Mariano Faz. Mariano Faz.

The hotel industry jobs are one of the few occupations in the world where employees are constantly being monitored not just by their line managers but by the guests, owners, and operator headquarters, Mariano Faz, head of asset management, TFG Management noted in his presentation on an engaged workforce at the Great GM Debate held at the Le Méridien Dubai Hotel.

He also said that given the constant engagement in a hotel environment with guests and handling their requests, and other office work including dealing with asset bosses, hotel managers barely find time to engage staff, leading to increased staff turnover. He added: “And at the end of all that managers have a bigger battle to fight – service is standard and we need to be different.”

He further noted that young employees particularly the “millennials” are another part of the problem as they don’t look to at long-term employment. “66% of the millennial employees will leave their jobs in the next three years, because they are interested in the experience, not the money," he said citing a report by Deloitte on Winning Over the Next Generation of Employees.

Faz noted that TFG was plagued with a similar issue and decided to tackle it head on. “When I asked why there is such a high staff turnover, all I was told was other groups were offering higher salaries. So I did some research and released a paper. We wanted to quantify the impact of staff turnover in the hospitality industry.” TFG and Emirates Hospitality Academy conducted a study on staff retention in the hospitality industry. 

He added: “We found out that the average staff turnover is 30% in Dubai in our industry. 32% quit for career advancement and of the 100% only 21% leave for increased pay. So 79% of employees that quit their jobs in industry is not for the money,” Faz said. A surveyed revealed that millennials were more satisfied with values such as personal recognition, professional development, and cross-team collaboration were more likely to stay longer as they felt engaged.

"Companies should redefine employee engagement and make sure that they actively measure their employee engagement and reward high engagement," Faz noted and added that staff attrition is a major issue for the region’s hospitality, and to tackle it an engaged works force is the answer.

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