In our UK hospitality industry, I have noticed a trend as old as time: seeking candidates with lots of experience. But how much experience is enough?
Years upon years of experience is not a measure of one’s competency, and it certainly does not mean that you will do the job better than somebody who has less experience than you.
I’ll give you two examples – two people I know in the industry, let’s call them “Person A” and “Person B”. A has over 10 years of experience in the industry, and B has around 5. Now, by the standards that the industry insists on pushing onto us, you would expect A to be far better than B. Well, not only is B far better than A, A had no idea what he was doing 99% of the time and actually made all of our jobs far more difficult than they needed to be. Yet, A was given the higher level role as he had “more experience”.
I have met so many managers that have no idea what they are doing; similarly, I know many front of house staff who perform much better than these managers and would do a far better job given the chance. Is this why some managers delay the promotions of well deserving employees, or just do not promote them altogether? Is it because these managers realise that their subordinates are far better than them and begin to worry that well deserved promotions will give their subordinates the chance to outperform them in front of their superiors?
This is by no means meant to disparage anybody, but simply to highlight the fact that whilst experience is important to ensure that one knows what they are doing, especially with relation to managerial positions, the number of years that somebody has been in the industry does not ascertain how good they are at their job.
I have experienced a similar fate to Person B. After becoming a General Manager, I decided to apply for a new role. I was told that I needed many more years of experience to obtain a position that is either lower than or equal to my current one. And if I dare desire a higher role, then I apparently have to wait years upon years to get there. Whilst there are establishments, and people, who do not necessarily think like this, it is such a shame that the majority do. This makes absolutely no sense. Why do we set limits as to how far people can progress in their career just because they do not have 20+ years of experience?
Another similar issue that I have faced is that of ageism. People always think of ageism with relation to people who are older, but rarely think of how it affects younger people. I have had employees, who I managed, who were less inclined to listen to my instructions or what I had to say all because I am much younger than them. In fact, a past employee of mine refused to listen to me because – in his words “you are the same age as my daughter”.
This is something that needs to change in the industry, if we are to welcome new talent with open arms and expect them to stick it out for the long haul. Nobody wants to be told that they need anywhere between 20-30 years of experience before they can even be considered for their next step, and this is something that should not be encouraged. Instead, we should encourage people to work at their own pace, giving them a chance to move on to the next step once they are ready (and no sooner…or later).
There are many hospitality veterans who are absolutely fantastic at what they do, and similarly many fairly new to the industry that are doing just as well. On the other hand, there are veterans and newbies alike who do not do such a good job. Therefore, we should not generalise these groups of people and make sweeping statements (which, in turn, become the standard) that Person 1 is great at what they do as they have 30 years of experience so we will give them the job, yet Person 2 only has 10 years of experience, thereby meaning that they are not as good as Person 1 and as such do not deserve the job.
So, let us abolish these standards of finding suitable candidates, let us not dismiss or discourage those for going for a role that they are ready for because they “lack experience” due to not being in the industry for decades, and finally let us support one another in making this an inclusive industry with no barriers to entry or succession.
