Excellent employer branding as well as human resource management is more important than ever. In addition to the shortage of skilled workers in tourism, the industry is now struggling with the migration of employees to other industries. The long closure periods, as well as other factors, are pushing for new approaches.
Excellent employer branding as well as human resource management have significantly gained in importance and being more relevant than ever before. Beyond the shortage of skilled workers in tourism, the industry is now also struggling with the migration of employees to other sectors. The long closure periods, as well as other factors, necessitate new approaches on the employer side.
Staff development should not be neglected at this time.
The Corona pandemic has had a profound impact on people’s perceptions of career development on a global scale.
Regularly secured income and opportunities for promotions became distant memories and very hard to reach. Employees, faced with such uncertainties and sensitive thoughts, often happened to fall into doubt and became more insecure.
Hence, it remains crucial to maintain a high focus on employees during the pandemic and throughout the time that follows. New concepts must be developed in a sustainable manner to keep motivation high and to contain & reduce frustration. Sustainability in career planning is not just a trend for employees, but much more a way of life and expected to be addressed.
Post-Covid plans and strategies can help to get back into a more regular working routine. Mobile, flexible working, also from home (or even abroad), will continue to exist in the future and should be further developed and defined in new strategies and new work concepts. Personal training cannot be replaced by digital training, at least temporarily, but it can be promoted. The development of employees for a time after the pandemic should be cranked up bit by bit. The entire situation will certainly continue to influence our daily lives, which is why the knowledge and skills of the individual not only need to be sharpened, but also accompanied.
Only those individuals that are not supported and properly guided will come to a halt with a feeling of indifference and negligence building up. Individuals’ perspectives and long term visions, related to career and private life, become incredibly valuable assets that will support a return to normality. Perspectives of the individual, professionally as well as privately, become the most important asset right now and slowly support the integration processes back into the new normal.
Those who care for and accompany their employees can assume that the trust they have built up throughout the recent months and years, will be rewarded by loyalty in the years to come.
Staff development must not be neglected.
After the events of the last few months, employees expect absolute transparency. Those companies that have sugar-coated the harsh reality lost credibility. Companies that were transparent and open with their thoughts and actions towards their teams stood out, as such efforts were appreciated.
This fosters a relationship of trust between the company and its employees. Communication, as a catalyst for change, is a way to set a positive example and strengthen the feeling of unity. Especially now, team spirit is more important than ever, as everyone deals with the pandemic and its challenges differently. Some employees feel or have felt quite restricted, left alone with the situation and the associated events surrounding the daily work routine and home office.
Companies along with respective HR managers or the management must be involved in their workplace to recognise warning signals as early as possible. Regular contact, recognition or small attentions on special occasions cannot be neglected. In corporate culture and staff management, authenticity means responding precisely to the voice, needs, fears and concerns of staff and to create a secure working environment.
Level-eyed transparency and cooperation can lead to a stronger team dynamic in the long term, which conveys a sense of family and belonging.
New paths are not only being taken in the new digital daily working life, but also become relevant in staff recruitment. The locational flexibility that Corona has taught us makes employers more independent.
Geographical location is increasingly fading into the background and losing in importance. Meanwhile, it is no longer too important where employees are located, but that they are available. In the past recruiting was significantly limited by location, however, with the new ability to disregard location, employers are given the opportunity to tap into new geographic markets.
In the coming months or years, we will not lose sight of this new working model any time soon. The reliance on location-independent performance has grown in importance and may only be the beginning of a wider trend. Events such as trade fairs or career days are being replaced by virtual worlds and chatbots. Hybrid forms of events and meetings are trending.
However, caution is advised here. If we currently use these platforms as the only alternative for acquiring new employees, we should not completely lose track of personal interactions. On the other hand, it is exciting to see how effective these alternatives have become and how quickly they transitioned to be a common medium.
Even without digital recruiting, a significant number of applicants is noticeable. This situation, especially in tourism, results in a decreasing market volume. Rural hotels can thus recruit potential employees who would otherwise tend to remain static in the city.
New times require new measures. If one remains flexible in the contract design, one can win over employees from the cities.
A major challenge that employees face in home offices is the feeling of loneliness, isolation and disconnectedness.
The dialogue with colleagues, a regular feedback culture, but also casual team events and the common “coffee break” in between gave structure to one’s daily work routine, but also contributed a great deal to the employees’ loyalty to a company.
All those components are falling away due to the pandemic and resulting home office regulations. This “absence” is detrimental to an individual’s social needs within the team and to the commitment of each employee.
Not everyone feels well-equipped at home or can fully focus on work, which can be frustrating at times.
Virtual remote solutions can help to remedy this. The sense of belonging is strengthened by virtual morning briefings to start the day or online brainstorming sessions on any new project.
Here, too, employees need the security of understanding and structure. Only in this way, they will continue to feel part of the team and bring a regular routine into their home office setting.
The private components are supplemented by fun shared activities “after-work drinks” via teams and potential virtual yoga sessions in the evening, a breakfast which is held together, with the goal to ensure a good work-life balance and sufficient variety in the home office.
Support, structure and little pleasures help us to bring back a little bit of excitement in times like these.
What is it that employees need in uncertain times? Individual and unique challenges and struggles of employees aggravate or complicate possible solutions.
So, one approach would be to ask: What does my employee need? Singularly and therefore considered as an individual. Leaders are required to emphasize a single employee with the same care and interest as the team. Empathy and understanding have for the individual’s problems must be shown while offering support to provide relief. Empathy and caring are attributes of a leader.
Furthermore, confidence must be radiated even in uncertain times. In this crisis, employees are worried about their job security and want to know how their company is doing.
But how does trust develop? Transparency and constant, clear communication can deepen this trust. However, it is important to strike a balance. Too much, irrelevant data overwhelms employees, whereas a lack of it makes them feel left out and may lead to disengagement.
Digital working was an important issue even before the Covid pandemic. The lockdown and the restrictions that came with it forced this process to accelerate. In a short time, managers became digital crisis managers who had to accelerate and implement these new working methods.
Agility and flexibility also play an important role and have become an integral part of the working world. Working remotely in a home office no longer works in fixed structures and old, established teams. Flat hierarchies and cross-functional processing of projects and tasks are approaches that are more promising and future-oriented in the current situation.
Despite the prevailing crisis, a manager should not lose sight of the company’s next steps. The situation tempts to focus on the here and now. However, it is the “now” that decides which company gets the work done to sustain future competitiveness. According to the New Work concept, this may either occur through digital transformation or individual working models.
“People do what you inspect, rather than what you expect.” This saying is a thing of the past.
The lack of control over employees is a challenge that many managers are currently facing. Whether it is time worked or tasks to be completed, many managers have been used to being somewhat of a check-boss on their employees. Instead, the manager now becomes part of the team and tries to maintain an integrative management style and keep motivation high through regular, informative exchange, the specification of concrete processes and constant monitoring.