Contemporary Trends in the Hotel Industry and their Influence on Employment

Mega Trends •  Economic development is moving Eastwards – new

markets are opening for the hotel industry in general and for the hotels of the international quality. This leads to higher demand for employees in the hotel sector and the use of “teachable fit”

Mega Trends •  Increased interest for hotel business as a profession in

emerging markets countries • 17% of students in Les Roche and 18% in Glion

are from Eastern Europe • China and India are among top 12 countries of

residence for students enrolled to Lausanne HS in 2010

• The balance curve, the frontier is moving further

Mega Trends •  Dramatically increased transparency of available

positions – internet, social media, open source recruitment lead to candidates in Columbia easily finding out about positions available in Tanzania

Mega Trends •  Gender and nationality inclusion

– Lausanne HS – 57% are women – Recent YHS (collection of top schools across the

Globe) – 63% are female; – without giving the possibility to different nationalities

and different genders to reach top positions – significant talent will be lost

Mega Trends •  On the other hand – economic difficulties lead to formal

and/or costs driven regionalization and closing of labor markets – EU, Russia, China

•  Working for “domestic” rather than international companies becomes more and more prestigious (and lucrative) in many countries

Mega Trends •  New Social Media and Generation Y:

– hyper-connectedness, high speed, parallel processes – expectations of faster career moves – stronger desire for balanced lifestyle.

•  Employer “branding” – international hotel companies widen their reach for talent

Hotel Industry Trends •  The hotel industry still attracts talent (YHS – 84% interviewed

students want to pursue a career with a hotel company) •  Top Hotel Schools graduates show more and more interest in

positions which are not “core” hotel business, guest contact jobs, but are seeking jobs in Marketing, Finance, Development… – The competition from other types of schools is much

stronger in these types of positions

Hotel Industry Trends •  Hotel Companies continue to intake talent and

employees in basically the same way – internships, direct entry and management training programs

•  Despite expectation of younger generation, it still takes similar amount of time as before to obtain skills and abilities required to progress effectively in this industry

Hotel Industry Trends •  In view of mega trends, four factors increase dramatically

candidates “value”: –  language speaking ability – geographic flexibility – passion for “core” hotel industry – demonstrated ability to manage people

FutureTrends •  How will hotel industry remain competitive in the world

of high productivity and highly developed technology? How will labor-intensive industry attract talent in competition with technology and knowledge intensive industries?

FutureTrends •  Technical jobs – outsourced, automated •  Customer relations jobs – highly trained and specialized;

the ability to interact with people and solve problems will be highly professionalized and specialized. – The core of hotel industry – dealing with people and

making them feel welcome will remain unchanged, but will become professionalized

Thank you