Multitasking and Resilience - Soft skills for hospitality workplaces

At a recent London Chamber of Commerce and Industry roundtable discussion, I had the opportunity to listen to experts and contribute a diverse perspective around soft skill shortages in London’s hospitality, hotel, and service sector.

The conversation between policymakers, industry leaders, and educational institutions highlighted the gaps that exist in the sector’s current and future talent pipeline - with a view to developing practical solutions that could enable more employees to consider a career in the vibrant world of hospitality, travel, tourism, leisure, and hotels.

Here are a few reflections from conversations with the experts:

✅Resilience: Younger team members are expected to have a tough skin when experiencing customer or colleague behaviours. Yet, could more potentially be done to help talent (with the right intentions and attitude) anticipate these situations early on through tips, advice, or roleplay scenarios? 

 ✅Proactivity: Multitasking and proactive problem-solving skills are an expectation in most hospitality, travel, leisure, tourism, and aviation job descriptions: whether one is in a multisite corporate/support office role or in operations. However, could colleagues (particularly from international or diverse backgrounds) perhaps be given desirable behaviour scenarios and tips early on during onboarding, buddying, or regularly during training?

 ✅Communicating the vision: The hospitality sector isn’t exactly known for its excessive salaries,. However, it could be said that one needs to start somewhere for the journey to lead them to where they eventually want to get to. Could team members regularly be reminded of the career paths that await them, while being assisted with developing the capabilities or skills that would be necessary to get them to that next role?

 ✅Managing upwards: While it is important to maintain professional working relationships with colleagues across all levels, it may be important to actively practice the skill of managing your boss and other senior stakeholders in the organisation. Could team members be made aware of best practice examples and ideas on how to build trust and integrity with line managers, heads of department, and other leadership team members?

There aren't easy answers to these questions, although it felt that giving hardworking employees a gentle helping hand with their soft skills could go a long way in making the hospitality industry a more pleasant place to work and thrive in for diverse talent.

Are there any skills you'd want to add to this list? Let Newton know.