Welcome mat put out for hospitality workers

Stela Minkovska is learning all aspects of the hotel business. Picture / Greg Bowker

Auckland restaurant supervisor Stela Minkovska wants a career in hospitality. Unlike many other workers in the hospitality industry, Minkovska, 26, does not view her job as a makeshift role until something better comes along or they finish studying.

The tourism industry is hoping for 100,000 workers like Minkovska to help fill a shortage of skilled employees.

To that end, the Tourism Industry Association aims to turn tourism and hospitality work into a fulfilling career rather than a stopgap before getting a "real job".

Its Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Strategy lists six goals the $17.2 billion industry needs to work towards to fill the shortfall of skilled workers.

"Having sufficient well-trained and professional staff is critical to delivering a quality experience to visitors," said association chief executive Fiona Luhrs.

As well as indentifying areas the industry needed to focus on to maintain growth, the report highlighted the "good things" already under way in the sector, she said.

Case studies include Immigration New Zealand's offering a fast-track visa service in Queenstown, link-ups between industry associations and training organisations, flexible part-time work for solo parents and getting "industry stars" to talk to school students.

Bulgarian-born Minkovska began working at the Ibis hotel in Ellerslie in early 2005, shortly after arriving in Auckland with her New Zealand fiance and with nearly 10 years of hospitality experience.

Starting out as a part-time waitress, she has moved through the ranks into a full-time supervisor's role at the hotel restaurant.

Minkovska said hospitality work was "definitely a hard job" but the flexible hours, opportunities for promotion and a friendly team atmosphere made it enjoyable. She also likes a challenge and wants to learn "more and more"

Minkovska's employer, hotel chain Accor, had staff in each of its 20 hotels in an ongoing training programme from the time they joined the company, said human resources manager Graeme Ham.

Minkovska started management training in June and is learning all aspects of the hotel business.

The industry suffers from huge staff turnover and Accor Hotels is no exception.

Ham said 40 per cent of staff had been with the hotel less than six months and only 8 per cent had been there longer than five years.

"Every month we retain someone is another month we don't have to go out and look for someone," said Ham.

In 2004, a forecast for the tourism industry by Business and Economic Research warned that a further 100,000 employees would be needed to maintain growth to the year 2010.