Time to put hospitality graduates to the test
The 90 hoteliers who were shortlisted for the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2012 are a remarkable bunch, from vastly different backgrounds and spanning the broad spectrum of hotel professions. Still, they share some common traits — namely creativity, loyalty, tenacity and diligence — to which much of their success can be attributed.
Hundreds of hoteliers were nominated for the awards before we whittled it down to the final 90 and with few exception, they entered the industry at a young age and worked their way up, cross-training and travelling the world to further their experience.
There is little mention in these nominations of the fast track courses, management traineeships or rapid promotions so often talked about in the business today. Skills were learned on the job, risks taken to advance careers and lives uprooted in order to climb the ladder.
It is a similar story when you start looking at the top of the hotel chains, too. Take this month’s cover star Michel Noblet, president, CEO and founding partner of Hospitality Management Holdings, for example.
In an exclusive interview celebrating Noblet’s 50th year as a hotelier, he tells Hotelier Middle East: “To develop yourself in the most efficient way you have to make some sacrifice — to be far from home. You have to develop yourself and challenge yourself on a daily basis.
“Funnily enough, it was the same for my dear colleagues who have the same position as me today — they were not looking for the money, they were looking for the experience. I was hungry for the job, to learn reception; to learn administration; to learn sales and marketing — if you want to manage, you need to know the job yourself.”
During his training, knowing the basics and gaining all-round general knowledge of running each of the different hotel departments was “fundamental”.
“People going into hospitality were enjoying, not counting, their time,” Noblet recalls. “Today a lot of people are there because they have no other option, so for them it is only a task.”
This is a widely-held opinion, at least among the senior hoteliers we often speak with. Today’s general managers — who, passion aside, let’s face it have toiled away for some 30 years to get to where they are today — are unfamiliar with the concept of programmes that can fast-track graduates with potential to senior roles in a matter of years.
Article continues on next page ...
There’s talk of schemes that promise GM roles in less than 10 years, something scoffed at by many. After all, those hoteliers that ‘made’ GM before they were 30 are few and far between, and they hold that badge close to their hearts. Why should a bunch of young upstarts take that away from them?
Time for cultivation
But as always, there are two sides to every story. Firstly, it’s time to accept that, with so many education and career paths open to them, young people today are more calculating when it comes to their career paths.
We are less likely to find those willing to do whatever it takes purely because hotels are in their blood. More common will be those 20-somethings with a talent for sales, for example, and a passion for travel, who think that a career in hospitality might be the perfect way to combine their skills and interests.
And what’s wrong with that? Secondly, junior wages are low in the business and in an increasingly expensive world that is an issue, so of course people are quickly looking for progression and the promise of future remuneration.
I have seen a similar evolution in journalism, a profession most traditionally enter because they have a love of writing, an interest in people and a keenness to communicate. Ten, 20 years ago, people did whatever it took to get a job and I don’t know a single journalist of my generation that didn’t, at some point, work for free.
I certainly did. But finding those willing to undertake work experience placements these days is tough. There are still many writers, but they’ll satisfy this passion with online blogs and use their modern media skills in a range of other, better paying, industries.
When I do find that rare gem keen to come and work for a few weeks for no other reason than to gain experience, I do my utmost to give them ‘real work’, not admin, but experience of all aspects of publishing — research, writing, photoshoots, sales, interviews, and design.
While timid to start with, invariably they leave more determined than ever to pursue their chosen career, no matter what its drawbacks. Plus, I get the benefit of an extra team member.
Hoteliers, therefore, should take these fresh faces and cultivate their interest in the industry, helping that passion to burn and making use of the different knowledge bases — the second-nature understanding of social media, digital reservations and technology innovation, not to mention the leanings towards environmentally-friendly practices and familiarity with corporate social responsibility. They have to offer robust career paths to keep these skilled, talented young people in the business.
But on the flip side, let’s make more use of these people. Give them real challenges and let them work out solutions for themselves. Don’t enclose them in the rigid confines of graduate management schemes, but let them loose on the hotel floor to get a taste of true hospitality.
A few words uttered by Jumeirah president and group CEO Gerald Lawless in his welcome speech at Hotelier’s Great GM Debate resonated deeply and sum up the importance of this responsibility.
According to Lawless, “hoteliers have a big obligation to these young people to ensure that we offer them the opportunity to share in the great bounty of this industry to enjoy such a wonderful career that all of us have enjoyed.
“We bring these young people in for graduate placements and very often we do not give them enough responsibility. We do not actually let them test themselves, let us test them by giving them more responsibility within our operations and within our hotels and I would really urge all of us again to look again at how we do this.”
Louise Oakley, group editor
louise.oakley@itp.com