Employee motivation in the Hospitality industry
The word "Hospitality" transformed from "Hospice" derived from the medieval times when people offered accomodation and a place to rest for weary travelers (Johnson, 2010). The act of receiving guests as an act of goodwill to provide comfort and care is the essence of hospitality. It can be further extended by providing additional services as reception and entertainment. Overtime it turned into an industry when multiple people and companies offered the same service as a business. Today the hospitality industry has significantly evolved with the involvement of technology and the competition embedded within.
Employees of Sri Lankan hospitality industry
Status quo in Sri Lanka
There has been a severe downturn in the employee turnover rate in the hospitality sector and this number will continue to gradually build up over time. Several factors have aided in accompanying employees to make the decision in leaving their workplace. One main reason being low salaries and pay cuts. This mainly came into the picture when the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the hospitality and tourism sector. As a result, many employees decided to leave the hospitality industry itself in search of a high paying jobs in other sectors (Dias, 2021). Employees of Sri Lankan hospitality sector contributes to the overall workforce in the country by 3% only. The lack of female representation is one main reason for its overall shortage (Organization, 2021). Working hours, gender discrimination and work-family balance are few of the reasons aiding this downturn.
Status quo in rest of the world
The struggles of retaining employees in hospitality sector is not just centered in Sri Lanka. May regions in the world are facing a similar scenario. The below video is an exceptional example on how other countries are facing a similar situation but how they apply employee motivation to overcome this barrier.
Source - Money Talks (2021).
By breaking down each components of the sample video, we can enlighten ourselves on the problem and its solution as follows:
Problem
UK hospitality sector struggles to fill thousands of jobs.
Reason
for the problem Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit resulting in cutting down number of employees and salary rates.
Solution
Dine-in scheme - £100 given to customers who recommends staff that works with restaurants for longer than a month.
How it impacts employees
The scheme brings in more customers which results in more revenue and the ability to retain employees through the following options:
1. Salary increments to be implemented due to the workload increment.
2. Employee recognition shared amongst team with customer feedback.
3. Job security provided with the higher revenue coming in.
Solutions for employee motivation is not a theory that has to be built only within a leader and an employee. As the above video displayed, the solution for employee motivation came from customers of the establishment.
Apart from unexpected turns in the nature of the industry, employees are also facing a lot of difficulties with managing their work due to stress caused by the industries challenging demands. Labour intensive structure, working hours and customer expectations are some of the reasons behind it (Dr. Volkan Altintas, 2018). As these are circumstances unavoidable by an employee, it remains as a responsibility of a manager or a leader to support their employees to manage these situations. Studies have shown that by implementing the following motivational acts can lead to reducing the stress levels of employees (Ngo, 2021).
• Respecting employee rights and appreciating their contributions.
• Providing regular breaks even when workload increases.
• Providing stress management workshops.
• Make available counselling service to employees who seek for support with workplace conflicts, health issues, family or marital issues, and personal finances.
To sum up, hospitality has been a part of our culture from the medieval times. Its development occurred through technology and competition and bloomed into an industry across the world. Establishments under the hospitality industry are flourishing in numbers and the opportunities it opens up to career wise is also similar. However, due to numerous reasons as unforeseeable circumstances and man made errors there has been a downturn in retaining employees in the industry and also a shortage in workforce. By identifying the employee requirements, managers can provide motivation to employees for the organizations, magers and more importantly the employees betterment.
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Reference list
Authority, S. L. T. D., 2018. Tourism Industry Report. [Online] Available at: https://sltda.gov.lk/storage/documents/2b87c2f42cb227bfc64d90ad888b200a.pdf [Accessed 24 April 2022].
Dias, S., 2021. Sri Lanka’s hospitality staff see prospects in other sectors. [Online] Available at: https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210704/business-times/sri-lankas-hospitality-staff-see-prospects-in-other-sectors-447828.html [Accessed 22 April 2022].
Dr. Volkan Altintas, D. F. T., 2018. Hotel Employees’ Perceptions of Stress Factors. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 13(2), pp. 1432-1441.
Johnson, J., 2010. Word ‘hospice’ comes from medieval term for ‘hospitality’. [Online] Available at: https://idahobusinessreview.com/2010/12/03/word-%E2%80%98hospice%E2%80%99-comes-from-medieval-term-for-%E2%80%98hospitality%E2%80%99/ [Accessed 29 April 2022].
Agreed with you. Further to support this topic, it is an inner drive that makes employees to decide to act. Biological, rational, social, and emotional variables affect the employee’s motivation. (Heathfield 2017)
ReplyDeleteYes Dumindu, If you refer to my first blog named Employee Motivation you will also see that there are four drives of motivations which were introduced to us to understand the emotional and behavioral impact of employee motivation better. This includes the drive to acquire, drive to bond, drive to comprehend and the drive to defend (Nitin Nohria, 2008).
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