Staff Shortage in HoReCa: Where We Are Heading and How to Deal With It

The article was published in Ekonomichna Pravda.

According to the State Agency for Tourism Development, companies involved in the tourism industry paid a total of UAH 616 million 391 thousand to the budget in the first quarter of 2024.

This is 61% more than in the same period of 2023. The share of tourism in Ukraine’s GDP is 2%, although it could reach 10%. However, in recent years, there has been an acute staff shortage in this industry. What is causing the staff shortage and how can it be solved? Let's take a closer look at the issues.

What is causing the staff shortage in the HoReCa sector?

One of the issues related to human assets in Ukraine is staff shortage, the lack of qualified specialists to cover duties in vacant positions. There are increasingly more job offers on the labor market in Ukraine, and job sites are already showing an upward trend in vacancies.

In September 2023, the online job search platform Work.ua reported a record number of vacancies since the beginning of the full-scale invasion that totaled 105,809 job offers.

In October 2023, the highest number of new vacancies amounting to a total of 20,018 were available in the field of “Industrial Worker Jobs”. The top ten also included the service sector, sales, logistics, hospitality, and medicine and pharmaceuticals.

The reasons for the staff shortage are as follows:

• The consequences of martial law in the country: many people, mostly women with children and the young, left for other countries, and men joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
• Lack of job seekers who have relevant work experience and adequate qualifications; the need to retrain specialists who are forced to change their permanent place of residence (IDPs) and switch to other industries.
• Decrease in job applications to vacacies. In August 2023, competition among job seekers decreased by 9% compared to July 2023, bringing the market closer to the staff shortage of 2021.
• A large number of job seekers are now considering remote or hybrid work. But this working model is not always acceptable to the employer.
• Difficulties in hiring people with disabilities (whose number is increasing because of the war) who need special working conditions in the workplace. These people also often move to another industry, which requires training, retraining and learning new skills.

Staff shortages have have far-reaching consequences for the HoReCa industry. In particular, there is a drop in the quality of service. The lack of staff means that employees are overworked, which negatively affects the quality of service and guest satisfaction.

Other consequences may include a deterioration in the reputation of facilities and business losses. Understaffing and poor service quality can cause a loss of customers and as a result a loss of income.

How to deal with the staff shortage

One of the major steps to address the staff shortage is the launch of All-Ukrainian Ribas School of Hospitality, a nationwide free program that will create employment opportunities for HoReCa workers and the unemployed people in Ukraine through job training and retraining.

Anyone from any Ukrainian region can join a blended learning course (online and offline, including on-the-job training) and gain professional skills from scratch (in case of retraining), no matter what field they have worked in before, get more opportunities to fulfill themselves and grow, and secure a stable income.

It is worth mentioning that the program is aimed not only at training but also at at providing students with the opportunity to be employed as room attendants, waiters, receptionists, restaurant managers and hotel managers.

The shortage of workers is emerging as an important factor that hampers the ability of companies to develop and strengthen the economic potential of a war-affected country.

Potential workers in various industries who have been forced to leave their place of residence and work need to acquire new skills. In this case, educational projects can address these issues and become a viable bridge between a potential employee and an employer.

The USAID Competitive Economy of Ukraine program supports Ukrainian businesses to increase their competitive edge in Ukraine's domestic market and international markets, assists in the development of a simplified and transparent business climate, and provides Ukrainian companies with opportunities to take advantage of international trade.

Register here and get a detailed training program.