Three Tips for Retaining Hospitality Management Internships
At present, it is an indisputable fact that China’s hotel industry continues to face a shortage of human resources. High-star hotels have high requirements on the quality of front-line employees, but the remuneration packages that hotels can provide are far lower than other industries, and the shortage of labor is even more obvious.
Therefore, for high-star hotels, hotel management interns from colleges and universities with different educational levels have become a stable source of employment. These interns are favored by high-star hotels because of their high quality and quick work experience. At the same time, the remuneration of hotel management interns is far lower than that of regular employees, which just reduces the labor cost of the hotel.
Most of the high-star hotels are willing to cooperate with colleges and universities to attract hotel management students to practice in hotels, which also provides a platform for the combination of work and study of hotel management majors in colleges and universities. However, some high-star hotels only pay attention to the internship agreements signed with colleges and universities to obtain stable and cheap employment sources, but ignore the humanistic care, corporate culture instillation and in-depth training of job skills for these hotel management interns during their internships.
This will not only affect the service quality of the hotel, but also one of the reasons why hotel management students rarely find employment in the hotel where they practiced or stay in the hotel industry after graduation. The author believes that to retain hotel management interns, it is not only the issue of salary and treatment, but also the issue of corporate culture.
01
Treat interns with people-oriented treatment
Under the current business situation, it is impossible for the hotel to greatly improve the treatment of employees, especially interns, so the necessary humanistic care must be in place. As the saying goes: “Water the trees and roots, and keep people attentive.” It is precisely because some interns did not get the care of the hotel in the little things in the hotel work, so they decided not to work in the hotel after graduation.
Case 1: The busy wedding reception work has come again, and the next few days are all wedding receptions. As an intern, every time a wedding banquet, the workload will suddenly increase, and there will be some unexpected situations from time to time. Sure enough, at the wedding reception that day, I encountered something that felt embarrassing. Now the hotel staff is tight. As an intern who has been on the job for many months, when the foreman arranges the work, he gave me half of the work in the whole room. At the same time, he also asked me to guide the work of two hourly workers. Because the part-time workers were hired on a temporary basis, I not only had to put cold dishes, but also taught them how to put them and helped them put them together.
Later, when I was helping a part-time part-time worker pour water, I accidentally burned my hand, causing a burning pain. But in order to serve the wedding banquet well, I reluctantly brought the water to the guests. During the reception interval, I asked the foreman if there was any medicine for treating burns, and the foreman asked me to put ice on my hand. At the beginning, it was bearable, but when the dish was served, the scalded area began to heat up, which was very painful. But with so many guests, I couldn’t leave my post, so I had to endure it until I got off work. But when I was about to get off work, the foreman suddenly asked me to go to other floors to help. I had no choice but to help. Got off work at 10 o’clock at night.
Comments: It is conceivable that students majoring in hotel management who have had such experience will still be interested in the hotel industry, and will they still be willing to work in hotels?
02
Serve the grassroots and attach importance to interns
Traditional hotel management adopts a pyramid-style hierarchical management model, emphasizing the concept of hierarchy to improve management efficiency. However, the disadvantage of this model is that the management at different levels is superior and only pays attention to maintaining their own authority, while ignoring the feelings of employees. In particular, front-line employees often complain that their work pressure comes from two aspects: one is the guests whose awareness of rights protection has been greatly improved; the other is the unreasonable superiors.
Case 2: This Thursday, I got off the elevator after running and got trapped in the elevator. Luckily there was a chef with me who said that with this one, he’s been trapped twice. The hotel does not allow employees to bring mobile phones. We pressed the alarm bell in the elevator countless times, but no one responded from the engineering department. At that time, I really didn’t know what to do, so I shouted at the crack of the elevator door, “Is there anyone?” Fortunately, someone passed by and reported the situation, and we were rescued. Afterwards, no one of the leaders asked about this matter. Is it a habit?
Comments: We often say that details should be held accountable to management. However, the management was really held accountable, but in the end it was all over. Conversely, if an employee makes a mistake, they suffer from a fine. In this way, hotel management must establish the idea of serving the grassroots at the top, and the leadership should really care about the interns and solve their worries at work, so that the interns can work with peace of mind and strive to improve the service level. .
03
Organizing training to motivate interns
Now the front-line staff of the hotel are very young, especially these interns, who have entered the society with one foot and stayed in the school gate with one foot. What they crave is continuous improvement and constant motivation. Therefore, hotels need to organize training to improve their industry identity and sense of ownership.
Case 3: This week has been very rich. First, there is a speech contest, then I go home for a rest, and finally the foreman invites me to dinner. The speech contest was held as scheduled, and I felt that I performed well. Although the ranking is not very important to me, it is a pity that I was not able to make the top three by a few points. But I did get a workout in the course of the speech contest. When I got home, my father said that I had grown a lot, and I felt very happy. I will continue to work hard to make myself better. After returning from home, the foreman invited me to dinner to celebrate. Although I didn’t get a place, I’m very happy that my hard work has been recognized. With such a good leader, we must work harder in the future.
Comments: Today’s college students are not as incapable of enduring hardship as we imagined. They leave the hotel industry to escape suffering. On the contrary, they are not afraid of enduring hardships, but they like to show off their individuality and hope that their efforts will be recognized! Therefore, give them positive guidance, give more positive incentives, and find more bright spots in them. Sometimes, a warm collective is more important than a salary increase.
According to the current development of China’s hotel industry and the employment situation of human resources, the hotel industry is greatly dependent on the interns of hotel management majors in colleges and universities, and even some hotels must rely on these hotel interns to ensure effective operation. Therefore, hotels should take good care of interns and retain them with a people-oriented corporate culture and reasonable salaries.