Employment Offers Candidates Can’t Refuse: How to Make Your Company Irresistible

Once upon a time, hiring managers conducted most of their interviews confident in the belief that an offer of employment, if extended, would likely be accepted. Today, however, this once-bedrock assumption is no longer universally true. According to a recent study conducted by a leading recruitment firm, as many as 35 to 50 percent of all job offers are now routinely rejected. 

What happened? Well, the race for talented employees has heated up considerably over the past several decades. The hospitality industry’s growth has exceeded all expectations so the demand for qualified workers often outpaces the supply of willing applicants. Perhaps most importantly, today’s employees place much more focus on finding meaningful and fulfilling work.

Make the Right Offer at the Right Time

It’s still possible to attract and recruit the right candidates – it just takes a bit more forethought and planning than it might have in the past. According to career coach and recruitment consultant John
O’Connor, the challenge lies in figuring out what’s most important to your new hire – and then devising a comprehensive offer that meets those needs.

The old “one-size-fits-all” approach to job offers just doesn’t work in today’s hyper-competitive labor market. To win the talent wars, you’ve got to take a long, hard look at your organization from the outside in and figure out exactly what you’ve got to offer to today’s up-and-comers. Here are some guidelines to help you get started.

Don’t make an offer too soon.

Overly-eager hiring managers who offer a position too early in the process can scare off candidates who want to take their time and fully consider all of their options. Even if you’ve got a strong gut feeling that you’re looking at “the one,” take your time and really showcase all of your organization’s features and benefits before you extend a formal offer.

Money’s not everything.

There’s long been a mindset among many hiring managers that upping compensation is the best way to ensure that a job offer will be accepted. Salary is a significant part of the equation, to be sure, but increasingly – especially among younger workers – it’s only one part of the bigger picture. Try to avoid focusing so much on salary issues that you overlook other factors.

Position the job as part of their path to career success

During the interview process, you had the opportunity to learn a lot about what the candidate is looking for in a long-term career. Now’s your chance to emphasize the way that this role will fit in perfectly with their plans. Don’t forget to mention the potential for future growth and career development opportunities, as well.

Play up organizational “extras” that hold appeal for the candidate.

There are some benefits that can’t be quantified in terms of salary or status, but still, hold enormous appeal for some candidates. Is your organizational culture tightly knit and informal? Does the company’s charity work or corporate citizenship initiatives dovetail with their interests? Look for points of overlap and confluence that will resonate with your candidate and emphasize them when you’re extending a formal offer. 

It may not be as easy to find qualified, willing applicants as it used to be — but with just a little thought and preparation, it’s simple to devise a smart, targeted job offer that even the most selective candidate will find hard to turn down.

Catchy Cover Letters: Tailoring Your Style For Different Strategies

One size does NOT fit all when it comes to cover letters. The purpose of the cover letter is still the same—to get someone to read your resume and call you for a job interview—but the type of document will change depending on different scenarios. There is an enormous difference between the approach in the cover letter for a job seeker with a personal connection and the more formal cover letter applying to a posted job where the document will be read by the HR department or a recruiter.

All cover letters include standard features

Certain elements are standard to all cover letters, says recruiter Peter Shrive of Cambridge Management Planning.

  • Cover letters should be original, short, and concise.
  • They should always include your complete contact information since not everyone will immediately turn to your resume.
  • They should not be a recap of information contained in your resume.
  • In the world of electronic resumes and cover letters, they should stand out in the crowd.
  • Cover letters should be very specific, brief, and eye-catching, with a comment designed to make recruiters want to print out your resume and call you in for an interview.

According to Shrive, a comment like “I’ve sold 50,000 bottles of wine in my 10-year career as a wine steward,” or “I increased wine sales by 20 percent in my last position” will make an HR manager take notice of your cover letter and want to know more about you. After making a comment, you should state clearly how your hospitality career aligns with the position being offered.

The personal connection cover letter

“Be sure to refer specifically to how you know this person,” Shrive advises. “Don’t assume they’ll remember who you are.”

