Work, the great flight of the younger generation from hospitality and catering

The shortage of qualified personnel. This is one of the main challenges of the hospitality sector that was the focus of a survey, which involved more than a thousand representatives of venues and hotels in the Novara and Verbano Cusio Ossola areas, thanks also to the support of Federalberghi and Confcommercio. The research was carried out by the students of the Erminio Maggia Higher Education Institute in Stresa (Italy's best hotelier in 2023) and was the brainchild of Carlo Zoppis - entrepreneur and administrator of Zoppis srl Società Benefit Premium, one of whose objectives is the cultural promotion of the area - and financed together with GlobalPesca, a leading company in the processing and distribution of food products for the catering industry, and Piazza, a world-famous company for the production of utensils and equipment for the professional kitchen.

The survey, coordinated by Osservatorio Sonda, confirms a very strong personnel crisis that corresponds to a profound crisis of motivation, which involves above all the new generations: the passion for this work seems to have disappeared, young people no longer believe in it.

Entrepreneurs from the Ho.Re.Ca sector in the Vco and Novarese regions were interviewed via an online questionnaire and face-to-face interviews, leading to a final report.

The first problem that emerged is related to the interest of young people and workers in the accommodation sector. Young people - in all sectors - are no longer willing to sacrifice everything for work, the 'quality of life' has a different value/role for them than it had for previous generations. A process of change already underway, but accelerated by the pandemic, which has imposed and re-established new hierarchies of values. Also influencing the discontent was the 'bad reputation of the sector' resulting from unprofitable practices on the part of managers who took advantage of it (undeclared work, unpaid overtime, 'exploitation', very long shifts) and from the thought that the hotel industry is a second-rate school, 'for those who don't want to study'.

Thus, for those working in the Novara and Vco areas, finding personnel is increasingly difficult. Word of mouth is still considered the most effective method for finding professionals, while interviewees find recruiting sites, job centres and temporary agencies less effective. Difficulties are then experienced on a daily basis with staff without adequate technical training (even basic) in the kitchen, while in the dining room the role of waiter is often seen as a 'temporary' job, with the risk of rapid and sudden drop-outs.