What is the Right Hotel Leadership Structure Post Covid?

Lakshmi Narasimhan Soundararajan

Founder of Ignite Insight LLC

Post Covid-19, more than ever what will get reinforced is that resources (human & others) will follow business volumes more closely even given that the hospitality is a seasonal business for decades.While this may not necessarily cause drastic changes in rank and file headcount, in my opinion what will definitely be shaken up is the managerial level and the manager to employee ratioMore supervisors and assistant managers will be expected to take on managerial roles while managers will be expected to become more hands on - ready to take on an assistant manager or sometimes even supervisor role when business volumes are strainedCubicle bound managers (if ever in the hospitality business that scourge existed!) will be eliminated;I see something else coming - the back or rather heart of house roles like finance, human resources, engineering may now need to become all round operation individuals and contribute to serving the customer; after all, say, in finance, what accounting will need to be done when there is no customer coming through the doorAs far as leadership is concerned, what will change is a mindset of general managers becoming hands on - they may not have the luxury any more of delegating to a RM or HM who honestly may not be thereGiven volatile business levels, having combined property and regional positions may not be justifiable as a business decision; moreover, in that combination, the property focus will now become 100% which again negates any combination positions being thought ofIn all of this, and underpinning strategies, a Flexible Budgeting process will become mandatory - flexibility in headcount levels in conjunction with fluctuating business volumes, remuneration cuts when business volumes drop below a certain point, increments tied to incremental revenue and bottom line and so on.If hospitality was and will always be a seasonal industry it is going to become an industry of focused business volumes metric driven resource utilization strategiesBottom line retention will be dictated by the customer in all of these scenarios

Christian Boerger

Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection

During the peak period of the pandemic, we saw a widespread purge of unit, area/regional, and corporate level leadership roles being consolidated or purged altogether. Those initiatives were taken to preserve cash flow by controlling labor-related expenses. However, most of those leadership reduction practices proved to be short-term and even short-sighted as they led to unwanted consequences. As demand started to surge back in the spring of 2021, many hotel management companies that cut said leadership roles drastically in 2020, now felt the pinch. Not only were the remaining leaders burned out due to the intense pressure of the previous year, but there was also a severe talent shortage as highly-qualified hospitality leaders had left the industry. In turn, this led to a throttled recovery process as leaders needed to drive change and transformation were hard to come by. 

In the past two years, we heard a lot about creating efficiencies and automating as much as possible. Greater adoption of innovative technology and overall process optimization was seen as the solution. But without adequate leadership at every level to drive this evolution, progress would be stifled in the short to midterm. 

It is true that this crisis has led the industry to evaluate how it operates at every level. With rising technology/automation proliferation, certain changes became permanent. We were forced to put a much greater emphasis on productivity and ROI as we look at each leadership role both from an owner and operator perspective. 

In conclusion, I feel that pre-pandemic leadership headcount have been challenged but not obliterated. There is still a great need for effective leaders. But the crisis has pushed us to stress test each person for their individual contribution and value to the overall organization. As a result, we should see a new breed of generally stronger, better skilled, more resilient, and versatile leaders in hospitality on all levels.

Agnes DeFranco

Ed.D., CHAE, CHE, CHIA, CAHTA is a professor and Conrad N. Hilton Distinguished Chair at the Conrad N. Hilton College, University of Houston

The hotel industry is well known as labor intensive, people serving people. At the onset of COVID, the industry had to slash budget and cut positions in order to survive. While some executives and managers were laid off, they were able to find jobs and careers elsewhere and left the hotel industry for good. Those who were “lucky” to keep their positions, albeit part-time, are now back; but have to work longer hours due to the shortage of labor. The phenomenon of The Great Resignation decimates the labor force of the service industry, and the hotel industry is not immune. 

As our industry is a people industry, we will go back to the pre-pandemic head counts, but it will take time. Make no mistake – technology and robots are here to stay, but they can never totally replace that personal touch, the sincere smile, and the human intelligence of “care” for our guests. Technology will always be an add-on and will keep on advancing, but we still need “people”. The right sized team of leaders depends on the types of hotel and the guests they serve. Can you imagine staying in a 5-diamond property with robots running around serving cocktails and hors d'oeuvres and no managers and only one or two staff to check on you or to make sure that everything is right on schedule? Where is that random act of kindness that a robot can perform? Combined property and regional positions may work in some hotels, but again, it is not the answer for all hotels either. Remember when teleconferencing first came about, and people think the face-to-face meetings and handshakes would be a thing of the past? We were all Skyping, then Zooming, and then Teaming in the last few years. But what do we all do once travel restrictions are lifted? We all want to be at meetings, conference, exhibitions again – to see people, to interact with people, to sign that contract – but with a real handshake.

The hotel industry is not just about the rooms, the lobbies, the pools, the spas, the bars, and other amenities. Yes, they are important, but at the end, it always come down to the people. The post-COVID hotel executive and leadership teams have two main charges: First, they need to be very business savvy, and the COVID years have afforded them the many trials for them to become better businesspersons. Second, they also need to be people-oriented, not only to provide the best services for the guests but to attract, hire, and retain the right “people-oriented” team members.

It is time for all of us to turn the Great Resignation in the hotel industry into “The Great Welcome!”. We want to welcome our guests, and we also want to welcome our existing and new team members, not just with a job, but with understanding, respect, training, opportunities, and clear steps towards an upward moving career in the hotel industry. It is not about the number of people on the executive and leadership team, but rather the right executives and leaders who have the desired qualities, can represent the culture of their companies to the guests, and who seek and grow their team members to make the hotel industry a chosen career for many. This will serve the positive direction and the future of our industry!

David Lund

The Hotel Financial Coach

I think in life you get what you pay for. My point of reference here is a full-service managed and branded hotel. I believe when you pay for and get an executive team that has all the critical bases covered your hotel will get better results in all areas, including service, engagement, and profits. 

To think I can combine positions, like HR and Finance and neither will suffer in my opinion short-sighted. I have never worked in a hotel where I could say we didn't need and didn't benefit from all the senior leadership positions.   

I also know what it has been like to try and combine positions and run without key positions for a period of time and I believe our results always suffered. It's not like hotels have been historically overstaffed and it's been a 9-5 job. 

Another point I would like to make is that it's easy to see what we saved when we combine or eliminate a position, but it's impossible to see what it costs in lost opportunity when we do this. 

Owners will push for the combination and elimination of management positions and I think at the same time the manager and brand know what's best for the long-term position and results of the asset. 

Lots of water under the bridge with the pandemic but I am sure more than one person out there thinks we shot ourselves in the foot by releasing so many of our managers.

In life, we get what we pay for and in my hotel, I want a full team that's going to deliver the best result all around.