Industry in the Classroom

Kensey Harlow and John Lowry of Bandon Dunes presenting at Winter Lakes High School, Coquille

PHOTO COURTESY OF MISTY SNIVELY, WINTER LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

It’s no secret that hospitality companies are struggling to find employees right now. The reasons can be deeply personal: the desire for early retirement, the need for more stable employment to counter rising housing and food costs, the proliferation of work-from-home opportunities that cropped up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But there are bigger forces at work as well. Many young people view the hospitality industry as a summertime or school-year job, not a place to build a career. Few guidance counselors and others in a position to influence their choices encourage them to think otherwise.

“Part of the struggle is that hospitality is not seen as a ‘real’ job,” said Paul Paz, who enjoyed a 42-year career as a waiter and also runs a server training program called WaitersWorld. “I think the public at large has only looked at waiting tables as, for lack of a better term, servant work. We’re stigmatized.”

In the media and at government institutions, there is little acknowledgment of the critical role that hospitality plays in the workforce, both as a provider of workplace training and a source of permanent careers. “Over 50 percent of working adults today started working in a restaurant,” said Paz. “We’ve essentially become the industry to train people in soft skills,” the majority of which are highly transferable to other industries.

Oregon’s workforce boards (which help connect employers and employees and provide training and other resources) are just now starting to recognize the positive impacts the industry

Attracting the Next Generation into the Workforce

makes and acknowledge hospitality as the primary driver of the state’s economy. “Even though the employment division, when you look at how they present our industry, all they list are the basic entry-level jobs,” said Paz. “They don’t talk about the broad spectrum of hospitality employment and careers or that there is so much more available to the workforce, and that there’s so much more you can do.”

Workforce professionals don’t focus on the significant opportunities for advancement that hospitality provides or the fact that you don’t necessarily need a college degree to secure them. There’s also little discussion of restaurants and hotels as

a significant training ground for people who want to own their own businesses someday. ORLA and the Oregon Hospitality Foundation (OHF) are helping members overcome their workforce woes through a series of initiatives designed to introduce the many benefits of working in hospitality to up-and-coming generations. But to see the highest rate of success, the organization needs members to help spread the word about why a career in hospitality can be a great way to support a family, meet financial goals and build a satisfying career.

Lupe Arellano and Courtney Smith with OHF are leading the charge to connect owners and operators with students and workforce boards. Arellano’s work includes coordinating with high schools and colleges to line up day-long job shadows, which allow individual students to really learn the ins and outs of a single person’s job, and field trips, where groups of students can get a broad overview of the available careers.

Kensey Harlow and John Lowry of Bandon Dunes presenting at Winter Lakes High School, Coquille

PHOTO COURTESY OF WINTER LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

Through this work, Arellano has discovered that the need for meaningful internships is on the rise. (Many students now need to complete work-based experiences in order to graduate.) He plans to do more to liaise between business owners and internship coordinators. He’s also found ways to tailor these experiences so they work for different communities. “What’s needed in Portland is different than what’s needed on the

coast,” he said. “The experience you can get at McMenamins is different from that at a small mom and pop café.”

Smith is working to increase participation in ProStart and Hospitality Tourism Management, two career technical education (CTE) programs that expose students to jobs in hospitality. Young people are more likely to participate in these programs if they can see a clear career path, and that’s where ORLA members come in. Giving a talk at a local school brings to life an otherwise dry discussion about careers and helps students picture themselves in certain roles. Smith outlines a multitude of opportunities for industry members to get involved in the Foundation’s editorial on page 19.

Rory Butts, executive chef at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, plans to speak with students in the culinary arts program at North Bend High School. Kensey Harlow, a current greenskeeper, has spoken to students at Winter Lakes High School in Coquille. So has employee John Gunther, a Winter Lakes graduate. “We want to make sure we are tapping into our local talent pool as much as possible, this means getting into the local schools and talking with students about all of our different career opportunities,” said Talent Operations Manager Wendy Dodd. “Many people underestimate the opportunities available in the hospitality industry, and this program gives us a great opportunity to correct that misperception.”

One of the things speakers often try to emphasize is that a career in hospitality can be a great springboard to other things. In her talk, Harlow shared that she had worked in three different positions at the resort as a way to gain work experience, save money and determine what she wanted to study before she went to college.

Dodd sees a clear benefit to doing these talks because it brings young people into the fold at Bandon Dunes. “Students graduating from ProStart programs have an energy for the industry that can be infectious on staff and managers,” she said. “Hospitality is hard work, and sprinkling in fresh perspectives can be a morale boost to your current staff.”

University students may not be focused on jobs in hospitality, but that can change when they hear stories about people who started as a dishwasher and now own multiple restaurants, or who took a job as a front desk clerk and now manage multiple hotels. Colby Phillips, who owns BeerGarden and PublicHouse in the Eugene/Springfield area and is also the co-founder of an app-based software company called Porter, connected with students in a management class at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business to share his story of working in hospitality.

The conversations took place on Zoom, which allowed the large class to be broken into smaller groups of students. Phillips shared a few bits of wisdom, such as that management in a restaurant involves not just relationships with staff, but also with suppliers, government officials and many others. After that, the students asked questions–many around his management style and how he developed it. They were curious about the most difficult conversations he had with staff and

what he looked for in managers.

