Human Resources Opinion Articles

April 26, 2023

The best languages to learn for business and the hospitality industry

Learning and speaking foreign languages opens doors to new cultures and countries, helps to work in international environments, and altogether, is an additional asset in life. In terms of employability, language proficiency constitutes a significant added value to your CV. But are there any languages in particular that might benefit a prospective hospitality industry employee?

By Beata Lobertréau, Senior Language Lecturer, EHL

Opinion Article

April 26, 2023

Engaged Hotel Employees Lead to Engaged Guests

There is no question that hotel operations have been one of the greatest casualties of the persistent labor shortage continuing to impact businesses everywhere. Not only are many of today’s hotel workers overwhelmed by daily operations, but many are also not engaged with their properties beyond the surface level. When your hotel’s workers don’t have a connection to the property, it reflects negatively on the guest experience.

By Adria Levtchenko, Co-Founder and CEO, PurpleCloud Technologies

Opinion Article

April 25, 2023

Remote does not have to mean distant: 8 ways to make sure your remote organization is a success

Fifteen years ago, I decided to quit my corporate job and try my luck at being self-employed doing consulting work for hotels out of my new home base in Mexico. I found a like-minded business partner, who lived in Pennsylvania, and together we embarked on creating a 100% remote hotel consulting company. Today we have over 40 team members located across the world and we provide temporary staffing services to hundreds of hotel companies all over the US.

By Jacqueline Villamil, Chief Executive Officer, Strategic Solution Partners

Opinion Article

April 25, 2023

COVID has pushed a "Great Reset" to our work (Part I)

When COVID hit, who would expect that our industry must deal with the toughest labor shortage ever in just a few months?

By Linchi Kwok, Professor, CAL Poly Pomona

Opinion Article

April 24, 2023

The Real Cost of Housekeeping is the Replacement

The biggest line item for nearly every hotel’s operating costs is the housekeeping department. That isn’t going to change any time soon as rooms need to be cleaned in order for them to be resold. Yet, we strive to continuously optimize this expenditure, be it through overtime reduction, inflationary wage controls, automation or other smart labor management tools.

By Larry Mogelonsky and Adam Mogelonsky

Opinion Article

April 21, 2023

Building ecosystems: An answer to 21st century education 4.0

"Ecosystems are a group of interconnected and diverse actors, that complement each other and create added value" (John C. Moore, 1993). In the context of higher education, adopting an ecosystem framework can help expand the learning experience so that opportunities flourish and new, collaborative solutions are generated to respond to today's changing environments. By building ecosystems, the diverse participants increase their resources and disciplines thereby creating a greater pool of solutions, offers and innovation.

By Claudia Borrelly, Visiting Lecturer, EHL

Opinion Article

April 19, 2023

How purpose will unlock growth for hospitality

The best experiences in hotels or restaurants are almost always the result of exceptional service from passionate employees. But how do you make that consistent and replicable for the multitude of roles across the sector?

By Victoria Lewis-Stephens, MD, United Culture

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Opinion Article

April 4, 2023

Leading for a Culture of Inclusion and Belonging

“This is a workplace where everyone feels included, where everyone knows they belong. Where people feel valued and respected. We encourage diversity so that every visitor who comes here sees that our staff is as diverse as they are. We have systems and strategies to ensure that everyone here has a voice, feels they are treated fairly, and knows that their concerns are heard and acted upon.

By Karen Wollard and Lori Kiel

Opinion Article

April 3, 2023

What can hospitality offer the next generation of Saudi hoteliers?

This year’s conference theme for the Future Hospitality Summit Saudi Arabia (FHS) is ‘Invest in Change’, highlighting the importance of the positive change that can be brought forward through the investment in time, intellect and expertise in the hospitality industry to keep up with changing times and trends to better shape the future of the industry. In the lead up to the event we asked a number of industry partners how they are investing in change.

By Haitham Mattar, Managing Director, India, Middle East & Africa IHG Hotels & Resorts, The Bench

Opinion Article

March 30, 2023

Are robots stealing jobs?

Forget about the old days of “people serving people.” More restaurants and hotels are now using robotic cooks, delivery robots, self-serving kiosks, Chatbots, and other AI-empowered machines in service operations.

By Linchi Kwok, Professor, CAL Poly Pomona

Opinion Article

March 30, 2023

An Applicant Tracking System Revolution

Nearly 99% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS. Adjusting the ATS thoughtfully to remove some “blocks” will let a few more candidates get through to a human, giving you a break.

