The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Hotel, restaurant chains face staff shortage, look to develop new talent

    Synopsis

    Industry insiders said many workers who were laid off during the pandemic have moved to other sectors such as retail and banking, and are now reluctant to come back as there is a feeling that hospitality roles are insecure, not as rewarding, and far too demanding.

    hotel-iStock
    The hospitality industry in India could be facing a significant shortage of around 350,000 workers as the business has boomed post the third wave of Covid-19 and operations and working hours have normalised, industry associations and professionals told ET.

    Leading Indian and global hotel chains and large quick service restaurant (QSR) brands are all experiencing a staff shortfall primarily due to redundancies created during the pandemic, people familiar with the matter said.

    “The demand aggregation of the industry for skilled staff is increasing post the pandemic with new hotels, outlets, restaurant chains, and cloud kitchens opening and expanding aggressively,” said Rajan Bahadur, chief executive officer of Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC), an organisation promoted by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) to help fill skilling gap in tourism and hotel industries.

    “We have already received a demand of over 300,000 workers for different tourism and hospitality job roles in the 2021-22 period,” he added. “At present, the industry has a requirement of over 350,000 manpower at various levels for fulfilling the demand in different departments across the country. This number is likely to appreciate as the industry is on a constant road to recovery post the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

    Industry insiders said many workers who were laid off during the pandemic have moved to other sectors such as retail and banking, and are now reluctant to come back as there is a feeling that hospitality roles are insecure, not as rewarding, and far too demanding.

    Shortage of staff is a “big challenge” and “almost all the hotel companies are addressing this in terms of putting a lot of focus on multi-tasking and also developing new talent”, according to KB Kachru, chairman emeritus and principal advisor, South Asia, at Radisson Hotel Group.

    “We are working closely with Skill India, which is helping out in terms of developing talent for different departments; whether it’s housekeeping or maintenance, each area has to be addressed separately,” said Kachru who is also the vice president of Hotel Association of India (HAI).

    Vikramjit Singh, president at Lemon Tree Hotels, said since stress levels are “comparatively low” in other industries, people are choosing them over hotels, adding that many have moved to hospitals, call centres, retail and real estate.

    “Post Covid, it has become very difficult to get quality staff at prevailing salary structures,” he said. “We are finding it difficult to get frontline staff in departments like front office, housekeeping and food and beverage service department. Apart from this, it has also become difficult to retain engineering, finance, IT and HR resources as they are changing the industry to get decent salary hikes.”

    Sanjay Bose, executive vice president for HR and L&D at ITC Hotels said with business bouncing back faster than estimated, the industry is under immense pressure to have a ready workforce to cater to the enhanced footfalls. "We are also seeing the phenomenon of large scale attrition with organizations dealing with the workforce crunch by aggressively hiring from competition. However, this is expected to settle down over the next 6 to 12 months, " he added. Bose said while this is an industrywide problem, at ITC Hotels, the impact is 'minimal' as jobs, salaries and benefits were protected during the pandemic and the workforce remained intact.

    Chains such as Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), Accor, and McDonald’s India North and East declined to comment on the matter. Others such as Marriott International, Oberoi Group, Sarovar Hotels, and Jubilant FoodWorks did not respond to emails seeking comments till the time of going to press.

    Industry body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) partnered with staffing and employment platform Kaam.com this year to launch a nationwide recruitment, skill development, and financial inclusion platform for all workers within the hospitality industry. At an NRAI town hall this month to discuss staffing solutions for the restaurant industry, Rishi Khiani, founder of Kaam.com, said attrition is a big part of the problem. “80% of people within the sector are migratory and reverse migration during the pandemic led to a massive vacuum. A lot of people didn’t return,” he had said.

    Bahadur of THSC said the organisation is currently engaged with over 400 brands comprising large and small hotel and resort chains, restaurants, quick service restaurants, facility management companies and travel agencies. “We have collaborated with major conglomerates of all sub-sectors,” he said. “We are constantly progressing to increase the number of industry partners so that the demand and supply gap can be bridged through maximum placements in these organisations.”


    (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
    (Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Budget 2024 News, Budget 2024 Live Coverage, Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in