Let’s say you’ve met someone who works at a hotel where you’re applying for a front desk clerk position, and that person has agreed to act as an introduction. State up front in your letter: “George Johnson, a manager at your hotel, mentioned to me last week that you agreed to meet with me next Tuesday.” The personal connection cover letter always requires a specific reminder of who you are and what the connection is. Never assume your prospective employer knows who you are without jogging his or her memory.

The formal cover letter

This cover letter, designed to be read by recruiters and HR departments, is a much more formal document, stating up front the job posting information, including the job ID number, and the specifics of the posting. For instance, “Job Listing #218, Hotel Front Desk Clerk for a small facility, responsible for greeting and signing in guests. The job requires customer service skills and organizational abilities.”

From there, an effective cover letter will state how your skills match the criteria in the job posting, such as: “As the front of the house manager at Red Rooster Restaurant, I was responsible for greeting and seating guests, as well as, handling the reservations for lunch and dinner.”

For something completely different… the handwritten cover letter

The handwritten cover letter adds a personal touch. When writing a handwritten cover letter, be sure that your handwriting is legible, contains no grammatical or spelling errors, and includes all the information you would include in a typed cover letter. In addition, make sure your cover letter is short, focused, and relates to the employer’s job opening requirements. In an increasingly electronic era, what could be more original than the old-fashioned approach where everything old is new again?

How NOT to Reward Your Employees: Common Pitfalls of Recognition Programs

Over the last few decades, employee recognition programs have emerged as an important HR strategy. The popular theory behind these programs holds that formal recognition is a great way to reward top-notch performance, boost motivation, and improve employee satisfaction.

While this explanation may have a lot of common-sense appeals, experts caution that the process of developing an effective reward system can often be a bit more challenging than it may seem. Human motivation is often a very complex and delicate phenomenon. In fact, recent studies have even shown that a poorly-designed reward program can actually hurt team performance.

There’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Reward

It’s always noble to recognize a job well done, but don’t count on reward programs to boost motivation and performance unless you’ve done your homework and developed a smart, targeted, evidence-based program.

Many employers seem to believe that all rewards are equally effective. However, the research literature very clearly rejects that idea. Without a few key elements in place, your employee recognition program is unlikely to have a positive long-term impact.

The good news is that with a few small tweaks and tune-ups, you can dramatically increase the efficacy of your employee recognition program. Whether you already have a program in place or it’s still in the planning phases, use this list of common shortcomings as a reminder of how not to reward your employees.

  • Try not to reward on a fixed schedule. Many employee recognition programs are so predictable that you could set your watch by them. Often, rewards are distributed to everyone during the holiday season or annual reviews. Researchers say that this predictability saps much of the motivational power from rewards. Even though it might increase the logistical complexity of administering your program, try to do away with hard-and-fast schedules.
  • Steer clear of “empty” rewards. Many organizations reward all of their employees equally and simultaneously. Although this approach offers parity and fairness, it won’t do much in terms of boosting performance or motivation. When an employee goes above and beyond the call of duty, recognize their specific achievement with a timely and meaningful reward. The sooner, the better — research shows that quicker rewards have much more impact.
  • Avoid the appearance of inconsistency. Nothing can sink a reward program faster than the perception that the system is unfair. Try to recognize every employee for outstanding achievements, whatever that may be. However, this doesn’t mean you should settle for a one-size-fits-all approach to rewards. Let’s face it — your star team member can accomplish more than an unseasoned rookie will be able to pull off. Reward each individual for exceeding what you expect from them personally.
  • Don’t resort to irrelevant or impersonal rewards. There’s no surer way to undermine your employee recognition program than to mass-distribute generic corporate gifts. The proverbial gold watch will do little to show your true appreciation for your employees. As much as possible, try to tap into each team member’s interests, lifestyle, hopes, and dreams when you select a reward. The more personalized your effort is, the more it will impact employee satisfaction, motivation, and performance.

