The hospitality industry could be losing a generation of future leaders. It’s not that there’s a shortage of passionate young people, but we’re not treating our future managers differently than the transient employees we use in front-line positions; as a result, many of them are leaving the industry. To solve this problem, leadership development needs to be strategic and specific to the people we want to promote. We can’t take for granted that bright and ambitious young people want to manage our businesses.
Case in point: last year two students from the University of Guelph’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in Ontario conducted a research project examining their peers’ perceptions of the industry as an employer. The students, Lindsay Barron and Matthew Azevedo, were in their graduating semester and had completed year-long co-op placements at resort hotels in Western Canada. With their academic careers winding down, both wondered what their future career held for them. Initially, they were keen to pursue a future in hospitality management — Azevedo most likely in foodservice and Barron in accommodation. But, four years later, although Barron was still determined to find a career in the industry, Azevedo had decided his future lay elsewhere. Regardless of their final career objectives, the duo was determined to address and document issues that concern students and recent graduates from hospitality programs across the country. They hoped their research would encourage industry leaders to create a more supportive, complementary and mutually beneficial relationship with their employees.
The following article presents Barron and Azevedo’s findings, followed by the school faculty’s experience with students and recent grads.
The student perspective
For their research, Barron and Azevedo interviewed approximately 150 hospitality students from colleges and universities across Canada. Students were asked 30 questions about earning potential, compensation and work-life balance. Below is an excerpt from their research paper:
“Respondents were asked to reflect on the following statement: “The earning potential of the hospitality industry appeals to me.” The findings show a decline in positive feelings about earning potential as the students approached graduation and full-time employment in the industry.
When asked to list what they dislike about the industry, one respondent stated: “The number of hours management has to work and the difference in pay between managers and servers.”
Respondents were also asked to rate their feelings about the statement “The compensation for work is fair in the hospitality industry.” Fifty-two per cent of the first- and second-year respondents surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that compensation for work is fair. Third- and fourth-year respondents had a more divided perception as only 28 per cent agree or strongly agree with the statement. And, the perception among recent graduates shifted further as only 16 per cent agreed, while 0 per cent strongly agreed with the statement.
In a preceding question, respondents were asked to list the two qualities they liked least about the hospitality industry. This open-format question did not require respondents to explicitly list two separate items. Overall, the word “hours” was mentioned 54 per cent of the time. Perhaps more telling is a breakdown by year: first- and second-year students mentioned “hours” in 42 per cent of the responses, while third- and fourth-year students mentioned the word 56 per cent of the time, and recent graduates mentioned it 71 per cent of the time. ”
The faculty perspective
It’s understood hospitality students don’t always graduate into the industry, and that fact isn’t exclusive to North America. In 2008, researchers from Griffith University in Australia found that one-third of its hospitality students didn’t pursue a career in the industry upon their graduation. When the researchers examined why, a disturbing fact was noted: almost all of the students made their decisions based on the work experiences they had while attending college.
Meanwhile, industry leaders across Canada often discuss the increasing difficulty they have recruiting and retaining staff and management personnel. In fact, the university’s 2012 study of Canadian foodservice executives shows 64 per cent of operators felt ‘attracting, retaining and motivating top talent’ was one of the greatest challenges facing their organization.
Interestingly, research shows the millennial generation has its own set of unique values and attitudes, which translate to a new set of work expectations. “This group has largely been taught by their baby-boomer parents to be independent-minded, to question authority and negotiate with their parents and teachers rather than listen to authority,” says additional research conducted by Sean Lyons, a professor at the U of Guelph in the HR faculty. “They’re the product of the self-esteem parenting movement and have received a lot of positive attention throughout their lives.” One would think this kind of attention would have purely positive long-term effects, but Lyons has also noted negative results, such as an “extremely high sense of self-esteem that’s not rooted in achievement or proven success.”
This point was driven home recently by a graduate of the U of Guelph hospitality program. After managing a restaurant for two years, she said: “I don’t want to be a part of someone else’s journey; I want to be on my own journey.” This young woman who had been looking to switch from operations into a support function realized both jobs were hard to secure, and she left the industry entirely. This solution may seem foreign to older generations, but operators who are employing young people need to understand their perspective. It’s impossible to change the thoughts and beliefs of a generation, so hospitality veterans have to change their cultures and expectations.
Extend the millennial’s focus on self to a leadership context and other issues arise. Not only are young people mostly concerned for their own well-being, but being a ‘leader’ does not often appeal to them. Leadership ratings are at an all-time low, as millennials have grown up during a period of increased exposure to the shortcomings of politicians, CEOs and athletes who were once role models. Ultimately, the idea of being a leader or manager of a work team no longer drives students to the hospitality industry; in many cases it’s not even on their radar. Couple that with the fact that restaurant employees lose the opportunity to make tips — ultimately taking a pay cut to become a manager — and it’s hardly a surprise there is a dearth of young leadership in the industry.
That said, it’s common for hospitality students to be given early supervisory or management jobs while still at school or in a co-op placement, although many who have had these opportunities often feel taken advantage of and unsupported. In one case, a student explained how she had been promoted to a supervisory role but was forced to continue working part-time as a server to earn tips to subsidize the low pay. Unfortunately, it’s an accepted reality in many segments of the restaurant industry that workers should earn less money and work longer hours before they can gain more responsibility.
Now what?
The industry’s struggles to attract and retain top young talent is hardly a new problem. But, what is new is the context in which we operate. As an industry, we have created and learned to adapt to continuous turnover, which makes us dependent on a new workforce. But, it could be dangerous to count on millennials to meet the industry’s employment needs without understanding what motivates them. It’s a small generation, with different attitudes and expectations, leading to potential staffing challenges if the employment situation doesn’t improve.
With that in mind, the industry needs to work on staff retention, especially if fewer young workers are choosing to remain in the industry. This means treating each employee and new entrant — especially those who are considering a career in the industry — as an asset. In a labour-intensive industry that relies on people to sell products, it’s necessary to adapt a new approach in the management of our greatest and most precious asset, our people.
When it comes to menu items, inventory systems, service delivery and other tangible concepts, the foodservice industry is innovative. So, it’s important to apply that same creativity and innovation to new job designs, compensation systems and expectations. To effectively do this, we need to acknowledge the severity of the issue and work together to solve it as an industry. We need to view this research as a wake-up call, which will remind us to treat hospitality students well, engage them and show them what’s great about our industry. Our future, after all, is in their hands.
