It is a fact that in recent years the challenges that the catering industry has had to face they were unprecedented and painful. The pandemic has irreversibly affected hotels and restaurants and before the wounds even heal the quick assessment is added food as a consequence of the Ukrainian-Russian war. And while the above challenges do not have been well and truly overcome, another issue emerges that has worsened this year and besides our country, it employs many other European countries. The lack of man Being able to fill vacancies is their biggest problem restaurants and hotels face today.
Although the forecasts for this summer were auspicious as the restrictive measures have been lifted to a large extent there are many entrepreneurs who due to understaffing are forced to limit the operations and capacity of their businesses, while at the same time offer lower quality services. The problem of the lack of available human resources potential in the catering industry has come and will remain. But the causes of the problem begin long ago and we can look for them in a range of work and social issues which, combined with the pandemic, accelerated the formation of the current situation. First, we must admit that working conditions in the catering industry are lagging behind much more than other industries. First of all, the 6-day is for many young people inhibiting factor to follow the specific profession.
The social needs of modern people require more free time for entertainment and entertainment than earlier. In addition, workers in this industry rarely have days off Weekends are therefore missing the days when the rest of the world has fun and relaxes Undoubtedly social media and especially Instagram have influenced young people as they see many of their friends having fun while they themselves work hard during it during the weekend. At the same time, the stimuli received from social media and the immediacy of communication and finding information through the internet has also shaped it youth behavior. The impatience, the easy abandonment and the search fast professional development are some of the features that distinguish it work behavior of young people. However, even young people choose to engage in it profession, they are driven to the exit, when they reach an age at which they begin to they are thinking of starting a family. At the same time, in this particular profession you observe frequent change of working hours, not giving the choice to the workers to have predictability in working days and hours so they can be adjusted respectively their personal time. Finally, understaffing in many companies has as result in the burden falling on the remaining workers who are forced they work longer hours and with a heavier workload creating for them too withdrawal dilemmas due to fatigue and stress.
Certainly the pandemic played an important role in its formation current situation. Even before the pandemic, digital professions are booming and many were the youngsters who chose to follow this industry as it offers excellent flexibility. The advent of the pandemic has accelerated this process, many professions have been digitized and many workers are now working remotely.
Undoubtedly for young people the flexibility and autonomy that these professions provide are attractive and many they turn to look for such jobs. However, the lockdowns hit them the hardest workers in the catering industry as their income has been reduced for several months. Having the concern and fear of not experiencing similar situations again, a large portion of workers of the catering industry chose to turn to other industries that are not so vulnerable a possible new lockdown.
Finally, the mistreatment that occurred in previous years such as the inhumane hours, the bad attitude of employers, lack of incentives and rewards, lack of promotion prospects, the precarious work and poor housing provided to seasonal workers they created a bad reputation and reasons for young people’s aversion to the profession. It is frequent it is a phenomenon in the catering industry that the employer does not appear at the workplace and many Employers are the ones who, due to the low level of expertise required by the industry, do not have them the necessary knowledge and appropriate qualifications for management and staff management them with the result that employees often experience phenomena of improper behavior and lack of meritocracy.
Now, in order to deal with the above problems, its addition is deemed necessary critical position of responsible human resources and as the competition in staffing has been stepped up, we constantly need a person to be in charge this competence. At the same time, the particular person, using his academics knowledge, will ensure the equal and meritorious treatment of employees, the assurance incentives and rewards while creating the conditions for the advancement of the able employees and at the same time will push employees to enrich their knowledge, to develop both professionally and personally, with a series of educational programs which are financed by ANAD. That is, it will create a suitable and pleasant work environment that will benefit employees, employer and customers upgrading the services of the catering industry as a whole.
The most encouraging thing for those who want to follow this profession is that the employers are now hiring people with no previous experience, they have improved conditions and working hours, while providing decent housing for seasonal and permanent workers. Of course, the salary of workers in the catering industry follows the laws in turn supply and demand and has grown significantly, if nothing else these people deserve it!
