The hospitality industry has always suffered from high turnover, but the ongoing labor crisis has made the current situation more untenable as operations either grind to a halt or are so poorly staffed that service quality dips below acceptable levels. Guests who gave operations more leeway during the pandemic are beginning to demand more value for the rates they're paying.

To lessen and prevent this bleeding effect on hospitality's workforce, businesses need to take a closer look at what exactly in today's environment, both external and internal, is shrinking the labor resource pool while also determining what can be done to access additional labor pools or even secondary job employees. Only then can effective response measures be identified and implemented to adequately staffed operations that ensure long-term business success.

Where Businesses Are Missing The Mark

With wage hikes often serving as the only business strategy, what becomes clear is that a disconnect exists between what employers believe is important to their workers versus what employees themselves consider to be a priority. This sole tactic of just increasing pay largely appears to be a purely reactive and short-lived response. Fair wages are a key contributor but aren't the primary factor in creating long-term loyalty.

Regardless of wage increases, hospitality front-line jobs are still considered to be low-paying occupations. Even with raising hourly pay, workers often continue to live paycheck to paycheck. Placing themselves in their employees' shoes, business operators should ask whether an increase in hourly pay for low-wage employees is sufficient to create a competitive edge when all operators can easily do the same thing.

Rather than trying to tackle workforce shortages by guessing which workplace adjustments will resonate with their employees, businesses need to go a step further by directly asking workers themselves. Employers need to clearly identify what mix of "benefits and expectations" employees have that will impact loyalty.

Further to the efforts of attracting and retaining staff, service organizations need to recognize that a B-to-C relationship with their staff will also promote higher levels of loyalty, performance and profitability. Forty years ago, I heard the following: "Guest relations mirror employee relations." We also speak of external (guests) and internal (employees) customers. Companies need to embrace this perspective.

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