Even as it surpassed the IT-ITES industry in hiring, the hotel industry continues to reel under manpower shortage. According to the recent Employment Trend survey of Ma Foi Randstad, the hospitality industry hired 48,000 in the July-September period, compared with 46,000 by the IT-ITES industry. Still, with the growing inventory of hotel rooms, and growing stand-alone restaurants, the hotel industry needs to hire a lot more, industry sources say.
The survey says the industry would require at least another 40,000 people by the end of the current calendar year.
A large number of approvals for new hotels and large-scale investments in hotel infrastructure in major cities as well as tier-II and tier-III cities have led to creation of significant number of jobs at all levels.
If we see the pipeline of major hotel chains in India, the country's current room inventory (of around 1 lakh) will more than double in the next few years. Taj plans to add 11,000 rooms to its current inventory of 14,000 rooms in the next couple of years; ITC plans to add 15,000, Marriott International 12,000 and LeelaVenture also a few thousand rooms.
As a thumb rule, each room requires 1.75 men — if the number of rooms increases by 30,000, as many as 50,000 people would need to be hired.
While hotel management schools in India turn out 10,000 graduates a year on an average, the requirement is much more.
Considering the fact that “starting next year, we would pretty much open one hotel a month for several years”, manpower shortage and attrition is going to be the single largest issue, says Mr Rajeev Menon, Area Vice-President, Marriott International Inc.
Quoting a study on skill gap in the hospitality sector, by National Skill Development Corporation, the Ma Foi Randstad report says a large portion of the demand for people will occur in the areas of food & beverage services, kitchen, front office and housekeeping.
High attrition
Already, the industry is experiencing close to 30 per cent attrition. These days people hop hotels for short-term benefits, said Mr T. Natarajan, Honorary Secretary, South India Hotels and Restaurants Association and CEO of the Chennai-headquartered chain of GRT Hotels and Resorts.
IT-service, retail and aviation industries too nibble at the existing talent pool. Besides, mushrooming stand-alone restaurants too poach people.
“Being a service industry, where talent redeems the brand promise, employee retention is the key,” he says. He puts the attrition rate in the industry at 25-30 per cent across different levels. This has resulted in increasing employee cost. “Payroll expenses have risen from 14 per cent of a company's topline to almost 30 per cent today.”
In-house training and development programmes will be one good solution to this problem, which most hotel companies now do, said Mr Ajay K. Bakaya, Executive Director of Sarover Hotels and Resorts. Some industry veterans also suggest that hotel companies must come together to ensure creation of a talent pool through public private partnerships.