“The indicators are green,” says Jean-Virgile Crance, president of the National Group of Hotel Chains in France, the world’s leading tourist destination.
He predicts a “beautiful 2022 season”, driven by a “more than 70%” French clientele, he commented in an interview on BFM Business television.
“The desire to travel is much stronger than we imagined 5-6 months ago. The hotels, I hope, will be completely full this summer”, affirms for his part the president of the Accor hotel group, Sébastien Bazin.
In terms of staff recruitment, “we still need to attract a certain number of people who have not returned, for many legitimate reasons (…) we are missing 15 to 20% of talent in hotels”, he said. -He calculates.
In fact the “difficulties in hiring” are the “main concern of our professionals, at least as far as seasonal workers are concerned”, notes Mr. Crance.
Some, failing to have succeeded in forming teams large enough to offer a service 7 days a week, will have to close one or two days a week, he says.
As the summer season approaches, some professionals are opting for seduction operations: Louvre Hotels Group, a subsidiary of the Chinese group Jin Jiang, is thus organizing a national recruitment day on Thursday in eight metropolises, to fill 200 positions.
Some 80 employees will welcome candidates with “a gourmet coffee” and introduce them to the jobs to be filled: receptionist, cook, executive assistant…
“We want to show that we recruit very diverse profiles, in retraining, without experience or far from employment, and that there are extraordinary career opportunities in the sector”, says Laura Benoumechiara, a human resources manager.
The group, which has already set up a 13th month’s salary and profit-sharing, is experimenting with the four-day week to retain its employees.
– “Schedule flexibility” –
These increased staffing needs are the success of specialized platforms such as Extracadabra, Bruce, Brigad or StaffMe, which promise professionals a relationship with extras with “verified” profiles.
Élise, 30, has been working as a mixologist bartender for seven years: self-employed after having been an employee, she does two to three missions a week thanks to the applications and earns 900 to 1,500 euros a month, which finances her studies in the history of art. She says she appreciates “the freedom, the flexibility of schedules” offered by matchmaking applications.
“I’m very selective: I only work in Paris, only at night, and as I’m starting to get drunk, I take the best paid assignments, I’ve done events, festivals, fairs nice,” she told AFP.
Having a fixed contract does not interest her, specifies Élise, because these jobs turn out to be less well paid. “In terms of salary, they really haven’t done anything since the end of the Covid,” she said.
The other side of the coin is precariousness: after being injured, for lack of income during her two weeks of convalescence, she had to return to work before being fully recovered.
If in the capital the shortage of labor is acute, it is also the case in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (south of France), where the region has released one million euros to train online a thousand people.
At the same time, a “benevolence charter” was signed where professionals undertake to improve well-being at work with less restrictive hours, consecutive days off, and a “motivating” salary policy.
Started at the end of February, negotiations between employers and unions of hotel and catering employees should bring progress in terms of social security coverage in particular, after a 5% wage increase which came into force in April.
