An Adaptive Workforce: Hospitality
In March 2020 the hospitality industry was one of many to be rocked by the outbreak of the coronavirus across the world.
Soon after the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in the UK, followed a national lockdown that saw much of the hospitality industry forced to close. Even upon reopening several weeks later, strict rules were enforced upon much of the sector to operate within certain restrictions and times frames.
With large hospitality sectors such as pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants, holiday centres and hotels operating on a far more limited basis, it didn’t come as a surprise to see that the sector started to make redundancies.
In November 2020, The BBC announced that 20% of jobs across the hospitality sector had gone, due to a revenue drop of 40% compared with business in 2019. With the hospitality industry left scarred from the impact of the coronavirus and with recruitment largely on hold, what does this mean for those previously working in the sector? What skills do they possess that could be transferred to another sector? Which roles would they thrive in?
Characteristics Common Amongst Hospitality Workers
The hospitality sector, like many others, comes with a set of characteristics and skills that are nurtured through the environment of the sector. Whilst it is true that characteristics will be diverse, it is also true that some will grow and be harnessed further than others due to their importance in succeeding in that role.
Of course, the longer you spend working in a particular sector, the more those characteristics are brought to the forefront, and hospitality is no exception in this regard.
Cheerfulness
As previously discussed in the “An Adaptive Workforce: Retail” blog, cheerfulness is a characteristic important for public facing positions. The cheerfulness characteristic determines how engaging a character is, and therefore how well they can communicate and create dialogue whilst maintaining an air of positivity and an upbeat attitude.
The cheerfulness subscale falls under the Extraversion category in The Big Five. Whilst being classified as an extravert is not essential to performing well in a retail environment, cheerfulness is certainly an important subscale when considering customer service and providing a memorable experience for customers.
Communication
Those working in the hospitality sector will be fantastic communicators. They will be adept in communicating with a variety of different characters as well as different personnel within the business.
Interestingly, the communication scale defines how an individual may shape how they communicate to others, either withdrawing opinions and therefore portraying themselves as agreeable. Alternatively, the other end of the scale would show that an individual is very upfront with their thoughts and opinions. Workers in the hospitality sector are actually more likely to know when to communicate in different ways, therefore performing to the best of both ends of the scale. There will be times when cushioning your opinions could be important, and times when being upfront will serve them well. An individual who has spent a prolonged period of time in the hospitality sector will be excellent at knowing when to communicate in a certain way, and when it is best avoided.
Diligence
Diligence is define as “careful and persistent work or effort”. Whilst this is a very simple definition, diligence is an amazing quality to have and shows an individual is willing to put in the care and effort, no matter what the task is. Diligence is often considered an “infectious” trait, by this we of course mean that having a highly diligent person in your team can lift the standards of those around them.
Working in hospitality often means that a high level of diligence is required. A high level of diligence will go a long way to ensuring that the business receives repeat custom. Treating each task and customer query/request with a high level of diligence shows that the task and customer is valued.
Now it is simply a matter of matching these skills with new industries and roles that will require these traits in order to perform.
Redeploying Hospitality Workers
Hospitality workers have a plethora of skills and characteristics that have been enhanced throughout spending time in the industry. These skills and characteristics can be transferred to be successful in the following roles:
Estate Agents
Hospitality workers would have worked in a largely public facing role. Estate agents will spend a lot of time working with the public as well, dealing with queries and providing information. This is on the face of it very similar to what hospitality workers will deal with.
Estate agents will need to be diligent as they will have a variety of different tasks to undertake, some often seen as repetitive. However, an estate agent will need to remain upbeat in their communication in order to maintain a strong relationship with their potential clients.
Account Managers
Account managers require a high level of communication combined with a high level of diligence. This is to ensure that customers are spoken to regularly and with the appropriate information. A high level of diligence will ensure that the customer feels that their needs are taken seriously, therefore creating a strong relationship and a greater chance of repeat business.
Hospitality workers will be adept at this role, having previously worked with customers in a similar way, having to communicate and apply diligence to their work in order to earn repeat business.
How We Redeploy
At Inpsyght Consultancy we test for Communication, Cheerfulness and Diligence by using MAP. MAP is based upon the Five Factor Model, testing for all 5 scales, including all 25 subscales.
Using this test, we are able to see just how high or low a candidate scores in many personality characteristics, including the previously mentioned traits. With this we can cross reference these skills to the new industry to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
To learn more about the psychometric tests we provide, use the following link: https://www.inpsyght.co.uk/solutions/
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