You don’t have to dismantle your entire employee recognition program and rebuild it from the ground up to significantly improve its effectiveness as a motivating tool. With just a few small changes, you can avoid these all-too-common pitfalls and reap the benefits of a high-impact reward program.

Your Hobbies and Interests Tell a Story: Tailor Yours to Your Resume

The “hobbies and interests” section of the resume has evolved over the years. From a few throwaway lines, it’s become an important insight into your personality, one that many prospective employers in the hospitality industry read to get a complete picture of a job seeker. “Some years ago, it was seen as too fluffy,” says Peter Shrive, a partner with Cambridge Management Planning. “Today it’s become more acceptable. In the beginning, you included club memberships, church affiliations, and such. Now it’s an opportunity to expose another side of your experience and what you can do.”

It’s also often the last chance you have to make a positive impression in writing, so you want to get it right.

“If nothing else on the resume has persuaded someone to call you for an interview if you’re clever, this paragraph could be the last opportunity for someone to say, ‘I want to meet this person,’” says Shrive.

This is the time to ask yourself:

– have I ever been elected to anything?

– have I ever won any awards?

– have I done anything that would surprise (and delight) an employer?

Get it right

The way your talk about your hobbies and interests says more about your personality and your suitability for a job than you might think. Perhaps, in your mind, your weekend sky-diving shows an adventurous side of you that will appeal to employers. But, as chef-consultant Gary E. Miller says, “I want to know that the person is going to show up for work on Monday. For extracurricular activities, I look for people who list things like soccer and hockey because then I know they’re team players.”

Dos and don’ts

Here are some other dos and don’ts for your hobbies and interests section:

Do…

  • use this section to talk about awards, special achievements, and community activities. These interests reveal that you’re capable of growing, you’re more than competent, and you’re responsible beyond your area of training. Hospitality employers looking for candidates to advance to management look keenly at these achievements.

Do…

  • talk about special interests with relevance to the hospitality industry. For instance, if you’ve been on wine tours, your new knowledge could benefit a restaurant with a growing wine list and a client interested in new drinks.

Do…

  • highlight areas with crossover potential for the hospitality industry. For instance, if you coach a soccer team in your spare time, a hospitality employer will see you as a possible asset in staff training. Involved in local fund-raising? You might have the skills to run a restaurant’s community outreach.

Don’t…

  • tell prospective hospitality employers that you’re a high thrill-seeker, such as a skydiver, scuba diver, or pilot of a self-built airplane. The issue, says Peter Shrive, is that these kinds of people are at greater risk of accidents or even death. Employers are looking for stability and reliability, not an Evel Knievel who wants to be a kitchen manager. If you break your leg over the weekend and can’t do the heavy lifting some hospitality jobs require, your employer is not going to be overly sympathetic.

Don’t…

  • make it too obvious that you revel in your hobby. If you’re really turned on by your hobby, a smart resume reviewer will sense that the first chance you get, you’re going to head off on your own to indulge in your pastime because you’d rather do this than work.

The right “hobbies and interests” section can be just the door opener you need to pull your resume off the pile. Highlighting the right activities in the right way will persuade prospective hospitality employers that you are someone worth talking to.

Moving Up or Out: A reality check on your chance for success

Moving up in your hotel’s organization is a lot easier than you might think. Do these three things and success can be yours:

1- Determine your boss’s payoffs.

2- Learn the skill set of your new position.

3- Train your replacement.

If you do these things, it’s a no-brainer and you will be promoted. Alternatively, you may find that you have to move on to achieve your goals. The assumption has to be made that the organization is big enough to handle individual careers and not just provide jobs.  Without that condition, there is no future. The assumption is also made that you know enough about your new position to
know that you want to move on or up.

1. The boss’s payoff

Determining your boss’s personal payoffs is the first and most vital step in your move to the next level. Does she want to move up the organization or is he content with the job he has? Is she willing to help you advance or does she want you doing your work and hers? Is he willing to listen
to your ideas about how your advancement will be accomplished? Can you explain why this change will be good for your boss? Once you believe your boss sees his personal payoffs involved in your promotion, it’s on to the next step.

