HUMAN RESOURCES

Issue
Operating a hotel is a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year business, based on people providing service to others and on a fluctuating supply of work.

New technologies, rising capital intensity and international competition necessitate the maintenance or creation of a flexible, available workforce for the travel and tourism industry. As an integral sector within travel and tourism, the hospitality industry will make a major contribution to job creation if allowed to thrive in free market conditions.

In a number of countries, mergers, consolidations and cutbacks have eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs. Rising health and social benefit costs have forced employers to seek new ways to fulfil their responsibilities without incurring additional expense. Flexibility leads to greater efficiency in matching the supply of labour to the requirements of the market, and needs to be achieved within the framework of minimum labour standards.

What are the on-going challenges?

• Faced with temporary and recurrent labour & skills shortages across the globe, what can the industry do to encourage and improve international worker mobility to alleviate this problem?
• Faced with stiff competition from other service industries, how can the hospitality improve its methods of attracting & retaining staff?
• How can the industry best promote itself as an employer, focusing on the positive aspects of hospitality employment (flexibility, diversity, multi-skilling, skills acquisition) to promote its positive image?
• How can the industry continually improve its training offer at all levels of employment?

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