How hotel employee job-identity impacts the hotel industry: The uncomfortable truth

Abstract

The hotel industry admits to struggling to attract and retain well-qualified, skilled labour; this article questions if this difficulty is due to internal and external ‘image’ of the industry. Just over four thousand hotel employees were surveyed on their views of life working in a hotel with results advising that though hotels are not a bad place to work, they are not a good place to work. When this internal view/image merges with the external realities and image characteristics of other job and career options, remuneration (particularly compared with other industries), hours, and turnover, it potentially projects an overall ‘negative industry image’. As the international hotel industry continues to grow, the challenge of attracting and retaining employees will be even greater; this article concludes that it is time for the hotel industry to undergo an ‘industry-image-makeover’.