Schladming-Dachstein Region Looking For More Staff
Many guests, too few employees - the lack of staff in tourism has long been a widely discussed topic. The Styrian holiday region Schladming-Dachstein ( www.schladming-dachstein.at ) - with just under 3.6 per year Million overnight stays - one of the five largest destinations in Austria - is now countering this problem with concrete measures. In addition to individual projects together with schools, WIFI or AMS, the tourism employers in the field of employer branding want to create a long-term, professional "employer brand" for the region in order to improve the image of the tourismprofessions and make work in the region attractive through benefits . For example, the introduction of a "benefit card" at a special price for employees of hotel businesses was successfully implemented in the summer . The card gave them free or reduced admission to many of the region's leisure facilities. Over 400 benefit cards have already been issued to tourism employees in the first summer.
"It is an existential question for all of us, whether we can find solutions for the employee problem or not, otherwise the issue will be reflected in the long term negatively in the quality of our offer," said Mathias Schattleitner, Tourism Director in Schladming-Dachstein. "All parties in the region agree that the many discussions must finally be followed by action. We as a region have therefore developed a clear strategy and are now in the implementation phase of individual concrete measures. " Improve image of the tourism professions again
For tourism professionals, the focus is on establishing their own employer brand for the region , improving their image and communicating benefits to potential employees . For this purpose, a project application was submitted to the Styrian LEADER regional development program , which was recently approved for 1.5 years. The official starting signal will be in January 2019.
"The goal is to improve the image of the tourism professions, both through the project 'Working in the Schladming-Dachstein region', and to take measures together with the companies , such as the jointly accredited Appearance in specialized media or at job fairs, in order to create new synergy exploit potential . The backbone of the project is the central coordination and management , to identify operational across potential opportunities and so a common implementation process of various of necessary measures to initiate " said Schatt Leitner.
For a year, regular meetings have been organized with hoteliers from the region to discuss key issues and possible solutions. Many ideas come from the companies themselves. Some things have already been implemented in recent months. These include, for example, joint workshops and marketing campaigns, as well as the introduction of a "receptionist meeting". This took place for the first time this summer and enabled all the receptionists in the region to experience a product, in this case the popular Dachstein glacier, and to inform themselves about the most important innovations.
The training and further education of employees was identified as a particularly important subarea. Together with the hotels and the WIFI Styria, the tourism experts in Schladming-Dachstein have developed a comprehensive course program and started the Schladming-Dachstein education offensive, From autumn 2018 to spring 2019, twelve different courses and workshops will be offered to employees of the tourist accommodation. Care was taken to set the dates and course locations as low as possible, to tailor topics to the needs of the employees and to make the bureaucracy for participation as uncomplicated as possible. For example, language courses, further education courses on the subject of "vegan cuisine" or coaching in the field of staff management can be completed.
