China Daily

Hotels face challenge to retain, expand staff

Emotional intelligen­ce and soft skills in demand for rapidly changing industry

- By CHEN MEILING chenmeilin­g@chinadaily.com.cn

Competitio­n among companies has focused on scrambling for profession­als.” Zheng Jing, general manager of Soluxe Winterless Hotel Beijing Co Ltd

Dong Jiaming, a 22-yearold man who majored in hotel management, said he is satisfied with his first job after graduation, as a front desk receptioni­st at a hotel in Beijing. His career plan is clear — to become a front office supervisor after one year and a duty manager after two and a half years.

Currently, Dong says he earns 3,500 yuan ($527) per month, or 42,000 yuan a year, while he’s heard that the annual salary of top executives in his industry can be as much as 2 million yuan. The gap is massive, but it presents Dong with a challenge and fuels his ambitions.

However, not all his classmates have the same ambitions.

The Beijing Hospitalit­y Institute, which Dong graduated from, has about 4,000 students, all majoring in hotel management. However, as a freshman Dong was told that only 40 percent of its graduates end up working in hotels.

“Providing service seems easy, but it’s never easy,” he said.

During one of his internship­s, he practiced recognizin­g and rememberin­g the faces and names of VIP guests, to make them feel “highly regarded” at the hotel, to help bring in more customers.

At college, the hospitalit­y students also learned cooking, making beds, providing table service, reception work and basic knowledge of hotel operations — such as making budgets, cost control and the management process.

But others shy away from the night shifts, long working hours, high pressure and low salary, he said.

In May, the National Bureau of Statistics released a survey of annual salaries in industries in China for 2017, which showed that the hotel and catering service industry was one of the three lowest-paid sectors.

In the private sector, the average salary for hotel staff was 19 percent less than the national average, and for public sector hotels salaries lagged a further 38 percent behind the rest of the country, the data showed.

Zheng Jing, general manager of Soluxe Winterless Hotel Beijing Co Ltd, said it’s getting hard to recruit grassroots employees.

A guest room service employee may earn about 4,000 yuan per month in a hotel, according to Zheng.

She said one of her employees once told her: “As a housekeepe­r or maternity matron, I can earn up to 8,000 to 10,000 yuan. So why should I go scrub the toilet in a hotel room?”

The Chinese hotel industry is active. More hotels are seeking expansion in an increasing­ly competitiv­e market, which means they will open more new hotels, creating demand for both entrylevel employees and managers, she added.

But it remained hard to balance the needs of employees with those of the company to reduce costs, and the group was working on other methods to retain staff, such as building a warm corporate culture.

“Competitio­n among companies has focused on scrambling for profession­als,” she said. “Keeping a team stable is vital to reduce the costs in human resources.”

The annual growth rate of the global hotel industry is about 4 percent, but the lack of skilled employees and managers has brought challenges for the developmen­t of the industry, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.

David Gosset, founder of the Europe-China Forum, also a senior adviser for hotels, said the hospitalit­y landscape in China is evolving rapidly, and the growing preference for premium goods and services of Chinese customers has put more pressure on hotels.

“How do we find the right staff to face a more sophistica­ted demand? Beyond hard work and technical skills, what is the must needed are people who are passionate about hospitalit­y,” he said.

“The best talent in the industry have a passion to serve, not only to meet a client’s demands but also to anticipate his or her needs.”

Les Roches Internatio­nal School of Hotel Management, a 64-yearold private school, said in a recent report that creativity, innovation and cross-cultural thinking were the key elements for future hotel managers.

The importance of emotional intelligen­ce and “soft skills” could not be exaggerate­d, Orient Today, a Henan-based newspaper, quoted school principle Stuart Jauncey as saying last month.

Foreign language skills, management of multicultu­ral teams and adaptabili­ty were also advantages in every industry — including hospitalit­y — Jauncey said.

 ?? PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ?? A waitress replaces a decorative table lamp with a new one at a Cantonese restaurant in The Peninsula Beijing.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY A waitress replaces a decorative table lamp with a new one at a Cantonese restaurant in The Peninsula Beijing.

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