC comes with a different set of recruitment issues.
Marriott International vice president sales and marketing, Middle East and Africa, Jeff Strachan explains: “The place where recruiting is the trickiest is the Gulf, because the labour we are bringing in is, for want of a better phrase, imported labour and each country has its own rules and restrictions on nationalisation and the volume of visas for different nationalities — so we work based on the HR rules and policies of the country along with our ability to recruit staff.”

In addition to finding people willing to work in the region, and dealing with potential recruitment red-tape, finding the right people for the right positions is also a challenge.

“In some disciplines — usually the most technical, like the kitchen — it can be very difficult [to find the right talent],” Strachan continues.

“Places in engineering can also be problematic because you are competing for AC technicians, joiners, painters and so on – they can work in any industry not just hospitality. Take a place like Dubai where traditionally you used to have restaurants just in hotels but now you have restaurants — and good restaurants — in malls; there is huge competition for talented chefs and also for staff in other technical areas.”

The competition for staff members with technical skills has been made no easier as job opportunities in traditional source markets improve. In fact, says Matthew Smith, Fairmont vice president human resources Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, the economic improvement in these markets may see staff pursue careers outside of the hospitality industry.

“I think as economies in those [traditional] source markets are improving, people who would have been exploring opportunities to go and work overseas now have opportunities domestically in industries that they may find more attractive like banking, pharmaceuticals, technology, or finance or in a number of other highly valued jobs,” he explains.

However, many hoteliers argue that these challenges are nothing new — finding staff with the right qualifications has never been easy in the regional hospitality industry.

“We would say that finding top talent has always been difficult. Our organisation is highly focused on selecting top talent and that has never been easy, so the fact that the numbers [of potential employees in source markets] are changing may not impact the numbers of the most talented colleagues as they have always been in very scarce supply,” Fairmont’s Smith asserts.

“It has always been difficult to find the right candidate in the hotel industry,” agrees City Seasons Muscat human resources manager Abdullah Al Balushi.

“This is due to high demand and lack of talent in the market.

“The situation was eased slightly during the recession, due to a 40-50% redundancy in the hospitality industry which therefore meant there were more people looking for jobs in hotels.”

But at times when the job market has been saturated with these hospitality professionals, they are often drawn to well-known brands, meaning that the staffing crisis is even more poignant for smaller chains or boutique hotels.

“I think that Hilton does have an advantage because we are seen as a global company, and a great trainer, and we have that established in the market already,” explains Hilton director of human resources Middle East and Africa, Tracey Lloyd.

“An element of that is that people know us from their own country, so wherever you are recruiting from, the people there understand what the Hilton brand name is all about because they have probably got a Hilton in their local town and they understand who we are and what we might be like to work for globally,” she adds.

It is no surprise that potential employees are attracted to multi-national companies; they are reputable, have properties all over the world, and the scope for personal development is undoubtedly higher in a company which has thousands of roles to fill.
But even bigger brands are stepping up their staffing schemes, to ensure that they attract — and retain — the very best talent.

Retention
In a market where a number of hotels are competing for staff, retention has never been more important, with many hoteliers confirming that it is just as important as recruitment.

It is particularly crucial, not to mention financially savvy, to ensure that talent you have spent time and money recruiting and training doesn’t leave and take their new skills to your competitors.

But in a post recession climate, it is not always possible to offer monetary incentives to encourage staff to stay, despite the fact that this is often a driving factor in an employees’ decision to leave a company.

Many hospitality staff questioned for the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey 2011 reported that they were not satisfied with their salary: 16.9% of respondents earnt less than US $1500 a month, with 29.6% of participants claiming they would leave their current job for better pay.

And yet hotels are often unable, or unwilling, to pay more money for certain roles, which is why it is so important to concentrate on staff development programmes, as responsents in the Salary Survey also stipulated that being in a prestigious position was important — in fact more than 34% of people questioned said they would leave their current role for a better position — making it more of a driver than finance.

“At line staff level the motivation factor very often is salary because many employees send money to dependants in their respective home countries,” confirms Andreas Mueller, general manager, Taj Palace Hotel Dubai.

“We ensure fair and competitive salary and benefit scales. Good prospects for growth and a safe and stable work environment are what we call hygiene factors which have to be in place in any successful and modern company.

“Additionally we place great importance on employee welfare, particularly food, accommodation, and personal interaction at all levels from the GM to the steward. We have implemented a GM hotline concept where employees meet with the GM over a cup of coffee on a weekly basis to discuss general issues,” he adds.

Looking at staff development and the potential for employees to develop, as well as providing a positive working — and in many cases home — environment is currently a priority for most hotel companies, who are eager to retain the talent they have invested in.

InterContinental Hotels Group vice president human resources Middle East and Africa Jenny Atkinson says: “If we want our people to love our brands, we’ve got to love our people. At IHG we do this by creating the right environment that celebrates their talent, gives them room to grow and recognises them for their achievements. We also instill a sense of teamwork and trust, particularly in challenging locations and markets, which results in positive attitudes giving our guests reason to choose us time and time again.

“To ensure our colleagues are at their best we strive to create a rewarding, positive, nurturing work environment by offering a number of development programmes for all levels. Colleagues can join at a front line level and will be provided with opportunities to develop their skills in order to have access to senior positions,” she continues.

Providing a good working environment for existing staff not only boosts retention but, in an industry where it is common for staff to move from one company to another and share information, it can help with future recruitment as well.

“You have to make sure your existing staff are happy — they all know each other in our business,” says Strachan.

“So the best way to recruit someone is to be known as a good business. If you have someone working for you and he tells his friend you’re a good person to work for, that he is well taken care of, has good accommodation, he becomes an advocate and that is your first point of call.”

Over the coming years, recruitment and retention will increasingly come under the spotlight as companies compete with one another to attract quality staff to their properties; and with the rapid economical development of traditional source markets, combined with the region’s growing property pipeline, companies’ recruitment strategies will have to become more innovative if they are to escape the staffing crisis unscathed.

What the recruitment experts said
Learn Purple UAE managing director Lynne Zarbhanelian says: “For recruiting line staff, Africa is very much an important source market at the moment. Places such as Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenya are popular.

South Africa is popular with independent restaurants, but not so much with hotels as they can’t match the salary expectations. I would never recommend recruiting for hotel line staff from South Africa, because even if they do come to the Middle East, they won’t stay on that money.

In terms of management level staff, the UK has been a very important recruitment market, but that is starting to close up a bit as the Olympics will be happening next year and there are more job opportunities there because of that.”

Catererglobal.com sales director Peter Willis comments: “The area where recruiters have had most problems is in the F&B department, especially restaurant management.
A new report by Caterglobal.com says that employee recruitment and retention is a major issue facing the Middle East hotel industry with 78% of the market shown to be facing recruitment difficulties.

The Asian and the Middle Eastern regions emerge top in the survey as high growth recruitment markets, where hotels are turning their attention to sourcing the right quality of candidate.

On a very positive note, 78% of those hotels surveyed have increased their learning and development budgets to address their retention issues.”