59% of jobseekers look to leave their hotel group

Catererglobal.com sales director Peter Willis.

Only 17% of jobseekers believe their next job will be within the same hotel or hotel group, according to the CatererGlobal.com Recruitment and Retention Strategies for the Middle East Hotel Industry 2010 survey.

More than half (59%) of jobseekers think their next role will be within another group, and 23% said they didn't know where their next move will take them.

Catererglobal.com sales director Peter Willis said the fact that only 17% of job seekers are looking to work for their current firm should act as a “wake-up call for those aiming to retain staff”.

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“Certainly, retention is seen by many recruiters as a nifty way to avoid recruitment costs, yet there is evidence that they are not in tune with what their staff want,” said Willis.

“For instance, when looking for a new employer, 61% of jobseekers said they sought career development and growth, yet ironically hospitality companies seem to be reducing their investment in training, with only 53% of jobseeker respondents reporting it as a benefit they receive, a steady decline since 63% in 2008,” he added.

“To ensure market share in the long-term, hotels should be investing in staff training to maintain service quality and safeguard brand delivery. It is the hotels which realise that its people are its brand, and seek to maintain service quality, that are the ones who will see their properties’ market share boosted when market conditions become more stable,” Willis asserted.

Mövenpick VP HR Middle East and Africa Craig Cochrane said the findings reinforced the fact that “retention is and will be a key issue”.

“People have got a choice when it comes to their career in hospitality and in Dubai in particular – they have got a choice and the days when people would tell employees ‘well that’s how it is, you either like it or leave it’ are gone, and you have to be more focused on being competitive,” he said.

InterContinental Hotels Group MEA VP HR Jenny Atkinson added: “I did an IHG analysis on this recently and when we have moved or hired external versus internal, year to date I am running at 67% internal – either promotion or moving from other parts of IHG, whereas in 2008 it was almost reversed in terms of having to hire-in, and that’s because we have better talent management processes and that doesn’t correlate with what they are saying of only 17% are going to move with their own company”.

The CatererGlobal.com Recruitment and Retention Strategies for the Middle East Hotel Industry 2010 was completed by more than 2220 professionals, of which 2081 were job seekers, the majority from a five-star hotel background, and 155 were hotel employers.