Businesses will need to fully train staff and be ready to be flexible as they begin to reopen, according to a panel of HR experts.
Speaking in a webinar hosted by Travel Weekly’s sister company The Caterer and attended by 550 guests, hospitality specialists discussed how best to prepare businesses for post-coronavirus recovery.
While the panel agreed that communication with teams was key at the current time, flexibility in staffing would be one of the biggest challenges ahead.
Job sharing, split shifts, rotating furlough, staggered start times and breaks, and moving people into different areas of the business were all discussed, and it was agreed flexibility will be required from both employees and employers.
On top of this, individuals will each have their own circumstances to deal with, and while some will be keen to return to work post-lockdown, others won’t and may have responsibilities that prevent them from doing so.
“We’re all going to have to think a little bit differently about talent, flexible skills, multiskilling people, the job-sharing piece and all of that agile stuff that will enable us to react as we move through this period. We’re going to be in this ‘not normal’ for quite some time,” said Lisa Charles-Jones, HR director at Parkdean Resorts.
Steve Rockey, people director across Lime Wood Group and Home Grown Hotels, pointed out that flexibility will also have to extend to guests and that some may not want to follow certain ‘rules’.
“How do you enforce it if someone says no? From a guest perspective a little bit more tricky,” he said. “You have to take it on a case-by-case basis.”