Ask the Expert

Raj Bhatt, director of hospitality recruitment and networking site Hozpitality.com, gives his views on the future of the industry

To what extent have you seen F&B outlets implementing recruitment freezes since the downturn hit?

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In the economic downturn recruitment has slowed, certainly — hotels have started utilising their manpower better by cross-training and rotating staff between different departments — but still, hiring has not stopped completely.
It is true that more recruitment is happening outside Dubai, as there is still fear in that market and business is always slower in summer.

How has the site adapted to this?

We have a recruitment job board and are giving very special rates for annual agreements if the contracts are signed now. These rates are for unlimited job postings and database search through the website; they will not change for one year, even if economic conditions do.

What F&B role do you have most requests to fill and why do you think this is?

There are many requirements for line-level and supervisory staff in the F&B arena; service cannot stop and restaurant groups are still recruiting.

But due to the current scenario, hiring for top-level F&B is down as companies are saving costs on expensive managers and are working with capable secondary staff, who now have a strong chance to perform and get noticed. We are positive that after Ramadan things will change back to normal.