where hospitality people meet
Is Hospitality A Dead End Job?!
Never did I think when applying to university that I would ever have to argue as to why hospitality is a dead end job! But I was proved wrong when it came to debate! Now I realise that hospitality often receives a great deal of bad press and even though I debated that it was a dead end job I whole-heartedly disagree with the statement! I personally found this debate challenging establishing reasons as to why hospitality is rubbish when I am studying a degree in it!
The reason for putting my debate as a discussion topic is to find out why individuals join the industry and more importantly why they strive to make it a better industry to work in. So I ask you;
What drives you? What is your passion and why day after day do you continually strive to make this industry better and better?
Ladies and gentlemen.....I give you the debate!
Before I begin putting forward a debate for why hospitality is a dead end job I thought it necessary to investigate actually what is a dead end job!
A dead end job can be defined as a job in which there is little or no chance of progressing and succeeding in to a higher paid position. Such work is often menial, badly paid and has long, unsociable hours.
Before I begin identifying specific reasons I want to give an overview of the main reasons for it being a menial employment role. These are only generic reasons and I will focus on three specific reasons a little later.
1. Understaffed
2. Poor training
3. Stressful
4. Badly paid
5. Unsocial
The reasons go on...........
The three main points that I will be discussing in this debate as to why hospitality and tourism is a dead end job are;
1. High levels of staff turnover.
Poor training.
Limited career progression
High Levels of Staff Turnover
High levels of staff turnover are not only occurring in the UK but also globally. Research has indicated that along with the UK, the likes of Australia, USA and Europe experience this issue on a continual basis.
Research has identified that staff turnover is highest amongst 20-29 year olds with only 31% choosing to remain employed within the industry after 2 years of employment. Further to this only 22% choose to remain in the industry after 5 years or more. Hilman identified that it is mainly
operational staff that cause this high level.
Organisational stability has been shown to have a high degree of correlation with low staff turnover. Indications are that employees are more likely to stay when there is a predictable work environment. Seasonal resorts have trouble in providing a continual high level of business and this has been experienced personally.
Clearly with such high levels of staff turnover there must be something wrong! Now many of you have experience within the industry and I am sure that you have all experienced how annoying it is to do a double shift or 2 or 3 or continually.
This high level of staff turnover leads to my second point – poor levels of staff training.
Staff Training
Poor staff training is directly linked to high levels of staff turnover and is supported by both research and academic literature.
In 2008, Poulston identified that poor training lead a poor level of service quality, which demeans an employee leading to disciplinary issues and finally to staff turnover. Poulston then goes on further stating that training which if offered is often ‘on the job’ and is a ‘show as you go’ method. This is a cheap substitute for effective on the job training and often leads towards a negative stigma of the industry.
In the current economy all businesses have been hit hard by the recession not only hospitality and tourism firms. With a current staff turnover rate of 31% in the industry, 51% of managers stated that they are planning to cut back on the level of training provided, with only 25% of managers investing more. In 2006 The US Bureau of Labour statistics found that staff turnover was over 25% higher than in all other industries in the USA.
Why would an individual want to work in an industry where it seems that only money and cost saving procedures matter. Chalkiti identified that managers need to work side by side with employees in this hard time, however it seems that this is not happening. Hales also commented stating that
managers are the only ones who are given an influence over their job looking at productivity and reducing costs. It seems as if employees are not valued!
So high levels of staff turnover and poor levels of staff training lead to my final point as to why the hospitality and tourism industry is a dead end job!
Limited Career Progression
Marbourne discovered that limited opportunity for development was a top 6 reason for dissatisfaction in the industry.
O’Mahony and Silitoes comment that in the current competitive and changing marketing environment the training and development of staff is fundamental to the evolution of a flexible, efficient workforce. A lack of training does not allow this competitive advantage to be gained resulting in dissatisfied staff.
Barron goes on further stating that superior talent management is increasingly recognised as the prime source of competitive sustainable advantage – the hospitality industry has always found it hard to
attract suitably, motivated, trained, and qualified employees. Reports of a poor image in the eyes of hospitality students coupled with high levels of staff turnover suggest that the industry will find it hard to recruit, train and maintain high calibre staff. In 2001 a study of UK and Dutch students was undertaken and it found that as few as 50% were planning to enter the industry once graduating.
Along with this point and the two mentioned previously, high levels of staff turnover and poor levels of training, limited career progression is perhaps the most important reason why hospitality is nothing
more than a dead end job!
Lets discuss............
Tags: career, employement, hospitality, jobs, progression, staff, training, turnover
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tom Shorney on -
Interesting that you bring up the point of hospitality in other countries and the viewing that it has from different perspectives. Your story is a great example of why hospitality is not a dead end job and in fact a way of life as you put it. Obviously different cultures have different perspectives on hospitality!
Has anyone else experienced hospitality being viewed differently when working in another country or culture?
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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on -
Frankly, Iannis story and mine are shared by thousands of non native hospitality professionals who came to the UK because hospitality in our own countries, whilst certainly isn't a "dead end job" it does not offer the career opportunities available in the UK. Although sometimes because of the ways of working in the country.
I recently wrote an article that is, sadly, a usual occurrence in my home country, Spain. Have a read
http://www.hotcatuk.com/forum/topics/hospitality-horror-show
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Permalink Reply by Gavin Pereira on -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgQPbRlDNmY&feature=channel
So you want to be a Hotelier, then watch this video click here.
