Having underpaid staff for years, leading hotel chains in Europe are now scurrying to get enough onboard to match the post-pandemic travel demand. Leave alone work experience, hotels are now hiring new employees who even do not have a resume or CV.
When Covid-19 hit travel, an employee exodus took place in the hospitality industry. Most of these workers have now opted to choose a different form of employment which pays better. This has left hotels welcoming back much lesser workforce than what left amid lockdowns.
A trial initiative is underway by leading chain Accor to hire workers with no prior industry experience. The hotel chain which owns brands like Mercure, ibis and Fairmont in more than 110 countries has 35,000 vacant staff positions globally.
"We tried in Lyon and Bordeaux ten days ago and this weekend we`re having people interviewed with no resume, no prior job experience and they are hired within 24 hours," Accor chief executive Sebastien Bazin told Reuters in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum last month.
These new recruits, who are made up of students and migrants from North Africa, are given a six-hour training and then learn the trade on the job.
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Now, the hotels also are making the jobs more attractive by offering prospective employees a higher salary, free accommodation and other perks like health insurance and bonuses. Smaller hotels are facing similar staffing problems, the news agency reported.
Without staff and with no revenue in the last two years to back operations, many hotels fear they may have to limit operational days or trim down on the services on offer.
Some small-time establishments in Europe are only able to remain open on weekends when students who need extra cash can show up to work.
"During the week we can`t open because we have no hands, they are studying," one such establishment’s owner told Reuters.
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