Three alternative hospitality H.R. M.B.Os for 2021.

Ahh, it’s that wonderful time of the year when targets are set, plans put in place and goals cascaded down through the business. Management by objectives, popularly known as M.B.Os, were developed by Peter Drucker in 1954, making the concept the same age as John Travolta or Ray Liotta, albeit a little less stylish. Nevertheless, setting M.B.Os is a proven approach to plotting out an organisation’s strategy for the year ahead. For hospitality’s H.R. practitioners, the setting of M.B.Os has arguably never been more important than looking forward into 2021, our year of recovery.

Hearing from other hospitality companies and reading through what my own is aiming for this year, the common theme could be summarised through the statement “let’s shore up our bottom line by nurturing talent”. Nothing wrong with that at all, and in most cases, there is substantial meat on the bones of there missions. Nevertheless, there are some elephants in the room, which can be drawn upon to lead towards directives and actions which can be used to shore up the strategies of any hospitality company going into one of the trickiest and most uncertain years in memory.

Pay, not pizza parties.

With research suggesting that pay increases are at an all-time low, now isn’t the time to scrimp and save, at the expense of employees’ bottom line. In the same way that we don’t have to be geniuses to understand why pay increases are being shunned, it’s equally easy to understand that after a year of furlough (with potentially more to come), many hospitality associates have endured hits to their take home pay. The flexible furlough scheme has added complexity to this precarious situation. For all the good it has done (and that’s A LOT, by the way), since July last year many employees simply don’t know how much money they will be earning each month.

The hospitality industry is not one for paying high salaries – it rarely will be, and everyone should make peace with that. In lieu of this, employees can look forward to a fair deal if employers commit to annual pay increases – even small ones.

As an industry, we are very good at laying on a smörgåsbord of non-financial benefits, ranging from nice-to-haves such as discounts, to more substantial wellbeing or mental health support, which has been invaluable for many over the last twelve months. All of this is great, and will – and should – continue, but allow me to drag out that cobweb-covered textbook and scream “Maslow!” at you. In his oft quoted hierarchy of needs, Maslow asserts the importance of prioritising the nurturing of base needs (‘physiological’ and ‘safety’), which are often realised in the workplace through fair remuneration.

Hospitality leaders must ensure these base needs are met, as part of a suite of reward interventions, and not ignored at the expense of fluffier perks which sit further up Maslow’s model. With pay reviews frequently time for January to March each year, it’s likely that the timing of the pandemic will mean that hospitality employees will miss two years of increases; a very hard pill to swallow.

Communities of trust.

The image of hospitality, as a great industry to work in, has taken a massive pounding. All the things which H.R. and hiring managers promote to candidates, such as the opportunity to travel, job security, career progression, fun workplaces and service charge are currently not there (although they will return). Emergent H.R. trends that excite many, such as remote working or functional flexibility, are not always able to be realised, even in the best of times.

Hospitality leadership have a real fight on their hands to restore not just the image of hospitality to new candidates in time for The Great War for Talent (expected Autumn 2021!), but also to existing employees, who have borne the brunt of seeing their workplaces both literally and figuratively gutted.

As an M.B.O., ‘restoring trust’ is notoriously challenging to quantify, but a good place to start is to foster what I call “communities of trust” in workplaces, maybe through enhanced social committees who might have greater agency in the workplace and with management. This might include the committee having a seat at leadership meetings once a month, encouraging leadership to increase their visibility, or being offered a constant drip-feed of information. These committees can be the link between line staff and leadership, fostering open dialogue and an environment of trust and honesty.

Ground-up investment in tech (and tech training).

Don’t roll your eyes at me. Yes, I am advocating more salary increases, and now I’m going to harp on about pumping more cash into technology in the workplace. The pandemic has emphasised the importance of remote connectivity and connecting at a distance. All hospitality workers will need to embrace this in some shape or form so let’s not just get ready – let’s get really ready.

From the ground up, employers must be ensuring that digital skills are welcomed, nurtured and honed. They must be willing to pay more than peanuts to get better systems, with increased functionality and flexibility, which will set people up for the future. E-learning suites should be fully connected, mapped to what people want to learn and set up so that even those who are less keen to learn online can find reason and motivation for doing so. All of this isn’t cheap, but it is the future and it’s here to stay.

When I read back on these ideas even I question if they are M.B.Os in their truest form; I think Mr. Drucker would chastise me for missing the point, particularly around the ‘objectives’ part. Perhaps this is more of a call to action, in that I hope that whatever your own or your company’s H.R. goals might be this year, that they at least keep the above in mind. It will help us all in making 2021 the year we all dream it will be.

Happy goal setting, and remember to keep them ‘S.M.A.R.T.’!