By Robert Gary Dodds, Founder and Managing Partner, Cayuga Hospitality Consultants

Opinion Article

March 29, 2023

What is ChatGPT good for in the classroom? A teacher tests and reacts

ChatGPT-3 has been making the headlines recently. It is such an exciting AI development, but what is ChatGPT good for in the classroom? I promptly went to the ChatGPT site and started exchanging with it to see if it would make my life as a teacher easier or harder. Students and teachers - beware! Despite being a great learning tool, ChatGPT still has a long way to go before becoming a reliable and logical aid. Best to use sparingly as a pedagogical tool - and above all - employ a lot of critical thinking.

By Emmanuelle Faure, Senior Lecturer, EHL

Opinion Article

March 28, 2023

5 Ways Gamified Service Optimization is Attracting/Retaining Hotel Employees

The right workforce-management tools encourage professional growth and success and help hospitality — a profession where guests and workers come first — rebuild for a stronger future

By Adria Levtchenko, Co-Founder and CEO, PurpleCloud Technologies

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Opinion Article

March 24, 2023

SoTL 2023 A new day has dawned: The future of higher education

The 5th annual international Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference took place both online and onsite at EHL Hospitality Business School on February 7, 2023. The theme for this event was the future of education through research, community, innovation, teaching, and learning. The purpose of SoTL events is to understand, improve, and share teaching and learning practices across disciplines and schools to prepare a new generation of lifelong learners.

By Laura Zizka, Assistant Professor, EHL

Opinion Article

March 10, 2023

Custom executive education: EHL & IMD talk about innovation in action

With a view to developing custom executive education, IMD and EHL Graduate School have joined forces, tapping into the power of a local ecosystem to deliver sensory and intellectual learning experiences for real-world impact. In a landscape where disruption and change have become commonplace, executives must understand how to change the wheel of a car while it’s still moving - this requires a particular tool kit. Welcome to the premise of the “Innovation in Action” program, aimed at flexing business entrepreneurs’ innovation muscle.

By Achim Schmitt, Marc Stierand, and Beatrice Venturini

Opinion Article

March 9, 2023

How To Win the Hospitality Talent Game

In one of the many famous scenes of the movie "A Few Good Men," Jack Nicholson’s character asks Tom Cruise’s character, “You ever put your life in another man’s hands and, in return, asked him to put his life in yours?”

By Chris Green, President, Remington

Opinion Article

March 6, 2023

Four Seasons Athens: Lessons from the field on Talent Management Systems

All BOSC3 students take the course Talent Management Systems (TMS). We have learned that well-designed systems must adapt to the environment and relate to talent retention and company profitability. Is this true in practice? To find out, we interviewed Lilian Labropoulou, Head of Human Resources at the Four Seasons Hotel in Athens, Greece. Here is what we learned.

By Dr Janet Shaner, Visiting Lecturer, EHL

Opinion Article

March 6, 2023

Here’s Why 2023 Needs Hotel Employee Wellness

Every hotel company has some form of employee health or wellness program in place, but we argue that it won’t be enough as cyclical and secular forces converge this year. While we start by stating these trends to paint a broad picture of the future of hospitality labor, the ironic yet obvious cure is ultimately a further deepening of your organization’s commitment to your employees’ wellbeing.

By Larry Mogelonsky and Adam Mogelonsky

Opinion Article

March 1, 2023

Does trust encourage or discourage employees to share their suggestions?

The positive effects of employees’ trust in their supervisors have been widely documented, such as job engagement, performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Given supervisors’ authority in the workplace, we suspect supervisors would bear a critical role in initiating trusting supervisor-employee relationships. As suggested in the social exchange theory, employees may perceive supervisor trust in them as a kind act by the supervisor and feel obligated to return such a kind act with their trust in supervisor.

By Linchi Kwok, Professor, CAL Poly Pomona

Opinion Article

February 28, 2023

Hotels and the Frontline Worker Disconnect

When the hotel frontline succeeds, their companies thrive, driving sales, guest loyalty and profitability. That’s the bottom line for any hotel looking to boost sales and fuel organizational success. However, establishing a productive and content workforce requires those in the hospitality industry to address the growing disconnect between a hotel’s frontline staff and their managers. In 2023 hotel employers must focus on the increasing gap between how their frontline staff is currently being managed and how they should be managed in order to create a connected workforce.

By Cristian Grossmann, Founder & CEO, Beekeeper