by Tan Qiuyi
04:46 AM Jul 26, 2011
SINGAPORE - Facing an "acute manpower shortage", the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) said the industry is increasingly looking to casual and part-time workers to fill the gaps.
To overcome this, the association has worked with the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) to set up an online registry to link hotels with job-seekers interested in casual work. This may also mean training opportunities for casual workers, as e2i would contact those in the registry and offer them relevant Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) courses.
Mr Ang Hin Kee, chief executive of e2i, said the training courses offered could range from literacy to customer service. The aim is to create a database of casual but skilled labour that can respond to the industry's cyclical needs, he added.
Mr Ang said: "You will see casual labour of a whole multitude, ranging from those just starting - could be a student on school holidays - to those with lots of experience, familiar with six or seven hotels, and able to be deployed to any of these hotels at a moment's notice and hit the ground running."
The hotel industry's manpower shortage is especially acute in the housekeeping and food and beverages sectors.
Its executive director, Ms Margaret Heng, said the ratio was between 0.7 and 0.8 three years ago. A low room-to-staff ratio could have a negative impact on service standards, the SHA added.
Tan Qiuyi
Sources: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110726-0000091/Hotels-turn-to-casual-workers-in-a-time-of-acute-labour-shortage
