Beienetch Watson | Conflating colourism with quality in Jamaica’s hotel industry

Managing director of the Sunset Palms Resorts, Ian Kerr, is purported to have recently lamented the difficulty hoteliers face in attracting competent, committed and qualified hospitality workers. With the increasing number of training opportunities being provided at all levels of the sector, this concern may have come as a shock to many.

Yet, truth be told, the hotel industry is unattractive for ambitious Jamaicans seeking opportunities for well-paid permanent employment commensurate with the investment in their education and training. It is no secret that there is a general perception of the industry as being particularly unkind to the majority dark-skinned local workers. Until this glaring inequity of opportunities is remedied, competent young Jamaicans will continue to shun tourism as a viable career path.

THE HIERARCHY OF SKIN COLOUR IN JAMAICA’S HOTEL SECTOR

Indeed, a few decades ago no well-thinking young person with options of becoming lawyers, doctors or Indian chiefs (engineers) considered a career in the hotel sector. Training opportunities for Jamaicans at supervisory or management level were rare. The single criterion for securing employment in one of few hired management positions was being ‘pretty’. Pretty by conventional standards simply meant being pretty fair-skinned and/or pretty connected.

During the 1960s and ’70s, ‘pretty’ also translated into being of pretty good breeding, evidenced by one’s gentility, complexion and social class. In retrospect, this was fairly understandable, as the prejudices of the era occasioned guests to expect luxury getaways in the Caribbean to come replete with servitude from employees closer in appearance to ‘backra massa’. Unfortunately, many of these remnants of eligibility for management positions remain an unmistakable feature of the modern hotel industry.

Contrariwise, the darker-hued rural poor hailing from communities in proximity to the then fledgling hotel sector was a perfect source from which to fill the demand for numerous low-level positions. Opportunities were created for housekeepers, bellhops, waiters, maintenance and groundsmen, and many other such low-skilled/low-paying jobs. Even with hindsight, few can dare challenge the fact that the labour-intensive nature of the hospitality industry benefited many poorer Jamaicans. These jobs are still valued by ordinary folks with inadequate schooling and limited job prospects. Most are grateful for the meagre but stable income.

TRAINING TO ‘DE-COLOURISE’ THE QUALITY OF HUMAN CAPITAL

As the industry grew in import, the need to train a cadre of locals with the technical competence to serve in middle-level supervisory positions emerged. The Government addressed the labour market crisis in 1958 with the establishment of the Jamaica Institute of Technology, renamed a year later as the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST). Among the first four academic units was the Department of Institutional Management (IM).

The IM programme provided supervisory level employees for all areas of hotel operations with a heavy focus on food and beverage, and dietetics and nutrition. Graduates maintain leading roles locally in human resource management, front office management, sales and marketing, and general hotel management. The effectiveness of CAST in fulfilling its mandate was such that its graduates were poached internationally. Many can still be found in senior positions at five-star properties such as the Beverly Hills Hotel (Los Angeles), Waldorf Astoria (New York) and the Ritz-Carlton.

The further renaming of the institution to the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, in 1990, augmented its unquestionably importance to the industry. IM evolved into what is now known as the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM). SHTM maintains the tradition of preparing highly skilled graduates for all operational areas of hospitality, tourism, events, food and beverage, and culinary arts management. Many of the industries’ most celebrated managers are products of CAST and now UTech.

Graduates from the extremely rigorous programme have also found excellent fit in diverse areas of industries, including food production, manufacturing, customer service management, marketing management, general management, insurance, banking and finance. Impressively, UTech’s heavy emphasis on preparing graduates for innovative pursuits has resulted in as many SHTM graduates evolving as celebrated entrepreneurs.

