Gleneagles chairman and Institute of Hospitality president, Peter Lederer conducted an illuminating straw poll at this week's General Manager's Conference, which suggested that hotel managers pay lip service to valuing their staff without actually taking steps to do so.
At the start of the Managing Talent panel debate, Lederer asked for a show of hands from all delegates at the conference who agreed that the hotel business is a people business and that people are its key strategic asset. Predictably, he was greeted with a forest of upstretched arms.
But when he asked how many delegates knew what their training expenditure amounted to, per head, no more than 5% of them raised their hands. A similarly small number were able, hand on heart, to say they were proud of their induction process. And only two people out of an estimated 220 delegates said they would be comfortable to stand up on stage and deliver a one-minute presentation on the 14-19 diploma. (I fear one of these two might have been Hotelier of the Year Michael Gray, who sits on People 1st’s steering group for the introduction of the diplomas!)
The message was clear: managers need to stop talking a good fight and start working harder to promote the hospitality sector and ensure it retains its best employees.