Three Ways HSS is Working With Clients to Keep Hotels Staffed and Profitable.

As occupancy rates continue to climb, the biggest challenge for many hospitality venues is labor. Hourly wage rates have risen by more than 10% in many industries and have reached more than 17% in hospitality. Even setting aside the rise in wages, many hospitality venues such as hotels, restaurants, and banquet centers are having trouble simply filling open positions because the labor market is so tight. With unemployment claims now reaching pre-pandemic levels, this tight labor market is likely to persist well into 2022.

While contingent labor or temp staffing is one solution to this labor challenge, hospitality venues need to consider other outsourced services — in conjunction with staffing — in order to address the labor issue. Employing these additional labor strategies is key to meeting growing demand without degrading guest satisfaction.

Here are three key ways that HSS is working with its clients beyond contingent labor to meet today’s labor challenges.

1. A Boost to Recruiting

The shortage of talent in hospitality extends beyond hourly workers. The management teams needed to recruit, hire and onboard new team members are also operating at lower levels due to both layoffs during the pandemic and the tight labor market to fill these management roles.

Many hotels and hospitality venues are turning to Direct Hire and Recruitment Process Outsourcing models. HSS works with many clients on the Direct Hire model to find candidates to fill an array of positions, ranging from housekeeping and department heads to general managers and regional VPs. This fee-based service comes with guarantees to ensure the right organizational fit, pulling from an extensive pool of employees. HSS also offers Recruitment Process Outsourcing, which helps clients not only find candidates but walks them through the entire recruiting process. These services can help fill positions more quickly while reducing the managerial burden of hiring in hospitality.

2. Full Outsourced Services

With contingent labor filling gaps in internal staffing, hospitality venues are also opting to accomplish other functional operations through outsourced services. Outsourcing services can eliminate the need for internal employees or can help reduce strain on existing employees. For example, HSS offers kitchen cleaning and janitorial services that reduce the burden on Food and Beverage staff. Many hotels also choose the Full Department Outsourcing model that sees an entire housekeeping department recruited, hired and managed by a team at HSS. These partnerships ensure cost and quality controls.

3. Innovation

Tight labor markets tend to drive innovation. However, the right partnerships are essential to making this a reality because innovation needs to be developed, tested, and verified ahead of a crisis. The KBS Innovation Center, housed at HSS’s parent company KBS, specializes in working with technology partners to raise efficiency and effectiveness for many essential cleaning functions. Some of its solutions have helped dramatically reduce the usage of energy, water, chemicals, and perhaps most importantly, time. With clients in retail, this level of efficiency drove down costs by as much as 25%.

As labor markets remain tight and occupancy rates rise, hospitality venues need solutions that help keep guest satisfaction high while remaining profitable. HSS is working with clients on more expansive strategies — far beyond staffing — to reach these goals as they look forward to navigating the ongoing recovery.