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Permalink Reply by Ioannis Pantelidis on -
Well this debate acted as a catalyst to finally put some of my views and ideas about hospitality out there...on the web.... I had refrained so far due to limited time but what the heck tommorow may never come... so without further ado I give you
The Spirit of Philoxenia
direct link: http://spiritofphiloxenia.blogspot.com
...i have been unleashed and its all the Hotcats community fault ;)
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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on
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Oh my God Ioannis, your blog comes as a huge reward for me personally: finding someone who shares my views on many a topic regarding hospitality!
I have been shouting on top of my voice about hotcatUK's objective to become, not a "grow quickly and sell for millions" network but a catalist for change in hospitality. Change through providing a platform to showcase the good things of hospitality (of which there are many) and to openly discuss the "not so good" (of which, there are also a few).
You talk about engaging with education: for the last 2 years, I have been working extremelly hard to engage various universities and colleges, just to find the door closing on my face time and time again. Maybe because some thought that I was representing an organisation with an ulterior motive? maybe, I will probably never know. However, after almost 3 years of consistently showing that hotcatUK is a genuine effort to bring industry together, we are now starting to engage in a dialogue (and specific initiatives) with Westmister Kingsway (through Monica Orr) and with Oxford Brookes (via Angela Maher, Donald Sloan and Peter McGunnigle).
We also plan to attend PATH and to bring along a group of members from the site to get the discussion going.
You also talk about ambassadors: we have now engaged with Springboard and their ambassadors and hope that this relationship will continue. We certainly want to find ways to help them with their activities promoting our industry.
These are just some of the initiatives that we are working on, but there are many many others. And all this, because we believe that we have a responsibility to improve hospitality for future generations. If the hotcatUK team manage to leave hospitality a little bit better than we found it, and help some people with their careers along the way, we will have achieved the task we set out to achieve.
So, Ioannis, thank you for sharing your blog. It is great to know that we are not the only ones willing to "shout out" our views, instead of filling up the ranks of what I call, "the silent majority".
thank you and look forward to reading more. Please do keep sharing with us your views in our discussions and forums too.
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Permalink Reply by Marcus Weedon on -
Great write up Ioannis, great to see that you are reading and singing from the same hyme book as alot of us are and as Jose points out Hotcatuk is a amazing way to promote what is good about the industry for not only people that work in the industry already but also for the people that are preparing to get into it.
Again i applaud TOM for starting this dicussion, what a response!!
Ioannis Pantelidis said:Well this debate acted as a catalyst to finally put some of my views and ideas about hospitality out there...on the web.... I had refrained so far due to limited time but what the heck tommorow may never come... so without further ado I give you
The Spirit of Philoxenia
direct link: http://spiritofphiloxenia.blogspot.com
...i have been unleashed and its all the Hotcats community fault ;)
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Permalink Reply by Ioannis Pantelidis on
-
Thank you very much Jose and Marcus, the truth is I have been meaning for quite a while to take a stronger stance but my own commitments with a PhD i am about to submit had cripled me for the past half decade leaving me with no free time whatsoever. I take strength from your kind comments and I hope that by June I will recover my weekends and be able to contribute more, and take a more active role in pursuing a joined up effort with industry. I have great hope that the passion4hospitality initiative will be able to help in a meaningful manner towards that goal.
I shall be keepng you guys up to date, I find hotcats far more relevant than some of the other generic networks out there, you have done a great job.
Also Jose I am sorry to hear of your trouble in getting through to some of the Universities. I may be able to help at least with a couple of Universities. lets get in touch after the Easter holidays perhaps?
PS I shall add the link to hotcats on the blog ;)
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Permalink Reply by Sofia Rebelo on -
Dear Jose,
Please feel free to conatct me at Leeds Metropolitan University if you need anything form us. I have not been as active as desired on Hotcat due to many other commitments but hope to be in the future. I am strongly encouraging my stdudents to particpate and if you ahve any flyers or infomation you owuld like to distribute please contact me.
Sofia Rebelo
Jose Ruiz said:Oh my God Ioannis, your blog comes as a huge reward for me personally: finding someone who shares my views on many a topic regarding hospitality!
I have been shouting on top of my voice about hotcatUK's objective to become, not a "grow quickly and sell for millions" network but a catalist for change in hospitality. Change through providing a platform to showcase the good things of hospitality (of which there are many) and to openly discuss the "not so good" (of which, there are also a few).
You talk about engaging with education: for the last 2 years, I have been working extremelly hard to engage various universities and colleges, just to find the door closing on my face time and time again. Maybe because some thought that I was representing an organisation with an ulterior motive? maybe, I will probably never know. However, after almost 3 years of consistently showing that hotcatUK is a genuine effort to bring industry together, we are now starting to engage in a dialogue (and specific initiatives) with Westmister Kingsway (through Monica Orr) and with Oxford Brookes (via Angela Maher, Donald Sloan and Peter McGunnigle).
We also plan to attend PATH and to bring along a group of members from the site to get the discussion going.
You also talk about ambassadors: we have now engaged with Springboard and their ambassadors and hope that this relationship will continue. We certainly want to find ways to help them with their activities promoting our industry.
These are just some of the initiatives that we are working on, but there are many many others. And all this, because we believe that we have a responsibility to improve hospitality for future generations. If the hotcatUK team manage to leave hospitality a little bit better than we found it, and help some people with their careers along the way, we will have achieved the task we set out to achieve.
So, Ioannis, thank you for sharing your blog. It is great to know that we are not the only ones willing to "shout out" our views, instead of filling up the ranks of what I call, "the silent majority".
thank you and look forward to reading more. Please do keep sharing with us your views in our discussions and forums too.
-
Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on
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Thanks Sofia, I appreciate your support and may be able to send you a couple of posters if this is OK with you.
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