Research: 4-in-10 Global Hospitality Workers Say They Plan to Leave Their Job in Next 2 Months

A new report released by Medallia Zingle dives into how the return to travel is impacting hospitality workers around the globe, including their job satisfaction, employee experience, and relationships with guests.

Medallia Zingle, an intelligent messaging provider used by some of the world’s biggest hospitality brands including Hyatt, MGM Resorts and Aimbridge Hospitality, surveyed more than 1,250 travel & hospitality workers across the world (United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain & Germany) to form its inaugural Global Staffing Report: Employee Experience Impacts Hospitality. The study explores how the widespread availability of vaccines and the recent uncorking of bottled-up travel urges is creating new issues for hospitality workers and their organizations, and in many cases causing employees to leave the industry for good. 

Notably, the study found that 38% percent of hospitality workers around the globe are considering, or already have plans to leave their job within the next two months. A statistic that suggests the industry’s well-reported staffing shortage is on the verge of getting much worse, and hints at an incredibly challenging holiday season ahead as businesses attempt to navigate what is expected to be an enormous influx of travelers with far fewer resources. It also found that 59% of global hospitality workers say their company has been working with less staff now than they did prior to the pandemic.

Additional insights:

• U.S. Struggles Are Higher Than Global Average: 68% of U.S. hospitality workers say their organization is working with less staff now than they did prior to the pandemic

  • Top 3 reasons globally: ‘health and safety concerns’, ‘lack of job security’, and because ‘workers obtained new jobs during the shutdown’.

• Travel Uptick Exposing Vulnerabilities: While 67% of employees report that their organization has seen a surge in customer activity since the widespread availability of Covid-19 vaccines, nearly half (48%) say their employer’s handling of the surge has been “Just OK”

• Little Payoff for Employees: 61% of hospitality workers across the globe saying their roles are harder and less rewarding since the onset of the pandemic

• Employee Experience Takes a Hit: A quarter (24%) of employees say that their employee experience has gotten worse and that they feel less engaged 

  • Perhaps connected to this is the fact that 27% say that the customer experience they are providing has also gotten worse since the onset of the pandemic

• Hiring Woes Persist: More than half (52%) of hospitality employees across the globe say that hiring talent has been an issue for their organization

  • Top 3 reasons: ‘not enough qualified applicants’, ‘lack of resources to offer competitive pay or benefits’, and ‘lack of flexibility/remote options’

To view the full report, click here.