Phillips said he wished similar opportunities for networking and reallife learning existed when he was in school. “I got a degree in science, and I thought my career was going to be a completely different path. I would have loved some sort of class where I had this interaction

with business owners or managers or people outside of school.”

While it would be nice if the presentation helped recruit new employees, Phillips said that wasn’t his motivation for speaking to the class. “I think it’s important to give back and help these young people have an idea of what’s out there — and also some lessons they can utilize so they don’t have to learn the hard way,” he said.

When Paz speaks to students, he likes to recount his journey through hospitality. He began as a server at TGI Friday’s and went on to work for numerous other restaurants. He also became a

corporate trainer, teaching others how to wait tables and increase tableside engagement. Today, he has his own consulting firm and feeds his service heart by working in food and nutrition at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center, an acute care hospital in Tualatin.

“I look at myself and my children as examples of where you can go with a career in hospitality,” he said. While he still sees himself as a professional waiter, he’s held executive positions in large companies and started his own business. He’s met people whose career as a waiter allowed them to travel the world full

time. His three children have also worked in the hospitality industry (two as restaurant front-of-house with 30+ and 20+ years each, and one in the winery business). Hospitality became a family affair. These are opportunities young people may not visualize until “someone from the industry shows up at work or school and gives them a face.”

When he was still working in restaurants, Paz would invite students to come to the restaurant and ask for his station. “I’d

serve them, and if I made a connection with them, I’d encourage them to apply.” Even if they don’t come to work there, they spent money there and could even become regular customers thanks to the personal connection.

Paul Paz and Zach Poole, Pig N Pancake and Board member of Oregon Employment WorkSource visit Chef-Instructor Chelsea Archibald and her second year CTE Culinary students at Seaside High.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL PAZ

Members who are interested in connecting with local schools should know they typically don’t need to make a formal presentation. As these examples illustrate, the thing that often sticks with students the most is a person’s story about their career journey and how they got to where they are today. “I encourage people to be candid and share the hardships of being in the industry,” Arellano said, as well as what they love about their job.

Beyond schools, Arellano is working closely with workforce boards to change their perception of careers in hospitality. He encourages owners and operators to get in front of these institutions to tell their stories. If more leaders at restaurants

and hotels joined these boards or spoke to them, and regularly reminded them that hospitality companies are the secondlargest employer in state, more would invest in job training and development that would really benefit the industry. There are programs that provide training funds for high school students looking to gain work experience. However, unless an industry is recognized as a focus area, it’s hard to direct dollars to those industries, even if students want to use them for that purpose.

People without the time or comfort level to speak in front of a live audience are encouraged to participate in ORLA’s new “Share Your Story” video tool, which is capturing the professional journeys of industry employees to share with state agencies, workforce boards, educators, students and their parents. More information about how to record a 90-second video is available online at OregonRLA.org/shareyourstory.

Arellano is also keeping members apprised of career fairs in communities and at schools. A job fair won’t always result in direct hires. However, the visibility a company gets can lead people back to them down the road. “If you need a job, you’re not going to go to your employer and ask random questions,” Arellano pointed out. “At a job fair, a person can ask any question and have a casual conversation with employers.” Arellano’s mission is to make a difference in the hiring crisis by empowering community leaders to bring the next generation in. “We’re rallying behind them,” he said. “Workforce issues are huge, and there are many layers and facets. ORLA is putting its money where its mouth is and moving the needle on these issues.”

Just as restaurant and hotel owners and operators hope to change people’s minds about hospitality, they need to rethink their own recruitment strategies. “Pre-pandemic, we had an abundance of workers in the labor pool,” Paz said. “We as an industry took it for granted. Because we had so many people willing to work for us, our recruitment and training was very much a revolving door. We never made a personal connection to our workforce. Now, we have to make a bigger effort to sell and rebrand ourselves. The best way to do that is to go into the community where we live and serve and present ourselves in person to tell our story.”  SOPHIA BENNETT

Salem Career Technical Education Center Culinary Arts ProStart Program Industry Night. From left: Soraida Cross, VIPs Industries; Courtney Smith, OHF; Chef Austin, CTEC Salem; Guadalupe Arellano, OHF

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGON HOSPITALITY FOUNDATION

• What was your first hospitality job / how did you get your start in this industry?

• What is one key life lesson you've learned from working in this industry?

• What motivated you to get into the work you do?

• What's the most rewarding part of your work?

• What big challenges has your business faced in the past two years?

• How does this industry contribute to the welfare of your community?

SHARE YOUR STORY

As we try to collectively tackle our workforce development

issues across all regions of Oregon, your voice matters to

future employees and our elected leaders.

Take a minute to share your journey with our new quick and easy online tool.

ORLA and the Oregon Hospitality Foundation have a new tool for you to record your hospitality story and it takes just a minute from your computer or your phone to share your authentic story in 90 seconds or less.

ORLA will share these stories with lawmakers and influencers in Oregon. Remember, every voice matters! OregonRLA.org/ShareYourStory