2. Learning the new skillset

You can accomplish this in a number of ways. If the new skill set is in another department, a series of extension courses might provide a background for learning. If you want a job like your boss as he/she can show you the “inside” part of what they do. Learning this new skill set will give you the opportunity to determine if you are going to like this new position and position you to fill the role when available.

3. Finding and training your replacement

You will do your boss, and therefore yourself, a favor when you train someone to replace you. Once she knows you have or are training your replacement, your recommendation will be forthcoming. Without your replacement at hand, it would be difficult for any supervisor to promote you and leave your position vacant.

So, there are three obvious but often ignored steps to moving up in the organization. If you are in an organization that has room for growth and a boss that you can trust with your future, then you are halfway there. Learning new skill sets will come with time and effort. If,
however, if your current organization just offers jobs rather than careers or your boss’s behavior tells you he will not help you succeed, then you need to start looking for career opportunities. 

Frank J. Schilagi, PhD is a senior research associate for Directions Incorporated and the author of Reality Check for Leaders. 

The Ho-Ho-Holiday Job Search

Ah, the festive season. Shoppers are frantically buying presents, offices are celebrating, and families are making merry away from home and around the dining room table. At this time of year, like no other, employers in the hospitality industry are scrambling to keep up with demand. That spells an opportunity for job seekers looking for an entrée into hospitality jobs, especially in restaurants, hotels, and catering operations. Just consider: if a restaurant usually operates with 20 servers, it will likely need 50 to meet holiday needs. A catering company’s functions will more than double for a
few frantic weeks in December.

But if you think getting a job at this time will be a cakewalk, think again. “Yes, hospitality
employers are scrambling for help at a time when regular staff wants to take time off and have a good time,” says Peter Shrive, partner with Cambridge Management Planning. “But they tend to be looking for strong seasonal help and aren’t prepared to turn their minds to hiring for a permanent position.”

Seasonal vs. full-time

So, should you take a seasonal, part-time job when you really want a full-time position? Absolutely, Shrive advises. Here’s your opportunity to show how well you can handle stress and extreme workload. When operations like restaurants are seriously short-handed, you might very well find yourself in a position with more responsibility. If you applied to be a server but show grace under pressure in that role, you might be offered a shot at managing the front desk. You’ll also be well placed for the added gratuities that come with the season.

The holidays are a perfect time for you to shine. And if you shine, you step to the front of the line for consideration for the next full-time job.

Tips to get your foot in the door

The strategy to apply for a holiday job in the hospitality industry differs somewhat from the techniques used in a regular job search. Says Shrive, “At another time of year, solid hospitality experience would be a must, but in this case, the important factors will be your availability, your
appearance, and your enthusiasm. You still need to present yourself well and have some experience in the area, but more importantly, you must indicate that you can handle stress and strain.”

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your holiday job search opportunities:

  • It’s never too early to ask hospitality employers about holiday opportunities.
    Start asking as early as possible, even six months in advance, when employers won’t be as stressed.
  • Always keep your resume and credentials up to date. Make sure to add any hospitality-related
    courses, training, and diplomas. Look at your documents regularly so you and they are ready for a good position that comes along, especially during the busy holiday season.
  • Keep your interview skills razor-sharp during the holidays because the hiring authority won’t have much time to spend with you. Describe your career in a sentence or two, be equipped with brief anecdotes to make a positive case for yourself.
  • Once on the job, be prepared to be busier than you anticipated yet able to handle responsibilities in the spirit of the holiday, with good humor and professionalism.
  • Seize the part-time opportunity in the hopes of turning it into full-time work.
  • “The battleground during busy holidays is restaurants and hotels, and the people who hire in those institutions are going to be swamped,” says Shrive. “If you want full-time and only full-time work, you’ll have a hard time being seen and heard. If so, pick another time to get your foot in the door.”
  • Don’t forget to breathe!

