The large numbers of new hotels under development in the Asia Pacific region is good news for most in the hospitality sector, but not for HR departments, who face a major headache in finding enough qualified, experienced, and skilled staff.
One person who is particularly aware of the recruitment problem is Dr Russell Arthur Smith, interim dean of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management.
The industry is set to face a serious skills shortage, particularly at senior management level, he tells Hotel Management Asia. “There are going to be serious problems at senior management because we don’t have enough qualified people, people who understand the industry and people with the right skill set at senior management,” he says.
On the positive side, for those entering the industry, the future looks particularly bright with the best candidates likely to have their pick of jobs. Particularly in Asia, candidates will likely be able to fast-track their careers and enjoy lucrative and rewarding careers, he adds.
HMA talks with Dr Russell Arthur Smith, interim dean of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management.
It’s a fact that the hospitality sector in the Asia Pacific region is expanding at a rapid rate. In your view, are there going to be enough trained professionals to manage these new hotels as things look at the moment?
No, there are not enough trained professionals. It’s an interesting area of discussion because people look at the raw numbers that are needed for the industry… but the challenge if you talk to people in the industry is finding senior managers, [people] who are going to drive the brand, who are going to have coherent HR policies across the region for a large corporation…these are where the challenges are because you cannot find and train senior managers in a short time.
How serious is the shortage in your opinion?
There are going to be serious problems – and I think we’re already starting to see this across Asia – at senior management because we don’t have enough qualified people, people who understand the industry and people with the right skill set at senior management. This is happening at the property level as well as in headquarters. There is a shortage of people who know what they are doing and who can act in the best interests of their organization.
Is the focus more on recruiting locally or hiring managers from other countries?
Without a doubt, if you are employing you’d rather recruit likely because that person understands the local industry, that person is likely to be more effective and bring greater success to what they are doing for that organization. Also you don’t have settling in and the cultural acclimatizing problems that you might have if you bring in a senior management from off shore and you don’t have the costs of bringing in external expertise and those costs for senior management can be considerable.
In your view, in five or 10 years time, how will the situation look?
It’s still going to be difficult. A lot of countries are ramping up their training but some of the problems are going to be finding the right types of professors who are experts, skilled and capable enough to train people in these programs. Top level professors are difficult to find and you can’t create one over night. Finding the professors that can be effective in the classrooms, and shape the minds for these senior roles is very difficult so I think we can expect to see a shortage because this puts a cap on the intake these programs can have.
Is there enough awareness from hotel companies that recruitment is going to be a problem or are they burying their heads in the sand?
I think they are all well aware of this. We are getting a number of organizations coming to us and offering full scholarships for students to undertake our program and these are people are required to go and work for these organizations, so hotel companies know there is going to be a problem down the line and are taking various strategic moves to ensure they are well positioned to meet the HR demand, particularly at the senior level.
