A Career in the Hospitality Industry

What this audit indicates is that there is a shift in the market whereby demand outweighs supply of trained and qualified candidates.  If 2010 is going to be ’s showcase to the world of our hospitality and travel industry, then these statistics are concerning for a number of reasons.

Firstly, unlike some sectors, such as accounting, the hospitality industry is often viewed by school leavers as a soft career option taken only by people who are not very ambitious.  This negative perception is unfounded and goes against international thinking in that the hospitality industry is a highly valued one overseas.  In reality, the industry offers employees a vibrant and dynamic working environment in which they get to interact with people on all levels, travel benefits, staff discounts on F&B and accommodation, flexible working hours and indeed has excellent career paths.  For example, a person who starts out as waiter in a hotel, can progress to restaurant supervisor, restaurant manager, F&B Manager, Deputy Hotel Manager and finally hotel manager should they develop strong people management skills.  They will also gain inter alia, exposure to finance, revenue management, sales and marketing and events management.  Few other industries could offer career paths of such variety as well as the development of such a broad skills-set.

The second reason the skills audit is of concern is that when Accenture reviewed the sector customer service levels among 22 nations in 2007, South Africa ranked last, scoring 6%, less than half the score of penultimate Poland at 14% and lagging far behind Singapore and Canada at 89 and 88% respectively. This indicates no improvement at all since 2005.  Customer service standards differ substantially from on establishment to the next, and it is obvious when dining out, which restaurants for example have invested in staff training and which have not.  Establishments not training and investing in their staff will simply not succeed in the long run, as customer needs may vary, but their desire for quality never does.  It is therefore imperative that, no matter what the size of the establishment, we embark on employee development programs now.

The countries ranked as ’s top three source markets are the , and just recently in third place, the .  In these countries, customer service standards are particularly high, as is their investment in staff training, and they would simply expect the same level of service when visiting .

It is not too late for us to be encouraging new entrants into our industry and running training campaigns. Success is in the details. For free downloadable training materials, training videos, job description and a wide range of articles for the hospitality and travel industry visit www.hospitalityjobsafrica.co.za a new national recruitment website.