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: The value of thoughtful recruitment

Recruiting new ways of thinking into your business can be very advantageous. A study by Delloite says that ‘diversity of thought’ within a team can ‘help increase the scale of new insights’ and ‘guard against overconfidence’. Teams that hold a variety of skillsets, identities, and backgrounds will challenge each other and encourage learning and innovation. Whoever you choose to bring into your business, ensure you are supporting them to achieve their best.

Our experts look at the importance of thoughtful recruitment and training:

The advantages of having diverse teams, beyond the immediate social importance, is noted in various studies. McKinsey found that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to financially outperform competitors. While a study in a PNAS journal revealed that traders in diverse markets were better at accurately pricing stocks.

When recruiting new employees you should consider ‘what they can bring to the team’, and also what they can bring out in a team and what you can bring out in them. Think about more that filling a gap and relying on old habits and assumptions, but really look at how they can fit in the business and work to help them develop, as discussed in the above videos.

A drive for recruitment and upskilling in the industry is needed this year is especially in light of Brexit, which could see UK hospitality businesses losing many of their valuable staff. BHA say that “Assuming that 10% of the EU workforce (70,000) leave the sector and/or the UK each year and the industry’s total headcount grows by a conservative 1% (45,000) annually, the annual recruitment need is for over 100,000 people.”

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.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Briefing: A good reputation goes a long way

A new study from Resonance Consultancy has named London as the World’s Best City Brand. The results were based on analysis of social media comments about cities, by both locals and visitors. So how important is it that people are talking about your brand online, and how far are hospitality companies relying on Social Media for feedback on their performance?

Four hospitality experts discuss word of mouth and building a loyal customer base:

Outside of Social Media, performance on dedicated review sites continues to have a great impact on a hospitality business. ReviewPro’s 2016 Top Luxury Hotel & Brand Report, found that Luxury Hotels receive 1,008 reviews on average per hotel per year. Within that, an amazing 83% were positive reviews.

China had the largest number of top of top rated luxury properties in ReviewPro’s report, and had experienced a dramatic increase of +46% reviews year-on- year, further reflecting the fast changing developments in China.

The UK had the third most top reviews and unsurprisingly the Maldives had the second largest number of top rated luxury properties.

To return to Resonance Consultancy’s Word’s Best City Brands Report, the full top 5 best city brands were found to b: London, Singapore, New York, Paris and Sydney.

 

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.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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