While the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on many industries by forcing them to downsize their workforces, most importantly the hotel and hospitality sector, others are seeing the reverse effect. Health care, food and pharmacy retail and supply chain industries — jobs that are absolutely essential in this crisis, are absolutley booming!
The Hotel Industry is only slowly rteturning to its full opening power and is finding itself stripped and depleted of qualified workers for several reasons. Hiring in the midst of such a crisis is no easy matter. Stay-at-home policies and social distancing have made it a challenge to find candidates to fill the necessary positions to keep companies afloat. These companies are forced to pivot how they handle their hiring processes to navigate these tricky times.
For staffing excecutives ready to transition, innovative software can seamlessly drive the remote recruitment process end-to-end, including chatbot engagement, online assessments, automated scheduling and video interviewing. For smaller companies that are just getting started, a limited or free video-conferencing solution such as Zoom, Skype or Google Hangouts can help you conduct interviews.
To ad more harm to the hurt, hotel employees have been out of a job for so long now that many of them have overstayed their welcome with the social services and are being forced to change careers. As an example we introduce you to Danny (name changed) who has been working as a cook for more then 6 years. He loved his job and never thought about a change of career. Last march however, he lost his position in a 5* Hotel in Tirol when the first lock down happened. He had then been with the unemployment agency for 6 months and after that was informed that the support would be drastically reduced if he would not agree to a career change course. He then was put into a course to become a fork lift pilot and is now working in a ware house, earning more money in a 38 hr week then he did in a 60 hour week as a cook. Danny is happy in his new career and probably lost forever to the already strapped for staff Hotel industry.
Unemployment rates have already reached unprecedented levels across the Europe and the Alpine region, with large numbers filing for unemployment insurance as of mid-April last year. With so many people out of work, a good strategy to fill open positions is to target this group of people.
The health care industry is already doing this: Hospitals are taking on retired doctors and nurses and students about to finfish to fill the massive shortage created by the coronavirus. There are many out-of-work waiters and cooks who are able to quickly help out at hospitals in unqulified positions without much extra training. These people might take a liking to their new career5sd and also never return.
While it’s important for Hotels and restaurants to get new employees up and running quickly, they shouldn’t sacrifice the safety of their existing workforce in the process. The safety of current employees is important, and Hotels need to protect their health as much as they need to move quickly to recruit new staff.
All in all the challenges are multi faceted and diverse, leaving everyone to adapt and restructure after this is all over. Once the businesses fully reopen and guests return, we expect this to be in throngs and masses, so preparation for the summer season is starting already.
