CTHRC survey shows employees seek fun over money

OTTAWA—Each year, the Canadian Tourism and Human Resource Council (CTHRC) surveys employers in the tourism sector. Not surprisingly, finding qualified employees was a major concern among those surveyed. More surprising were the responses to a question on employee retention. The survey indicated that employers found creation of a fun work environment, accommodation of employee needs, and flexible schedules were more important than compensation.

The survey includes questions required by Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) for the Annual Survey of Performance Indicators (ASPI) requirements as well as other relevant core questions for employers. The 2007 survey is the first time the survey has included questions other than those required by ASPI.

Highlights of results

Forty-two percent of respondents indicated there would be an insufficient number of qualified individuals to meet all hiring needs in the next 12 months. An additional 36 per cent reported insufficiencies in some areas of the labour pool. The following occupations were reported as not having sufficient labour to meet the operation’s needs in the next 12 months:

o    Food prep/cooks (62 per cent)
o    Housekeeping (57 per cent)
o    Front-line supervisors (56 per cent)
o    Other customer-facing staff (50 per cent).
This is interesting considering cooks account for eight per cent and housekeeping room attendants account for three per cent of the total tourism-related labour force.

The other largest occupations in tourism are also customer-facing and some are supervisory. The positions that are the hardest to fill are also those where the most people are leaving.

The following reasons were cited most often by respondents as the reasons recruitment is so difficult:

o    Competitive regional job market (58 per cent)
o    Competition for resources in the sector overall (47 per cent)
o    Lack of interest in long-term tourism career (46 per cent)
o    Wages in my operation (46 per cent).

Respondents indicated the following approaches as having the most significant impact on retaining employees:

o    Creation of a fun work environment (17 per cent)
o    Emphasis on accommodating employee needs (14 per cent)
o    Flexible schedules/flexible hours (13 per cent).

Although compensation is mentioned as one of the key challenges in recruitment, only seven per cent indicated compensation above the local area average had a significant impact on retention. This may be because once employed work environment becomes more important than compensation. It may also be that only a proportion of the respondents pay above the local area’s average.

Responses about training

The majority of respondents (88 per cent) indicated employees receive training (in addition to orientation). Respondents indicated that training was valuable because of the enhancement of:

o    Job specific skills (68 per cent)
o    Skills training (70 per cent)
o    Management training (53 per cent)
o    Specialized needs training (33 per cent)

When asked more specific questions about training, 50 per cent of respondents indicated they require all or some employees to engage in upgrade training or certification/professional recognition at certain times. Fifty-eight percent indicated that a lack of training opportunities within the organization was not a factor when losing staff and 57 per cent reported providing training subsidization as a retention tool. Over half of the respondents (54 per cent) have a training budget allocated of $0-$199 per employee per year.

Measuring the impact of training, however, was not as widely calculated. In fact, sixty-eight per cent of respondents reported that they do not formally measure the impact of training on business operations. The reasons cited included:

o    Lack of internal systems to track impact (36 per cent)
o    Can see the impact without formally measuring (28 per cent)
o    Do not know how to do this (24 per cent)
o    Lack of time (22 per cent).

To receive a copy of survey results, contact Sylvie Thériault at stheriault@cthrc.ca.