Factors Contributing to the Shortage of Skilled Labor in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry
Question:
Discuss about the Emerging Issues In Hospitality And Tourism.
It can be said that the issue of attracting and employing workers who are qualified in the tourism and hospitality sector is a major issue which has been existing for a long time. The problem of not being able to hire and employ qualified professions in the tourism sector can be considered to be a global challenge (Yu Byun and Lee 2014). It is to be mentioned that the factors contributing to the aforementioned problem are low wage levels, failure to satisfy the workers, failure to fulfill the needs and demands of the workers, long work hours and low pay. It can be said that innovative and effective strategies are being developed and implemented by creative professional workers to employ more skilled workers in the tourism industry (Baum, T. ed., 2016). It can be said that the tourism industry of Australia has been experiencing an acute shortage of skilled labor. It has become very difficult to find the employees who fit in with the culture of the tourism industry. It can be noted that the Australia’s tourism and hospitality industry is facing a boom and due to the same an additional requirement of 123000 workers in the aforementioned sector has been created. It can be sated that the Australian Government has come up with a guide to develop innovative plans for employment in the tourism industry. The shortage of skilled labor in the chosen sector can be also linked to the reason that overseas staff is not employed. It can be said that the imbalance lies between the labor demand and supply in Australia especially in the Tourism and Hospitality sector. It can be mentioned that motivating employees and giving them adequate training can help the tourism and hospitality industry to retain the skilled labor.
The reason it is difficult to find skilled and effective workforce in the aforementioned industry can be attributed to many reasons. According to Shani et al.(2014), demographics is one of the key factors for employment of skilled workforce in the tourism sector. It can be noted that population growth has been significantly slowing down in Europe, Australia and the United States of America. Therefore due to the decline in the growth rate of the population in the aforementioned places the workforce leaving the Travel and Tourism sector has been significantly higher in the past few decades. The number of employees leaving the sector is now higher that the number entering in the sector. It is due to this reason that the workforce is declining rapidly. On the other hand Lopes (2016), opined that another important factor is the retirement of the ageing workforce whose places are remaining vacant. According to Casado-Díaz and Simón (2016), lagging wage rates of the tourism industry is an important factor responsible declining work force in the chosen sector. It is to be mentioned that the low wage rates is another important factor which is responsible for the inadequate recruitment of workforce in the aforementioned sector. The issue of low wage rate has always been existing in the aforementioned sector. The salary scale in this sector is comparative lower than other industries. It is because of this reason that the Travel and Tourism industry is facing difficulty in retaining the employees already employed. However on the contrary as opined by Liu and Pennington-Gray (2015) it can be said that the tourism and hospitality industry lacks the skilled workforce for not being able to earn a reputation in the market. The Hospitality industry has not earned enough reputation to attract promising candidates or college graduates. Due to the long work hours and low pay scale those who are working in the chosen sector are seeking employment in other sectors and switching careers to improve their living standards.
- It can be said that emphasizing more on the training of the employees employed in the sector will help them achieve more and also will create satisfaction (Jones et al. 2016). After the unfortunate terrorist attacks on 9/11 many hotels failed to organize effective training programs to enhance worker enrichment which used to happen in the 1980s. If the effective training can be provided to the staff it will not only be beneficial for the employees who receive such training but will also be beneficial to the entire tourism and Hospitality industry.
- It can be said that the tourism industries of all the countries need to work together in order to develop effective strategies for creating a lucrative image of the sector which is essential for attracting skilled and efficient workforce. It is to be stated that the best practices available in the market are to be put into use while developing employment training and retention programs.
- There are several industrial organizations which aim to provide training programs. In addition to the industrial organization independent firms are to be contacted which specialize in providing human resource training.
- The leading hotel companies need to develop internal training programs to create attractive career opportunities which are expected to attract the attention of the potential candidates (Knani 2014).
- It is important to provide potential candidates with the scope of growth and advancement within the sector as that is what is expected to attract their attention. It is to be said that the recruiters need to outline a career path to the employees hired. The recruiters should also set examples of the managers who joined the sector in entry level position and worked their way up the corporate ladder (Ladkin and Kichuk 2017). The best example of this practice of internal growth and advancement of employees is exhibited by Marriot.
- Hiring guest workers can also be expected to help overcome the aforementioned issue. It is to be said that many nations of the world provide guest worker programs. However, these programs are seasonal which means that the workers are provided seasonal employment in the tourism sector (Kim, Choi and Li 2016). The United States of America among all other nations brings guest workers from different nations to work in the tourism and hospitality sector under U.SH-2B visa (Terry 2016). This example can be followed by other nations as well to fill the gaps in the workforce. This practice will also create employment opportunities for others.
- Providing paid internships can also attract college graduates from all over the world. It can be stated that the sector of Hospitality is a sector which intensely labor intensive. Opportunities of automation are also quite limited and restricted in the chosen sector. Therefore providing incentives for increased productivity and configuring the work process are expected to benefit the tourism and hospitality sector.
- The managers of hotels should provide additional incentives to the employees if they succeed to meet their targets as set by the management. However for providing additional incentives strict guidelines are required to be met while fulfilling the targets. It can be said that due to low wage rates many employees quit change their career paths and deviate from the hospitality and tourism industry. Therefore providing additional incentives for meeting targets will motivate them to work harder and stay satisfied with the remuneration received by them. This can be beneficial to both the employees as well as the industry.
- Cross-utilization and Cross training of employees is also important to fill the void in the workforce. Cross training of employees can help employees master their skills which are required for a variety of positions so that they can be shifted to different positions as per the requirement of the job.
Reference
Baum, T. ed., 2016. Human resource issues in international tourism. Elsevier.
Casado-Díaz, J.M. and Simón, H., 2016. Wage differences in the hospitality sector. Tourism Management, 52, pp.96-109.
Jones, P., Jones, P., Hillier, D., Hillier, D., Comfort, D. and Comfort, D., 2016. Sustainability in the hospitality industry: some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), pp.36-67.
Kim, W.G., Choi, H.M. and Li, J.J., 2016. Antecedents and outcomes of migrant workers’ sociocultural adjustment in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 58, pp.1-12.
Knani, M., 2014. Ethics in the hospitality industry: Review and research agenda. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(3), p.1.
Ladkin, A. and Kichuk, A., 2017. Career Progression in Hospitality and Tourism Settings.
Liu, B. and Pennington-Gray, L., 2015. Bed bugs bite the hospitality industry? A framing analysis of bed bug news coverage. Tourism Management, 48, pp.33-42.
Lopes, M., 2016. The hospitality industry (Doctoral dissertation).
Shani, A., Uriely, N., Reichel, A. and Ginsburg, L., 2014. Emotional labor in the hospitality industry: The influence of contextual factors. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 37, pp.150-158.
Terry, W.C., 2016. Solving seasonality in tourism? Labour shortages and guest worker programmes in the USA. Area, 48(1), pp.111-118.
Yu, Y., Byun, W.H. and Lee, T.J., 2014. Critical issues of globalisation in the international hotel industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 17(2), pp.114-118.
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