Championing the Issues

North Carolina’s hospitality industry continues to face several important issues. Despite the return to pre-COVID-19 employment, sales, and revenue numbers, many restaurants and hotels are still struggling to retain and find employees.

To help struggling businesses with vacancies, NCRLA has been hard at work creating a hospitality workforce recruitment campaign designed to connect potential employees with available job opportunities.

To help struggling businesses with vacancies, NCRLA has been hard at work creating a hospitality workforce recruitment campaign designed to connect potential employees with available job opportunities.

Over the last few months, members of our Workforce Recruitment Task Force reviewed 18 marketing proposals as a part of our $5 million worker recruitment grant process and chose Pace Communications from Greensboro as our partner. On the following pages, you will see elements of our new campaign, including some samples of the creative and branding designed to attract more people to consider working in the hospitality industry. Our $1.1 million training grant has gotten off to a fast start. Over 300 applicants have taken advantage of free training to upgrade their skills. So far, the top requested courses have been ServSafe Manager and Food Handler, Certification in Hotel Industry Analytics (CHIA), ServSafe alcohol, and Certified Food and Beverage Executive (CFBE®).

NCRLA’s government affairs and lobbying team have notched some impressive wins this legislative session. They have been working hard with local, state, and federal leaders on the clarification of hotel tenancy, modernizing burdensome challenges within the ABC system, and they have been following short-term rental and occupancy, and meals tax legislation.

All this work has been accomplished while at the same time bringing NCRLA members together at our industry events, including Stars of the Industry, Rally in Raleigh, and Chef Showdown. Two amazing high school student teams from Charlotte and Asheville competed at the highest level in the National ProStart Invitational in Washington, DC in May.

We have never had more engagement from our members and partners—and a lot of that credit goes to you and your employees out there on the front lines of the hospitality industry.

Day in and day out, you help us put our best foot forward to Protect, Educate, and Promote more than 22,000 hospitality businesses with more than 450,000 employees. We could not do this important work without you. We will continue working with you to help the industry grow and thrive.

STAFF

President & Chief Executive Officer

LYNN D. MINGES

Vice President of Communications & Business Development

CHRIS MACKEY

Vice President of Government Affairs

ISABEL VILLA-GARCIA

Vice President of Finance and Operations

SHELLY EUBANKS

Director of Membership

NATALIE COX

Director of NCRLA Foundation & Workforce Development

KECIA POLING (TAYLOR)

Executive Assistant

JENNA DAUGHERTY

Digital Communications Manager

NATE ROBERTS

Communications, Development & Events Coordinator

INEZ NICHOLSON

NCRLA Foundation & Workforce Development Coordinator

KATIE PARKER

Food Safety and Lodging Regulations Specialist

CAROLYN K. GRIFFIN

Editor

SHANNON FARLOW

Designer

TRACIE EUBANK

BUSINESS OFFICE

222 North Person Street, Suite 210

Raleigh, NC 27601

Phone: (919) 844-0098

Website: NCRLA.org

For advertising and sponsorship inquiries, contact Chris Mackey, Vice President of Communications & Business Development, at cmackey@ncrla.org.

Published by Farlow+Co, LLC /NCRLA @NCRLA