The Great Resignation has triggered unprecedented employee exits across multiple industries. Specific industries have been hit harder than others, with the hospitality industry leading the pack. Many of these exits can be attributed to layoffs that occurred during lockdowns due to travel restrictions. Another is the need for vaccines among many businesses, the resignations result from employee pushback.
Because of the uncertainty in the hospitality industry, several employees decided to switch industries and upskill. Simply put, people require more stability, and the volatile tourism industry, despite recent surges, is anything but dependable.
Millennial has the highest number of existing employees. Employees between the ages of 30 and 45 had the highest turnover, whereas this distinction usually goes to those between the ages of 20 and 25. According to data provided by Naukri.com, 21 percent of millennials have changed jobs in the last year. They are even less motivated to stay in their current positions.
The significant impact of losing a large number of employees is already damaging. However, in the hospitality industry, the millennial generation comprises the majority of key players. Managers, sales directors, sales managers, financial planners, and a variety of other vital positions in the daily hospitality grind are all in play. The industry is witnessing a great resignation wave, where not only recruitment is getting affected but also admissions are being hampered.
Similarly, things are not as rosy as they appear in hospitality institutes. According to sources close to the IHM system, just over 5,000 seats out of the total 12,500 seats available for the flagship three-year BSc programme could be filled at the end of spot admissions.
“While a few metro IHMs from the Central pool were able to fill 80 to 90 percent of seats this year, their counterparts in tier-2 cities struggled to fill even 50 percent of seats. According to sources, Central IHMs in Guwahati, Gurdaspur, Srinagar, Shillong, and other cities struggled this year, with less than 30 percent of seats filled at the end of the admission process.
We reached out to Bhupesh Kumar, principal at IHM Ranchi, who discussed certain factors affecting this. He stated that the dignity of skilled labour in the industry, remuneration and HR policies, work days and hours, outdated courses and no elective or options for specialization, NCHMCT the pioneer body of HM not being recognised by AICTE or UGC, Ministry of Tourism and Mhrd not being on the same page for Hospitality education, hotel Industry is not recognised as an Industry by the lawmakers are few of the factors that students are losing interest.
According to Sayaji Raipur’s, HR manager, for hospitality positions, hiring has historically been a challenge. The perception of long hours and low pay has long been cited as the main deterrents for candidates to avoid careers in the hospitality sector.
It’s been estimated that the sharp decline and exiting of employees can cost an owner up to 30 percent of their revenue over a year. This is a huge negative outcome for something that could be remedied with the use of some simple strategy changes and upgraded attention toward human resources.
However, the good news is that there are still professionals out there who are expressing interest in returning to the industry and who are also receiving favourable responses from the hotel management institute for new placements.