Evolve: Grow your Hospitality career with an online degree

Hospitality shares more in common with Healthcare than the letter “H”. Both are booming industries making a large dent in the Gross National Product, with hospitality raking in $3.5 trillion globally.

The cruise industry alone – at a 104% occupancy rate – adds $35.7 billion (source: Cruise Lines International Association). Americans’ appetite for restaurants bolsters a positive restaurant performance index (source: Hospitality Industry Research). And according to Reuters, next year’s travel industry forecast is strong despite a crisis in U.S. credit markets.

The job outlook is positive, but do you have what it takes to be a contender in this growing field?

Employers are pickier now. Gone are the days when working your way up from an entry-level hospitality position was the norm. This is especially true for management and culinary jobs. Your employers are looking for more advanced skill sets, and online education can help you deliver higher expectations.

Whether your study focus is managing casino slot machine operations, resolving airline reservation system glitches, or serving Mojitos, you will quickly find yourself attracted to one – or more – of four major Hospitality categories:

  • Accommodation: Hotels, motels, resorts, sanatoriums
  • Bars & Clubs: Nightclubs, public houses, restaurants
  • Travel & Tourism: Travel agents, airline cabin staff, travel technology
  • Service and Support: Accountancy and Occupational Health and Spa

Despite the surge in hospitality jobs, the field struggles to evolve. Image, according the Department of Labor, is a cardinal barrier to a flourishing industry. There is widespread stereotyping of minimum-wage, entry-level workers who face limited career growth. This perpetuates itself within the industry: many workers themselves are not aware of how to advance their entry-level posts.
Online hospitality degree programs are an increasingly popular avenue to boost your resume, performing – and eventually earning power.

The DOL began a $2 million investment in 2005 to address industry-critical issues: Recruiting new talent to replace a shrinking (and aging) worker pipeline, mitigating retention, and tearing down language barriers. Likewise, the industry needs “training and portability” in training models and skill certifications.

Enrolled in an online associate’s degree program, you will get such training and certification in multiple sectors. That includes:

  • Cuisine and wine training
  • Managing corporate travel departments, travel agencies, wholesalers, airlines, tour and sightseeing companies, car rental agencies, and cruise lines
  • Preparation for the Certified Travel Agent (CTA) exam
  • Spa and resort management

With an online bachelor’s degree program, you’ll also gain the same comprehensive overview, but with greater emphasis on advanced positions and upward mobility. For some Bachelor’s degree programs, you will need an associate degree for admission.

Your surest measure of success is how well you mix academic theory with industry-specific application

Once you learn the fundamentals of sales, marketing, customer service, human resources management, and information technology, you face the real test of hospitality: Pacifying a real-life irate restaurant customer or travel-weary jet-setter.

About EarnMyDegree.com
EarnMyDegree.com is a leading online education portal, having connected more than 3 million students with online college programs—from undergraduate to advanced degrees to professional certificates. For more information on EarnMyDegree.com, visit http://www.earnmydegree.com.

 

Managing Absenteeism: Tips and Tricks to Keep Your Team Working at Full Steam

Providing top-quality customer service is of paramount importance in the hospitality industry. To be able to identify and respond to your guests’ needs, your team members must be well-trained, focused — and present, both mentally and physically.

Even the most seasoned, service-oriented staff won’t be able to give your guests the level of responsive, comprehensive attentiveness that will put your property ahead of the competition if they’re chronically short-handed. The plain truth is that a team riddled with the holes and gaps that employee absences create cannot provide the type of top-notch service today’s guests have come to expect.

An Industry-Wide Epidemic

There’s no doubt about it — chronic absenteeism can hurt your organization’s bottom line. According to a 2005 study, the direct payroll costs of absenteeism often exceed $650 per employee each year. But it’s the indirect costs of absenteeism that are often most significant for companies in the hospitality industry. When you factor in the stress, uneven workload distribution, and diminished service quality that can also be linked to absenteeism, the impact of this problem looms much larger.

