EHL Industry Report: Driving Flexible Working Structures in Hotels

Given LeadingHôtelières purpose (increase female leadership in the hospitality sector) and changes in theworld of work and employees’ expectations, we sought to understand the contributing factors and outcomesof flexibility in the hospitality industry (i.e., hotels). Key takeaways from the study are:

Given LeadingHôtelières purpose (increase female leadership in the hospitality sector) and changes in the world of work and employees’ expectations, we sought to understand the contributing factors and outcomes of flexibility in the hospitality industry (i.e., hotels). Key takeaways from the study are:

  1. A large majority of hotels have labor flexibility and there is substantial room for improvement regarding work flexibility (employee freedom to organize themselves).
  2. A family-friendly corporate culture and supervisor behavior lead to greater work flexibility.
  3. Work flexibility benefits both employees and hotels (increases innovative capabilities, company resilience, employee wellbeing) while labor flexibility benefits primarily the hotels. 
  4. There is a discrepancy across different internal stakeholders on the availability and use of work flexibility and this discrepancy negatively affects organizational resilience and job satisfaction.
  5. There is no effect of gender on the association between the contributing factors and flexibility and flexibility and outcomes and this might indicate that flexibility is not gender-specific, in line with the growing trend due to the changes in the world of work. 

Click here to download the full report.

Human Resources Human Resources

EHL Hospitality Business School (Lausanne) is an ambassador for traditional Swiss hospitality and has been a pioneer in hospitality education since 1893 with over 25,000 alumni worldwide and over 120 nationalities. EHL is the world's first hospitality management school that provides university-level programs at its campuses in Lausanne and Chur-Passugg, as well as online learning solutions.