The labor crisis. It is plaguing all industries, especially hospitality. Many jobs offer remote work, and individuals see this as a luxury too hard to ignore. Thus, hospitality is suffering.
Remote work does increase reservations with travelers looking for vacation while on the job, however, this does pose a challenge for hotels and restaurants to stay fully staffed. This means the hospitality industry must think of different ways to incentivize potential employees to apply or make coming into a work setting more enticing.
There are benefits to working from home. Whether that be an ability to travel, be with family more, or take care of household chores during the typical workday. However, there are significant difficulties that come with it as well. Isolation, loss of collaboration and creativity, and “zoom fatigue” are all downsides to working remotely.
The phrase- “zoom fatigue” was tossed around frequently throughout the first part of the pandemic, but it holds true today for many people in remote jobs. Feeling burnt-out from constantly staring at a computer screen while doing work and being in meetings is impossible to ignore. The “zoom fatigue” from remote work leads to less productivity and, quite frankly, annoyance from employees.
Hospitality must capitalize on this. Offering in-person meetings and collaborative workshops in a comfortable setting with refreshments could be a great motivator. With in-person meetings comes increased productivity in those meetings resulting in less need for them. Fewer meetings gives employees more time to complete tasks and projects and reduces the stress of completing “to-dos” in less time.
Bringing employees back together also results in less micromanaging from leadership. If employees are in-office or working at the hotel, management feels less of a need to check-in to ensure employees stay on task. This gives the leadership team more time to focus on their projects and creates less annoyance for the staff.
We must take into account what people dislike about remote work: too many meetings, sitting at home all day, and unnecessary check-ins. Take advantage of those dislikes and offer more reasons for employees to come into work.
-When conducting hospitality meetings, keep them minimal and to the point. Always have an agenda and set goals. Distribute these agendas to employees to ensure everyone stays on track.
#FranksTips:
-Have less meetings, and fewer attendees. Only include people in meetings that need to be a part of it. There must be a reason for each person to be present. Otherwise, they are better off continuing on their day to day tasks.
-Instead of having people listen in, send out what was discussed during the meeting to all employees.
-Have designated times each week where employees can come to speak with you about their concerns or what they need. This decreases your need to micromanage and increases their ability to be heard and remain productive.
