5 minute read
Invest in Your Future Workforce
Sharing Career Stories is Crucial to Building Connections
Iread with great interest the articles from ORLA CEO, Jason Brandt and from Heather Desartis of Northwest Oregon Works (NOW) in the Winter edition of the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association (ORLA) Magazine touching on workforce development and the business advocacy advantages that being a targeted sector affords our industry in the six counties served by NOW. Then I immediately began to wonder… how can we build on this success? As the current Chair of the Oregon Hospitality Foundation (OHF), I have been involved with the work that has re-invigorated the Foundation to tackle the workforce development issue head on. Under past leadership, the OHF has brought industry training resources directly to the Workforce Board’s approved list of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funded trainings, with NOW and Heather’s help in no small part. It was this process that led to a unique partnership with the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA), OHF and NOW to offer local trainings to help supply the industry with more associates. Our next steps are to replicate that partnership model in other regions. If you are a DMO or an industry leader looking to help us, please let us know. Otherwise, stay tuned for more initiatives and communications on this project moving forward.
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But we also now have an additional challenge to address in that the supply of potential associates is alarmingly low. My phone rings daily with people looking for managerial candidates—causing operators to curtail opening hours and forgoing revenue.
I hesitate to rely on mono-causal explanations for complex systems, so I think it is reasonable to assume that there are multiple variables at play here in this labor crisis: COVID, childcare, housing, etc. But, regardless of the cause, a solution at our fingertips is to start telling our career stories to the next generation of industry workforce, today’s youth!
Other industries have been promoting their careers to high schoolers for two decades, anticipating the current workforce demographic shift. Historically, our industry tends to wait until people “discover” us as a job option. Now, we need to attract them to our career pathway the way these other industries have been doing in recent years.
If we want to change from passive hiring with “Help Wanted” signs on our doors to actively selecting the best associates from a broad pool of diversely talented candidates, we must engage and advocate to strengthen the voice of the Oregon Hospitality Industry and build stronger connections between the association’s leadership, ORLA members, and Oregon communities. The ORLA Board’s Strategic Plan nicely aligns with OHF’s priorities in this endeavor.
This year, with the above context in mind, the Oregon Hospitality Foundation has prioritized the following Strategic Goals:
1. Anchor the Industry’s Impact Within State Agencies: leverage current workforce development resources.
2. Tell Our Story to Invest in Future Workforce: promote career pathways with citizens, educators, parents, and students.
3. Expand High School Programs “Beyond Culinary”: advocate school districts to offer front-of-house management education like AHLEI’s Certified Hospitality and Tourism Management Professional (CHTMP).
4. Build Continuing Education Programs for Operators: expand our services to support entrepreneurs, industry leaders and managers who may not have corporate resources and are needing best practices research and operational efficiency solutions across all management functions.
These are big efforts, but frankly they are a continuation of a lot of strands of work that we began under the pressures of COVID responsiveness. As we emerge from COVID, we need to consolidate these efforts by using the ORLA Strategic Plan goals as our lens to focus limited resources for maximum effect.
Over the years in my various roles in this great industry, from hotel doorman to bartender, server to concierge, sales to management, consultant to educator, I have realized my life’s goals and dreams. I want the next generation to have the same opportunities I had to create a successful career in this industry. We can compete with any other industry as a career option on any metric: compensation, benefits, work/life balance, leadership opportunities.
Now, as a volunteer board chair, I see my industry colleagues struggle to find associates. As a college instructor and advisor, I am trying to help by reaching out to high school students to spread the word. The vast majority of them have never heard of or considered the industry as an option. Often, I am told that they think “hospitality” has to do with doctors and hospitals. But once I describe our industry, tell my story and explain the salaries and wages available, they become very interested and want to know more. There are a lot of high school classrooms out there, full of your future leaders and associates, but in truth, we need more of us sharing our industry career stories, statewide, every year if we are going to overcome this labor market challenge that threatens your revenue and the State’s GDP. Just ask my fellow OHF Board Member, Paul Paz, who is out there as much or more than I am talking to youth groups about the industry opportunities out there for them.
Paul, myself and the rest of the OHF Board and team are committed to managing this project of outreach and industry promotion. As we bring on new team members to help us, they may be reaching out to you to hear your ideas and solutions for building better industry advocacy within our communities of citizens, parents, educators, students, state agencies and politician’s offices.
Which brings me to the end of this editorial where I introduce OHF’s newest team member, Courtney Smith. We are thrilled to have her expertise, experience and wisdom on board. In the true spirit of volunteerism, she even participated in our last Board Meeting, before she was officially hired, because of her passion for this industry and the challenges we face.
We will be telling you more about Courtney’s background and ideas for achieving our Strategic Goals once she has had a chance to find her desk and the coffee machine. In the meantime, suffice it to say, she will be contributing a ton to our efforts moving ahead.
Look for us to be in touch with future updates and chances to be involved in this important work. Or, if this has pushed some buttons and you want us to capture your ideas before they vanish, don’t hesitate to
reach out. ERIC AEBI, MBA, CHBA, CHEMEKETA
