The Hindu Business Line : ‘Hospitality industry facing manpower crunch’

Chennai, Jan. 21 If you thought that the best place to head for some authentic South Indian fare would be the choice of five-star restaurants in the city, you may be wrong.

The demand from a rapidly expanding hospitality industry in India and abroad, a limited pool of qualified and well-trained staff to choose from, not to speak of the demand generated by the mushrooming of Indian restaurants abroad, has resulted in a severe shortage of expert hands, whether chefs, F&B managers, house-keeping personnel and HR staff.

“Today, it is difficult to get chefs trained in authentic South Indian cuisine even in the South,” says Mr Sundeep Mathur, Corporate HR, Park Hotels.

A point underlined by Mr Manav Thadani, of HVS, a hospitality consultant. According to him, manpower shortage is the most serious issue facing the Indian hotel industry currently. The shortage of skilled workers would impact the overall service levels across hotels in India. The steady rise in salaries also meant that India did not necessarily have the advantage of low labour costs that it had a few years ago, Mr Thadani said.

Compensation up 20%

In this background, the compensation earned by hotel staff has also grown by around 20 per cent in the past two years, according to Mr Mathur.

“The popularity of Indian food in the West has spurred the growth of Indian restaurants abroad and the demand for chefs trained in Indian cuisine is high,” he says.

Shipping companies have also sailed into the market and are actively scouting for well-trained staff. According to Mr Mathur, chefs could earn around Rs 1.5 lakh a month working in restaurants overseas and up to Rs 90,000 on cruise liners.

The Park was meeting its staffing challenge by grooming and training its own staff, he said. Promising candidates were also sent abroad for further training and exposure.

According to CRISIL Research, each year around 10,500 graduates come out of the 25 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) and 150 private institutions in the country. Apart from the 5-star category, the 3-star and 4-star categories also compete for this pool of graduates. The research firm projects that by 2011-12 when at least 30,000 rooms are added to the current stock, around 54,000 employees would be required in the premium segment alone.

Mr Sudhir Nair, Head of Research at CRISIL Research, states that fresh graduates going abroad for further education and opportunities in other service industries had increased the demand for trained manpower in the three- and four-star segment.

Mr Ratnesh Verma, Area Vice-President, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts South Asia, projects that the challenge of getting the right people for the right job at the right time would continue with the buoyant economic conditions in the years to come.

The Hyatt had adopted a three-pronged approach of talent development, retention and continuous training for skills enhancement. “We create succession plans to predict tomorrow’s manpower needs and groom our successors from within or create development positions and hire for these from external sources. Secondly, we focus on our people through recognition, fair compensation and benefits and communication which is two-way. Finally, we offer training opportunities continuously to upgrade their functional and leadership skills to take on larger roles. We may have mid-term specialist courses to fill positions for which talent is not available in the market,” he said.

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