Hospitality industry professionals have agreed that decent out-of-work treatment is essential for staff to provide top quality service — but are divided on what this says about the
Staff living conditions “definitely have an impact on the standard of service within establishments” according to Arin Maercks, executive vice president for Gulf Housing Solutions (GHS), a provider of staff accommodation in the GCC.
“As F&B service staff are customer-forward, their overall demeanor comes through in service levels, therefore if they are not well-rested and comfortable in their living environment this will have a definite effect on the service received,” he expanded.
“In many conversations with hospitality and service staff we have found that if they are unhappy with the quality of their living conditions or have extended travel times to their place of employment, it has a substantial impact on their general mood and performance.”
The Oman-based National Hospitality Institute’s principal, Robert MacLean, agreed: “If employees have to be up at 6am, looking smart and ready to go, they need to be comfortable and happy outside work. If you’re expected to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk.”
According to Ron Hilvert, managing director of
“I think service standards do vary but in general, in the Gulf, they are very high,” he commented.
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“But the answer’s always the same: if a company has high standards, such as Jumeirah or Hyatt or Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton, their standards don’t drop anywhere in the world; they stay the same.
“Those companies that want to cut corners and drop standards, they’ll always suffer.”
Aidan Keane, founder of the leisure and retail design firm Keane, agreed the region’s service staff were “good on the whole,” but still lacked “depth, variety, personality and intelligence”.
“Don’t get me wrong about the people we have now; shoddy standards are not their fault,” he said.
“We can’t expect someone to deliver top-notch service if we are holing them up in a glorified work camp in the middle of nowhere every night, paying them the minimum wage and not offering them any training or career progression.
“They need to see, smell and taste the lifestyle they are meant to be serving up.”
“My background is in human resources, I was probably the first recruiter of labour into this country in 1978, so I’ve recruited tens and tens of thousands of people into the country and I get frustrated when people make these types of comments — particularly in the hospitality sector, because in this sector I think the staff accommodation and benefits are very good,” he said.
“I think [people who make such comments] might be confusing us with other sectors where, although it’s not for us to comment, perhaps the standards aren’t as high,” he said.
“All I can say is that if you take the top companies and go and look at their employees’ accommodation and benefits, they’re good. But if there are companies that want to cut corners, then they won’t be good.
“And my answer would be that in the hospitality sector, I am not aware of poor conditions anywhere in the UAE.”
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