Predicting the hospitality industry outlook is much like riding a roller coaster. As you ride up the long treacherous rail, strapped in by a seatbelt feeling secure and safe, you don’t know what to expect at the peak. Will there be a death-defying plunge, or merely twists and turns to keep you in a hyper, suspended state? While there are recession fears due to the current economic situation, most hospitality experts anticipate there will be a more sustainable, even ride with only some obstacles over the next 12-month period. Slower Growth Scott Miller, president of Hyatt Hotels Corp., agrees. “The [hospitality]industry will continue to grow, but at a slightly slower rate than last year, and perhaps slower than in the past five years, from both a revenue and human resources perspective,” Miller said. Ferguson Partners Ltd. recently surveyed 90 hospitality companies around the country to determine past and future hiring and compensation trends in the hospitality sector. The results of the survey support Miller’s comments. Sales, Marketing Gains The greatest anticipated increase in hiring by function within the industry falls in the sales and marketing category with 13% of respondents indicating hiring in this area in the prior six months and 21% anticipating an increase in hiring in the next six months. Hiring for other functions— including those of development/construction, finance/administration, food & beverage, human resources, management/operations and technology— appears to be fairly steady, with management/operations seeing the largest percentage increase in both timeframes. Given the reduced pace of construction commencements coupled with tightening capital and credit markets, it is not surprising that hiring professional staff in the development/construction sectors will decrease over the next six months. What does this tell us about the future hiring trend? For one thing, the main focus will be on the internal operations of companies. In particular, each company will continue to compete for brand recognition and loyalty. Arne Sorenson, executive vp/CFO, Marriott International, emphasized that continued focus on the sales function, as distinct from the marketing role, will remain critical to the industry because it is the chief tool to fill beds worldwide. Accordingly, there will be continual focus on sales and marketing in the hospitality industry to ensure that the customer remains loyal. Enhanced Technology The need to monitor customer relationships in an increasingly competitive industry will force organizations to enhance their technology— which may see an increase in that segment’s hiring. On a more positive note, fears of a declining dot-com world should provide a larger labor pool from which the hospitality industry can choose, particularly at the more junior professional staff level. Global Trends From a geographical hiring perspective, survey participants responded that the global geographic hiring trend over the prior six months saw hiring at 30% within the United States, followed by 21% in Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and Canada at 17%. When inquiring about the anticipated hiring trends for the next six months, there was a dramatic shift to the United States accounting for more than 90% of the anticipated hiring. To further illustrate the regional geographic trends within the United States, survey participants saw hirings over the past six months at 24% in the Midwest, followed by 20% in the Mid-Atlantic and West Coast regions and 17% in the Southwest. However, the West Coast is expected to be the dominant region over the next six months with approximately 86% of all U.S. hirings. So what are the issues that are facing the hospitality sector today? The answer is not only how to keep employees, but also how to make them content. The average cash bonuses for the year 2000— for senior management teams— were 21% to 40% of salary paid for the year. No Big Incr