Unfortunately, widespread absenteeism is a challenge that many organizations in the hospitality industry have long struggled with. Industry analysts have spent decades trying to pin down the causes of — and cures for — absenteeism in the hospitality sphere, and front-line managers have long struggled with the dreaded prospect of facing a full house with a short-handed staff.

Taking Charge of Attendance

So what can you do to help cut down on excessive employee absences? According to Casey Fitts Hawley, longtime HR consultant and author of 201 Ways to Turn Any Employee Into a Star Performer, most organizations can slash their rate of absenteeism by adopting a more strategic approach to the problem. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you fine-tune your absence management strategy.

Selective Hiring Can Cut Down Significantly on Absenteeism

From the first interview onward, emphasize the importance of consistent attendance in your organization. Include interview questions and hypothetical scenarios that gauge an applicant’s attitude about absenteeism, and be sure to ask all candidates’ references about their attendance record in past positions.

Breathe New Life into your Attendance Policy

Most hospitality workplaces already have “official” attendance and absenteeism policies on the books, but there’s often a major disconnect between policy and practice. Translate your attendance policy into tangible, real-world actions. Hand out desirable prizes, perks, and privileges for unbroken attendance for a week, a month, a year, or more. Start an anonymous comment box that allows employees to talk about how absenteeism impacts their ability to perform on the job, and post selected stories on a bulletin board.

Create an Organizational Culture that Demands Attendance

If you really think about it, the term “excessive absenteeism” doesn’t make sense. When your organization’s ability to function smoothly is at stake, even one unwarranted absence is too many. Make sure your employees know from the get-go that unexplained, unjustifiable, or unexcused absences simply won’t be tolerated in your organization. Identify, warn, and terminate employees who flagrantly violate your attendance policy. Do everything necessary to stamp out the attitude that showing up for a scheduled shift is optional.

Communication is Key

An open-door policy can go a long way toward reducing absenteeism. Make sure your employees feel comfortable discussing situations that may impact their ability to work whether they are health-related, scheduling conflicts, or personal problems. By the same token, if you notice that a particular employee is starting to rack up too many questionable absences, don’t beat around the bush — ask about it. Sit them down, express your concerns, and talk matter-of-factly about what both of you can do to eliminate the problem.

As long as there are employees, there will be employee absences — it’s an inescapable part of running a business. But by taking a more proactive approach to managing absenteeism, you’ll be able to boost consistent attendance and diminish the negative impact that absences have on your organization’s ability to deliver the level of service quality your customers have come to expect.

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 function more effectively than work groups that are homogenous or comprised mostly of staff members with similar backgrounds.  

According to Scott E. Page, author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies, some of the most striking divergences can be seen in the areas of problem-solving, conflict resolution, and creativity. In these three crucial skill sets, diverse groups have been shown consistently to outperform their homogenous counterparts.

Although researchers are still working to better understand the why and how of these results, most agree with the preliminary theory that diverse groups perform better because they bring a wide variety of perspectives, experiences, and attitudes to the table. When combined, the diverse staff generates a unique team dynamic that is more wide-ranging in its scope, breadth, and depth, and thus better equipped to tackle complex problems and challenges.

How Can Your Organization Realize the Full Potential of a Diverse Team? 

Even as researchers continue to study the effects of diversity in work groups, real-world managers and other practitioners have been devising new ways to help organizations tap into the performance-boosting strengths of their diverse work groups. Here are some basic strategies to help you get started.

Understand the Nature of Creative Problem-Solving.

The process of innovation in a diverse workplace is not always pretty. In fact, it’s likely to be non-linear, irregular, and at times, downright messy. Whenever possible, just step back and give your diverse team the time and space necessary to work things out in their own unique way.

Push Your Team Past the Herd Instinct.

We tend to gravitate toward people who share our views, opinions, and backgrounds. It’s human nature to seek validation from others who are similar to us. But in order to truly reap the benefits of workplace diversity, it’s important to shake things up a bit. Create cross-disciplinary teams that cut across cliques, departments, and social groups. This is the kind of environment where truly meaningful innovation can take root.

