Staff shortage
By far the Maltese person is a hard worker and is very conscious of his / her responsibility to do a good job . But we can ’ t find enough staff . Is it a salary problem as some suggest ? Probably not . More likely the major problem is the way the industry works , and the difficulties that the job itself ties staff down more than other jobs . Longer hours especially in the evenings , weekends off , working on holidays or festas are more likely to be the deterrents .
There was a time when University students would work the summers in hotels giving the additional manpower needed but this too has finished as they are now finding summer jobs in their own areas of specialization .
Though there are not enough trained locals for the amount of jobs available , one also notes that the third country nationals who are willing to work in local tourism are not themselves trained enough . They may have a language problem ( especially the Italians and French whose level of spoken English is not good enough ). Although we can teach them to be a waiter , barman there isn ’ t much we can do to improve their English . Nonetheless , one keeps employees by investing in them , in their conditions of work , in their training for which they are appreciative .
Management ’ s approach in their regard is also very important , as are all kinds of efforts to generate social and team building activities that create a family feeling .
Good staff or those with good potential are always worth looking after but a lot is dictated by the experience that one ’ s CV indicates .
Staff poaching is also mentioned and this clearly exists in hotels and catering establishments . But this is sometimes the result of the shortage and the aspirations of the hotel to reach their goals . If a professional person , already trained , presents himself / herself to the hotelier asking for a job , the likelihood is that because of the applicants preparedness and training that hotelier would prefer to pay something extra and save the hassle of going through all the training process to bring them up to scratch to give the service one would require . The staff are the tools we work with . The better they are the better our service .
Are we losing the customer after all ?
A fitting conclusion should be to ask ourselves as a nation whether we are losing the client when the visitor goes out of the hotel . In other words , are the Maltese still cordial and welcoming as we say we are ? This is an aspect of our culture which we should never lose sight
of . Helping a tourist means that we are in a way giving a helping hand to the whole tourism industry because in some way or other we are nearly all involved in the industry when seen in its widest perspective .
We are a hospitality country and it is probably the main source of the nation ’ s income , directly or indirectly . The tourist viewpoint , especially those who are repeat visitors , does indicate that something is beginning to go wrong - we are losing out on the element of hospitality as a nation ; they see this more in the younger generation . It is vital that we be collectively devoted to the hospitality industry .
Lino Cremona has been running various 3-Star hotels in Malta as General Manager for the past 25 years . He is presently the General Manager of The Plaza Hotel , Sliema ; a position he has held for the past 12 years .
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