'Tarnished': Hospitality industry looks to change its image

“It's not going to be an overnight change.”

So says Tyler Rutherford, director of people and culture at Gusto54 Restaurant Group, in talking about negative perceptions facing the hospitality industry.

“The perception change will not be in our lifetime,” he said. “It's not going to be within the next couple years. It's going to be everybody in this room and everybody that we go to talk to say, ‘Let's be consistent, let's create a culture that is healthy, thoughtful and productive in our restaurants,’ and over the next 20 years, that perception will change.”

Rutherford recently joined several other experts in the hospitality industry to discuss the challenges around talent management: Leyla Lone, senior director of human resources at Roots Canada; Kelly Higginson, CEO of Restaurants Canada; and host Val Upfold, hospitality executive recruiter.

2 big challenges for hospitality

Two of the biggest challenging facing the industry are labour shortages and the notion that many people still look at hospitality careers in Canada or the U.S. as being a transitional job and not a career destination, Upfold said.

“I think the main challenge is that the labour shortage is related to everything else, so changing the perception (of the industry) is going to help with that shortage. A lot of things need to change so the labour shortage can get better,” she said.

With many people seeing careers in hospitality as transactional jobs that may not pay very well, the hospitality brand is “a bit tarnished,” which makes changing the perception of the brand an important goal, Upfold said.

Promoting hospitality careers

Changing the perception of the industry for younger generations doesn’t just involve changing their perception, but their parents’ as well. This requires not just advertising hospitality careers to college students but to high school students as well, Upfold said.

“A lot of hotels are doing programs where they bring the parents in of the kids who want to be chefs, they're cooking for the parents, the parents are seeing these great places they work and meeting all the managers, and so they're really feeling that it's a good option,” she said. “So, everyone gets involved in colleges, but now everyone needs to change the parents’ perspective, too.”

This change also requires finding people who love what they’re doing rather than filling gaps for the sake of it, as people who truly want to be in the industry are less likely to “jump ship really quickly,” Lone said.

Focusing on international recruitment

Recruitment strategies could also help with the labour shortage. At Restaurants Canada, immigration is going to be a big part of the company’s business plan, as is an emphasis on streamlining the permanent residency process for international temporary workers to give operators the confidence that these workers will stick around because they know their employer is investing in them, Higginson said.

“We are encouraging operators to start programs from a cultural perspective, whatever that may look like for your specific location, but understand you're going to have different cultures working with in your location,” she said.

At Gusto54, the company has also been engaging with international workers, while simultaneously recruiting more locally and adopting “old school” tactics like putting posters on community boards and working with community programmes to help reach communities that might not be targets of typical recruitment practices, Rutherford said.

Embracing the virtual age can also help employers; for example, by offering virtual job fairs like Roots has done, as flexibility is becoming increasingly important. Roots is also working to show potential hires that there can be a career path within the industry; the job does not just have to be a transitional one, Lone said.

Retention strategies in hospitality industry

When it comes to employee retention, Higginson stressed the importance of benefits programs, as these allow an employer to bring stability to employees’ lives and encourage them to stay with the company long-term when, for example, an employee is able to add their children to their benefit plan.

“I know that it's a financial challenge right now, especially with profitability at an all-time low. So, I'm not ignorant to the challenges with [funding a benefits program], but so many studies show that it is a huge part of retention as well as employee wellbeing and productivity, and then it goes back to that culture point showing the employees that they are important to you and so is their wellbeing,” Higginson said.

“That generally translates… to your employees taking care of guests with that same kind of culture.”

However, importance not only lies in the availability of resources but also in ensuring that employees know how to use them. There can be significant technology and language barriers with team member populations the industry hires from, and a big part of retention success is a business changing its ways and start fresh, Rutherford said.

Retention can also be fostered by encouraging the social aspect of working within the hospitality industry and by encouraging continued education within an organisation, Higginson said.

“When your staff feel like they're learning something new and they're able to continually grow, then it does help them commit to seeing the job as a career. They're stimulated, but then they also feel really valued within your operations, so you have that retention piece as well.”