Is a flexible work schedule becoming the norm for the Hospitality Industry?

Is a flexible work schedule becoming the norm for the Hospitality Industry?

Finding and keeping good staff is critical to running any successful hospitality enterprise, but it can also be one of the most significant challenges. The shortage of qualified, reliable, and skilled staff is a significant concern for everyone in the industry.

Retaining Your Valuable Employees. First and foremost, hold on to the good employees you have. The employer / employee dynamic has changed for the foreseeable future and employers need to take immediate, tangible actions to retain their best workers.

Keeping an Eye on the Competition. For all but a few specialized or senior roles, you’re not just competing against other hotels and restaurants for staff. You’re competing against anyone offering flexible work, including rideshare providers (Uber, Lyft), freight and shipping companies (Amazon, UPS), delivery services (Capsul, Grubhub), and personal shoppers (Instacart, Shipt), just to name a few.

Using Gig Workers to Manage Seasonal Volatility with Flexibility. Seasonal fluctuations in demand are nothing new to hospitality, but the current uncertainty the industry as a whole is experiencing goes far beyond bad weather or economic climate. To remain competitive (or even viable, in some cases), hospitality organizations must have the flexibility to staff up and down on-demand, making the expenses associated with over and understaffing a thing of the past.

Are Gig Workers Right for you? The fact that gig work has become significantly more mainstream should be a boon to the hospitality industry. A lot of what traditionally kept people away from hospitality work––night / weekend hours, no set schedule, and seasonal staffing changes––are exactly what today’s gig workers are looking for.

Outsourcing Risk and Operations. A practical solution for many hospitality employers is outsourcing recruitment and staffing operations which enable businesses to achieve peak productivity and long-term flexibility while eliminating the compliance risks and extensive costs often associated with recruitment and hiring.

The Future of Work is Flexible. Hospitality professionals and hourly staff want and deserve the same level of fluidity in their careers as their counterparts in other industries. Businesses that depend on temporary and seasonal labor need to think differently about their staffing needs in the post-pandemic world and find alternatives to help them remain competitive, mitigate their compliance risk, and reduce their operational overhead.

Read the full article here by Matt Laurinas (Chief Customer Officer, Bluecrew) for Hospitality Technology.