Hotels are currently facing challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, especially in high-volume positions such as reception or service, when tourism reopens.
In the current difficult business situation, there are hotels that only need the number of staff to serve from 30% to 50% of the room capacity. There are many causes for this. Employees go to other jobs and do not want to return to their old jobs, it is difficult to recruit new people and hotels attract experienced people who are working from elsewhere.
The above information was shared by Mr. Nguyen Quang, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber Management Club (VEHA) – under the Vietnam Hotel Association, on the sidelines of the Leadership Skills 2022 training program at Citadines Pearl Hoi An, Quang Nam province for two days May 18 and 19, organized by VEHA for the central region.
“The last holiday is the most obvious lesson,” said Mr. Quang. He analyzed, with the number of employees mentioned above, hotels can operate normally on weekdays, however, on holidays or weekends, the room capacity is up to 90 – 100%, each employee has to exceed their capacity many times. Moreover, this is only temporarily resolved in 1-2 weeks, but cannot guarantee quality for many weeks.
“They (the employees) will also look for ways to find another place with a better environment. This is a challenge that hotels need to solve to serve guests in the summer – the upcoming peak season for domestic tourism,” Quang said.
Another challenge that hotels need to address is recruiting and training new staff to fill the gap.
In the Central region, according to Mr. Quang, there are still training classes for housekeeping, but in Hanoi in recent years, very few people have participated in this apprenticeship.
Partly because society’s perception of this profession is not respected. They are still often referred to as cleaners. The benefits for this employee are also low.
And in order to be able to recruit this object to serve themselves, hotels are forced to recruit people with general criteria and then re-train not only in skills but also job love, considering housekeeping as an art industry.
The third challenge mentioned is management skills.
During the boom in tourism, there was a shortage of human resources, leading to the situation of “ripe”. Some people who are working in the position of housekeeping supervisor at this hotel are invited to another hotel to work as the head of the housekeeping department without training. This leads them to lack some specific skills in management and operation.
Therefore, the past two years have been a good opportunity for businesses as well as personnel to rethink this issue to have more appropriate behaviors, improve personal knowledge, professional skills and leadership…
@ Saigon Tiep Thi