Cultivate an Organizational Culture that is Genuinely Open to New Ideas.

Even the most diverse team won’t be able to inject innovation and creativity into your organization if they sense that new ideas aren’t welcome. If your company has a traditional, hierarchical structure and culture, it may take some time to get to the point where subordinates feel comfortable exercising their creative problem-solving skills. You can facilitate this process by lavishly praising and, more importantly, respecting your staff’s input, feedback, and suggestions.

Expect Conflict — and Plan How to Overcome It.

Workplace diversity research tells us that great new ideas are often borne out of the clash of different perspectives. On a surface level, this collision of different worldviews and attitudes can often result in conflicts between employees. It’s best to take a proactive approach to address the unique challenge of conflict in a diverse workplace. For example, it may be beneficial to train your staff in the basics of effective cross-cultural communication. Also, agree on an organization-wide game plan for resolving workplace conflicts in a civil, compassionate manner.

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 before, creating a situation that managers may not be prepared to address effectively. The clashes that arise from generational differences can be as serious as those associated with other types of differences, if not more so. The good news is that by developing and working within a simple framework for effective multigenerational management, many of these conflicts can be avoided.

Culture Clash: The Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers Meet Generations X and Y

On the surface, the suggestion that major gaps separate workers of different generations may seem to be overblown. But the truth is that the vast cultural, social, and technological changes that have transpired in recent years have caused substantial differences in outlooks, attitudes, and work practices.

The workforce in the hospitality industry often runs the gamut from elders who lived through World War II to young people who can’t remember life before the Internet. The resulting differences of opinion and perception can be as severe as those that exist between people of divergent cultural or national backgrounds.

The pressures of the workplace may have prompted some staff members to harbor hostility towards employees in other age groups. For example, younger workers may feel that their older counterparts are taken more seriously and are afforded more respect and latitude by management. On the other hand, older workers may disdain what they see as a lack of loyalty and determination in their younger peers. Identifying and dismantling these types of stereotypes can be a formidable challenge.

Strength in Numbers

Clearly, the generation gap is alive and well, and it’s likely to rear its ugly head sooner or later if your hospitality organization, like most, is staffed by a multigenerational group. Quelling clashes between age groups in the workplace can be a daunting challenge, but if you’re successful, you’ll likely be well-positioned to cultivate with a top-notch crew.

The business case for diversity has been definitively proven time and time again. Top experts and the bottom line both confirm that diverse workforces are more effective, efficient, and profitable than others. Why? Well, diverse work groups can call upon a broader spectrum of knowledge and experience when working together to solve problems.

The same concept applies to multigenerational teams. By bringing together workers from a variety of age groups, you can harness, for example, the energy and adaptability of Gen Y, while also benefiting from the dependability and experience of Baby Boomers and beyond. Sounds great, right? But how to overcome the gaps and squabbles that seem inevitably to arise between these groups?

An Action Plan For Success

Openly acknowledge and address the issue. Sometimes, all that it takes to begin to diffuse the tension is an open acknowledgment that a gap exists. According to Krista Rahe of Rahe Hospitality Services, a Denver firm that runs training sessions for multigenerational teams, setting up a meeting to discuss multigenerational team issues can be enormously productive in creating an atmosphere conducive to positive change.

Take steps to leverage knowledge across age groups. Take the initiative to start programs that will encourage cooperation across generations. A mentoring program that pairs younger and older workers can be a beneficial way to kick-start this sort of collaboration. Emphasize that the knowledge and learning will flow both ways in the mentoring partnership.

Make room for fun, too. Left to their own devices, workers from different age groups aren’t likely to mingle. If an opportunity presents itself, plan an event that highlights generational differences while also encouraging group solidarity. For example, a potluck dinner or costume party in which everyone’s contribution represents their own era can spark some lively cross-generational conversations.