Briefing: No two career paths are the same

There are a great many people who have worked their way up the hospitality ladder to success, but there are also many who find their career path takes them into hospitality through less conventional routes. A recent survey shows that the number one reason professionals would seek a new job in 2017 is that they need a more challenging position. When seeking this challenge, people can find unexpected opportunities.

The week our experts discuss their career paths and how they got involved in hospitality:

According to Korn Ferry, challenge is the overwhelming driver of change with 76% of people stating this as the top reason to seek a new job. There are several other elements that can also influence a professional seeking new employment. The other factors stated in the study are; the professional’s efforts not being recognised in their current job (9%), the professional not liking their company (9%), or their boss (4%), and compensation being too low (5%).

Making career leaps to follow opportunity can involve changing industries or even countries. One very attractive element of the hospitality industry is that it offers great opportunities for travel and working abroad. HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey found that 43% of millennials who have moved aboard were motivated by finding a new challenge, and 49% of expat millennials say they find their work more fulfilling in their host country than it was at home.

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Video clips produced by ybc.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: High staff turnover is costly for hospitality businesses

A new report from Deloitte, Hospitality 2015 – Game changers or spectators, found that employee turnover in hospitality can be as high as 31% and may increase further as the recession is left behind. This is nearly double the average rate for other industries and can be expensive for businesses. So how can hospitality businesses hold on to valuable staff for the long term?

In these videos hospitality experts discuss staff retention:

Staffing costs account for a tremendous proportion of hotel operation costs. Deloitte’s report states that, ‘An average hotelier spends 45 percent of operating expenses and 33 per cent of revenues on labour costs.’ High turnover rates cause extra costs in recruitment and training. According to the report 52% of the cost of replacing staff is productivity loss and 14% is orientation and training.

The report shows that the top barriers to retaining employees are lack of compensation increases and excessive workload. At entry level, hospitality jobs can typically have somewhat irregular hours and fairly low pay and can attract younger workers who may not considered hospitality a long term career. However hardworking, happy and engaged staff are essential for the smooth running of a hotel and the longer staff stay in their roles the more they will have to offer the company.

In order to impress guests companies need staff across the business who understand the industry well and are able to represent the brand at the level expected. It is well worth focusing attention on giving staff a good experience so that they want to perform their best.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do so here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: Meta-disruption in hotel bookings

According to Statistica, over 35% of Millennial and Gen X travellers (all adults under 48) use ‘meta-search’ when planning travel, allowing them to automatically combine search engine results. It is ten years since the launches of two well-known meta-search sites Kayak and Trivago in 2005. In 2015 meta-search is one technology that is developing fast and impacting on hoteliers. According to Skift, changes to Google’s hotel finder search will make Google a big player in the meta-search arena this year.

With the hospitality booking landscape constantly changing these videos have expert discussion on approaches to distribution:

Meta-search allows the consumer to limit the amount of ‘clicks’ from the beginning of their holiday internet research to their booking. While the actual booking is made with the OTA or the hotel the search site allows the researcher to compare deals on the same trip across different sites. This ease and efficiency has made meta-search popular. With consumers choosing to use this shortcut it is important for hospitality businesses to consider whether or not they are showing up in the search results. To appear in meta-search results hoteliers can list themselves on the website (an option on sites such as TripAdvisor or Kayak), or on an OTA (Trivago only lists OTA inventory), which tend to be more prominent in results.

Trivago is the world’s largest online hotel search with 100% growth every year since 2008. It shows results from 266 booking sites (which encompasses 726,065 hotels).

Kayak receives over one billion queries each year. It also has a mobile app which has been downloaded 40 million times.

Metasearch is also frequently used for booking flights on sites such as Monomondo, Skyscanner, and Travel Supermarket.  There is even an apartment specific meta-search site Apartum for consumers preferring alternative accommodation to hotels.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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