How Does Workplace Diversity Impact Team Performance?

In a series of recent studies conducted at prestigious research institutions ranging from Rutgers University to MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the tangible outcomes of diverse workplaces have been subject to rigorous analysis. On almost every measure, workplace teams that are comprised of staff members from a variety of different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds …

Multigenerational Staff: Conflicts & Opportunities

When we talk about diversity in the workplace, it’s usually assumed that we’re referring to workers’ divergent cultural, ethnic, and national backgrounds. But there’s another type of division in the workplace that has become a significant challenge for many managers: generational differences. Experts agree that the typical workplace today spans more age groups than ever …

How Women in Hospitality Can Contend For Promotions and Win

Without a doubt, women have come a long way in the workplace over the course of the last fifty years. Once confined to only a few positions that were deemed suitable for them, women are now visible in virtually every segment of the workforce. From construction sites to corporate boardrooms, many of the outmoded stereotypes …

Develop A Long Term Hiring Strategy

Too much hiring in the hospitality industry is on an ad hoc, as-needed basis without the type of “holistic,” long-term planning that focuses on the entire organization, instead of one small part, and future as well as current staffing needs. In the high-turnover hospitality industry, a long-term hiring strategy might sound like an impossible dream, …

The Objective: Tell Your Potential Employer Where You Want to Be

Your objective is the first thing prospective hospitality employers see on your resume, so it must grab them from the start and encourage them to read on. An objective is a brief, no more than 20-word statement of your personal work mandate. It must walk a fine line between being too general and too specific. …

Ready to Relocate

The heat continues to turn up in the highly competitive hospitality industry, as employers look farther afield for qualified candidates to fill a variety of positions. In her testimony recently to the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Valerie Ferguson, former chair of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said, “When Disney Hotels …

Polish your language skills for your dream hotel job

In the competitive hotel and resort employment market, candidates need an edge; a quality that makes their resume jump out from the rest of the pile. In this industry, perhaps more than any other, bi- or multilingualism can easily give you the upper hand over unilingual candidates with similar skills and work history. International tourism …

Avoid Appearing Overqualified Or Underqualified

Every job seeker dreads being told that they’re not a good fit for a particular position. In fact, according to Orville Pierson, career coach and author of The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, many men and women in the market for a new job strictly limit the positions they apply for in …

The Intent Behind the Behavioral Interview

Thousands of employers in the hospitality industry are forgoing the traditional interview format and are instead opting to use behavioral interviewing, which has grown in usage over the past decade. We live in an economy that demands that potential employees have skills specific to a posted job, as well as transferable skills and the ability …

Mature workers in hospitality: How to stay in the game

After a lifetime of working in customer service positions, Kathy suddenly found herself facing layoffs after her employer decided to hire younger staff who were willing to work part-time versus full-time hours. Instead of accepting the prospect of early retirement, the 55-year-old decided to retrain through her local Tourism Education Council in an area of …