I love visiting clients and listening to the highs and lows of their businesses. As I travel often, I get to meet a tonne of clients who all bring their own ideas and experiences to our industry, many leaving long lasting legacies as a results of their innovations.
Of recent times I have been spending more time in the boardroom and corporate world; this high-end exclusive niche within our industry is as aspirational goal for many, offering mostly Monday to Friday hours, without the late nights that are the norm through much of hospitality.
Recently I was chatting with a client in this sector about their best performing team members, and what is about them that makes them stand out, and I was intrigued by his reply. Let’s call him Mr Client. Mr Client replied that one staff member in particular performed a lot of what he called “unrewarded tasks”. Later in our conversation, he went on to say that he found it was like “back in the old days” (the 80’s) when hospitality staff worked hard and were really eager to serve, performing extra tasks, offering service above and beyond expectations, and really creating a positive experience for customers. I really like this term, and I think Mr Client is spot on when he refers to this being a rare find.
The conversation continued and Mr Client added “I don’t like this hipster service you see nowadays”.
I reflected on my dining experience from the previous night in a really well known Canberra restaurant, where the service was very casual but nonetheless professional. Every aspect of the night was great – it wasn’t fine dining, and wasn’t trying to be. All seemed perfect until the end of the night when the staff member sat down at the table with us to take the dessert order. My coffee at breakfast that day had also been handed over by a fellow who had dropped the F bomb whilst talking about how busy it was; despite this, the exchange overall was really pleasant.
With a race to hire talent and give the best service possible, is the industry in conflict with itself?
Recent reports have found that talent within the hospitality industry has hit its lowest point since 2007, despite the fact that businesses have boomed and there is more demand than ever. The top three reasons why employers report being unable to fill positions are lack of experience, lack of available applicants, and lack of hard skills. Nonetheless, the sort of rare talent Mr Client was describing falls firmly into the soft skills category.
We find ourselves in a position where it may be increasingly important to take those with the right attitudes, and cultivate their hard skills ourselves. And with workplace culture increasingly in the forefront of many minds, I think it pays to note that “unrewarded” need not mean “unrecognised”.