Swiss Hotel Industry Day

"Shortage of skilled workers: also a question of leadership culture!" - under this title hotelleriesuisse invited members as well as guests from politics and business to the 10th Day of the Swiss Hotel Industry in Lucerne. The shortage of young talent and skilled workers is a topic that is regularly cited as one of the biggest challenges in member surveys conducted by the association. In the most recent survey, conducted in May 2017, recruitment problems ranked 3rd (see box). "At hotelleriesuisse, we focus on education, training and talent development," explained hotelleriesuisse President Andreas Züllig in an interview with host Marina Villa. The economy is struggling to keep up with a decreasing number of school leavers, he said. Therefore, offers such as the newly created profession of hotel communication specialist EFZ are of utmost importance for the hotel industry. 150 apprentices will start the new training in August. "The great interest shows that the profession meets both the needs of the industry and the inclinations of young people," says Züllig. hotelleriesuisse covers the entire educational spectrum, from basic and vocational training to higher vocational and university education, to management training and compact courses.Higher scholarships for training in the hotel and catering industryIn order to promote young talent and specialists even more effectively, the Tschumi Foundation of hotelleriesuisse revised its support criteria. Around a quarter of a million francs in scholarships are now available annually for students (à fonds perdu). Among others, students of the hotel tourism trade schools and students of the hotel management schools of hotelleriesuisse, namely the École hôtelière de Lausanne, the Swiss School of Tourism & Hospitality Passugg and the Hotelfachschule Thun, can benefit from this. Students who complete an exchange with hotelleriesuisse's affiliate schools abroad will now also be supported. "With the funds from the Tschumi Foundation, we can now also support high-performing professionals with limited means on their educational path," hotelleriesuisse Director Claude Meier held. "In this way, we want to make a further contribution to enabling good employees to pursue exciting career paths in our industry."Leadership culture increasingly decisive in the competition for talentIn his guest presentation, Prof. Dr. Christoph Clases (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland / AOC Un-ternehmensberatung) addressed the current discussion on modern leadership models. Especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, the leadership culture plays a decisive role, he said. "The shortage of skilled workers is a fact, even the best working atmosphere won't change that," the expert on leadership and collaboration issues held. "But companies with a modern leadership culture are ahead in the competition for good employees." But is a low-hierarchy leadership structure even possible in a hotel kitchen, for example, where every move must be precisely coordinated with the next? "Holacracy is a controversially discussed leadership style and cannot be arbitrarily applied to every company. In addition, each company must define the appropriate implementation for itself," says Clases. The attitude toward work has changed significantly. The challenge, he says, is to reconcile the expectations and needs of the younger generation with company requirements. "Millennials demand personal responsibility, self-organization and a sense of purpose. These have always been elements of a good leadership culture; now they are simply becoming even more significant. It doesn't necessarily take Holacracy to redeem them." He added that the hotel and tourism industry - like the economy as a whole - needs to give greater weight to these aspects. At the same time, Clases also emphasized the specific opportunities for the hotel industry: "Millennials like to work on a project basis, part-time and in changing work locations. The seasonal hotel industry in particular has a lot to offer them here." The employee sharing program of seasonal hotels in Ticino and Graubünden, for example, is heading in exactly the right direction. The employees of the participating hotels work in Graubünden in winter and in Ticino in summer.