The rigour of the programme, excellence in scholarship and teaching is buttressed by the phenomenal calibre of its faculty. An estimated 90 per cent of SHTM’s lecturers are experienced academic practitioners who have excelled at the highest level of industry. Indeed, UTech is proud to boast of a faculty inclusive of Jamaica’s first female hotel general manager, many other former hotel managers, several leading chefs, managers in the airline and travel trade, at least two former directors of tourism, and expertise from the broad cross section of the field of tourism, hospitality and events management.

Let it also be clearly stated that UTech, though the first institution to respond to the challenge of providing a consistent pool of ‘competent, qualified and certified’ employees at the national level, was not the only institution to deliver quality graduates.

I am a proud graduate of the Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management, Nassau, Bahamas. This noble department of The University of the West Indies, Mona, was established in 1978 with the mandate to create a cadre of exceptionally skilled professionals with the necessary competence to serve at the highest level of the Caribbean hospitality and tourism industry.

Throughout the 1980s and through to the mid-2000s, this objectively was arguably well satisfied. Many of my colleagues entered the hotel industry in enviable senior management positions, while others held key public-sector roles. Their reputation for excellence, innovation and brilliance has unquestionably withstood the passage of time.

Beginning around 1996, in response to high levels of foreign direct investment in the hotel sector, there was an explosion of other tertiary level institutions offering training in hospitality and tourism. This naturally resulted in a darkening of the management class of sector. The fundamental issue, however, remains of the industry’s readiness to accept the colouration that high-quality education provided. Many hoteliers are still seemingly unable to distinguish between the peculiarities of two distinct elements within the labour forces – the ‘dark’ working class and the ‘darkened’ white collar worker.

COLOUR BLOCKING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Despite the advances in education and training, the hotel industry seems stuck in the 1950s. Local hiring practices marginalise Jamaicans to the fringes of the sector, while still making demand for job commitment. The apparent disdain by the ownership class for the training, diversity, talent and skills offered by qualified Jamaicans is perhaps the greatest threat to attracting quality employees. Hoteliers merely use this argument as an excuse to maintain the unjustified practice of hiring expats, whose training and experience often does not match that of the ‘darker’ locals.

Each year, a number of graduates take up opportunities overseas in response to the growing demand for their expertise by employers willing to respectfully compensate bona fide professionals. The pathway to attracting and even retaining a quality workforce should begin with hoteliers assessing the quality of their work environments. Introspection requires an assessment of the extent to which organisational structures inspire dark-skinned Jamaicans to commit.

In fact, is it possible that the colouring of hierarchical structures could be demotivating ambitious young Jamaicans from committing to long-term careers in the industry? Is there a clear pathway for promotions based on job performance; or are employees likely to notice a colour block at the top?

Have hoteliers progressively responded to employees’ concern of being overworked yet underpaid? Are compensation structures commensurate with the long arduous hours of dedication required for the hotels to reap significant profits? Is there a match between expected levels of employee loyalty and the benefits and incentives schemes being offered by major players in the industry?

Do workers enjoy security of tenure? Can one reasonably expect quality from workers on three to six months contracts? How many higher level professionals are themselves in employ for over 20 years, but also still on contract?

Is there any truth to the fact that these contracts are broken every 11 months, ensuring that the hotels have no obligation to pay severance packages once they believe the employee has out-served their useful purpose? Could it be that hoteliers are now reaping the results of decades of exploitation of the Jamaican worker? How many employees are afraid to publicly speak out owing to a fear of victimisation, zero unionisation and prejudicial grievance procedures?

If tourism is to truly evolve in this country, much more must be done to promote equity in employment. Only then will the most brilliant be attracted to jobs in the sector.

In this new reality, the universities are attracting individuals who are very pretty. They come in many hues and shades, shapes and sizes, but they are all mostly pretty brilliant. Few, therefore, are willing to commit to employers who are not prepared to commit to their professional growth and development. Both the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Tourism have several questions to answer to, but perhaps that is for another discourse.

 Beienetch Watson is a lecturer in tourism, hospitality and events; subject leader in tourism management; events management; major projects coordinator at the University of Technology, College of Business and Management and School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com