Careers in Lodging, and Food and Beverage Industries
The hospitality industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. Lodging, and food and beverage industries are the core sectors within the larger hospitality and tourism industry. This paper discusses the variety of management careers within lodging, and food and beverage industries. The paper will also compare and contrast the differences between general management positions within these two industries. Based on the current growth, this paper will examine overall employment growth in these industries and the projected growth in the next decade. Most of the businesses in the modern world are experiencing a challenge in retaining visionary managers to ensure that the business will continually meet its objectives and set goals. This discussion will also propose some of the human resource practices in which accommodation and food and beverage industries can effectively recruit and retain management talents for their respective industry.
Types of management careers
Food and Beverage Management
Food and beverage management is a career path that involves the management of different areas that provide catering services. Some of these areas include restaurants, resorts, hotels, and other areas where food is served. Individuals pursuing a food and beverage management career can work as a hotel manager, restaurant manager, food and beverage sales manager, front office manager, and other careers found in the industry. The U.S Department of Labor provides that food and beverage managers must oversee all restaurant or hotel operations and catering services within the premises (Blanchard, 1). These operations may include financial tracking, food, and supplies ordering, inventory tracking, and customer service. Food and beverage managers also spend considerable time training and examining hotel and restaurant employees to ensure high-quality service. They are also responsible for resolving conflicts within the establishment as well as addressing customer concerns. Careers in this type include general management, front office management, sales and marketing management, and food and beverage production management.
Food and beverage sales and service management
While food and beverage managers can perform the entire duties involving food and beverages, most of the hotels and restaurants opt to have managers in every department within the organization. The food and beverage sales manager would be in charge of all sales while supervising the waiters and waitresses.
Human Resources management
Every business that requires to recruit employees should have a human resources manager. A person with a degree in hospitality management can work as a human resources manager in various businesses within the hospitality industry including casinos, hotels, restaurants, and spas. Human resources managers are responsible for recruiting new employees, paychecks and benefits, addressing employee concerns and employee motivation as well as cautioning and firing of employees.
Lodging management
Another type of career path in the hospitality and tourism industry is lodging management. Lodging management involves the running and supervision of operations within the accommodation facilities including hotels, resorts, motels, guest rooms, and other facilities that offer accommodation to travelers, tourists, and other guests. Individuals taking the career path of this path to overseeing day-to-day operations within the facility including housekeeping, customer relations, facility services marketing, employee relations, budget and sales, and the facilitation of smooth running of the organization.
Comparison between General Managers in Lodging, Food and Beverage industries
General Managers between the two industries are relatively similar. Depending on the size of the property, general managers in the lodging tends may supervise more workers than the general manager in the food and beverage industry. Hotels, restaurants, and resorts have various departments including food production and kitchen, front office, laundry, stores, and supplies departments. As such, general managers have to supervise a large number of employees. When the facilities provide extra services like theme parks and cruise boats, the works of the general manager in the lodging increase (Stewart, 4). A general manager in the lodging industry must ensure that all guest properties are safe in the rooms and if a guest forgets items in the room, they can always get them back. Lodging general managers must also ensure adequate security in the premises, especially at night when security officers may be compromised. The managers must ensure that all rooms are cleaned each time a guest leaves the room.
On the other hand, general managers in the food and beverage industry have a responsibility to ensure high-quality food and beverage service. General Managers must have adequate strategies to determine customer satisfaction. Notably, the hospitality industry is a service-based industry and hence the quality of service is critical to the success of the business, General Managers in the F&B industry must be humble and ready to listen to any grievances from the customer. They must ensure adequate customer service training is done to all employees to permit customer experience (Stewart, 4). One of the commonest complain in the F&B industry is food quality. Many customers fear consuming stale foods that can lead to food poisoning and stomach complications. General Managers in this industry must provide leadership to ensure the quality purchase of food items, quality preparations, and service to the customers.
Ten years projections in overall employment growth in the two industries
About ten years back, the hospitality industry survived the economic crisis of 2008. However, both the lodging and F&B industries have recorded significant growth over the years. Although the crisis forced many investors to close down their businesses, so many new investments have been constructed. The world is encountering mass movement of people for leisure activities, business, and commerce, conventions and conferences, camping, bird watching, educational and sports activities, honeymooning, and other adventurous activities. As such, lodging, restaurants, and hotels are overly becoming essential for these groups of people for food and accommodation.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the economy of the U.S added approximately 21 million jobs for the past two decades. The association projects a 0.7% annual employment increase for the next ten years. (National Restaurant Association, 3). Of importance, lodging and F&B industries are expected to have a steady increase of 11% for the next ten years. The National Restaurant Association continues to project that lodging and F&B industries will have approximately 16.2 million jobs by 2030. These projections factor the existing mass movement and the demand for accommodation and catering services. Besides, the projections assume the occurrence of at least one economic crisis. At this juncture, it is important to note that the world COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the entire hospitality industry and the overall world economy because of the secession of movement in nearly every part of the globe. As such, the already projected economic crisis has hit the lodging and F&B industries. Employment has rapidly declined but the reopening of businesses will create huge employment opportunities in the two industries.
Human resource practices for retaining management talent
Human resources management is very critical for the growth of any business and the industry at large. It is the role of human resources managers to develop strategies for attracting and retaining an effective workforce. While understanding that employees will be fruitful at certain ages, managers must ensure that there is a transfer of knowledge and skills to other people to promote growth in the lodging and F&B industry. One of the best human resource practices that can attract and retain a pool of management talent in the two industries is progressive employee training. Knowledge and skills transfer usually occurs through training. As such, human resources managers must organize workshops, seminars, and other training programs where the management trains new managers.
Human resource managers can also improve employee satisfaction and motivation for retention by sponsoring them or providing educational leaves for management courses. Most of the lodging and F&B managers have various responsibilities and hence may not have adequate time for employee training. However, the managers can organize for educational leaves where workers can learn management courses. Providing internships to college students can also help the industry to retain management talent.
Another human resource practice that can highly motivate the workers, increase their job security and satisfaction is employee rewarding through promotions. Although managers can use different strategies to reward and recognize employees, promotions will expose employees to new management challenges and ways of overcoming the challenges (Charantimath, 2). While many employees are motivated by good remuneration, most people highly appreciate and need promotion to enhance their capabilities. Promotions will allow the employees to develop or implement new skills for the growth of the organization and industry. Service-based industries like the lodging and F&B industries are very delicate and hence the transfer of skills and knowledge to new talents is critical.
Conclusion
Lodging and F&B industries are service-based industries that require a lot of attention when handling the customers. The industries have extensive management careers with good incomes. There is a significant growth over the past years in the industries and further projections reveal an improvement in employment opportunities for the next decade. However, there is a need to implement human resources practices for the retention of management talent in the industries.
References
- Blanchard, Nick. Effective Training, Systems, Strategies, and Practices, 4/e. Pearson Education India, 2013.
- Charantimath, Poornima M. Entrepreneurship development, and small business enterprises. Pearson Education India, 2005.
- National Restaurant Association. Restaurant Industry 2030: Actionable insights for the future. 2019. https://restaurant.org/downloads/pdfs/research/restaurant2030.pdf
- Stewart, Jim, and Graham Beaver, eds. Human resource development in small organizations: research and practice. Vol. 7. Routledge, 2004.