Post-Lockdown Challenges in the Hospitality Industry by Bindi USA

Bindi USA Post-Lockdown Challenges in the Hospitality Industry

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction

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2. Hygiene

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Building Trust Post Lockdown Cleaning Checklist 3. Technology

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Technology for Safety Technology for Sales 4. Personnel

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Labor Shortage: How We Got Here Short Term Management Long Term Solutions 5. Food and Beverage

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The Value of Single Serve Buffets: Dead or Alive?

Modified Menus 6. Conclusion: What can Bindi do For You?

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Bindi USA Post-Lockdown Challenges in the Hospitality Industry The pandemic brought a variety of challenges to the world that many are still facing. The hospitality industry sees hardships for several reasons in this post-lockdown world. From hygiene and cleanliness to technology, and personnel to general food and beverage problems, finding the correct answers take trial and error. Unfortunately, the error portion is not a route many hospitality organizations will survive.

Considering that the solutions must also follow specific guidelines to adhere to government regulations, hotels, restaurants, and other foodservice businesses are under pressure to get it right. Tapping into the necessary aspects of success in this post-lockdown environment is vital to the success of hospitality businesses.

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Hygiene In a post-lockdown world, hygiene is a concern for all businessesespecially in the hospitality industry. To combat the challenges presented to hotels, restaurants, and other foodservice facilities, there are two factors that organizations must lock in: trust and safety.

Building Trust People are not as trusting as they once were when it comes to hygiene in public places. More and more people are getting vaccinated, and restrictions are not what they once were; however, the possibility of contracting the virus is still on their minds. Organizations must build trust and keep it.

Clean certifications are just one way to start building trust in hygienics. Neutral third parties should be involved in issuing certifications so that guests and consumers can trust the validity. There also needs to be a specific manager engaged in developing CDC-approved processes and the training of staff on appropriate procedures.

The development of a regular cleaning schedule and cooperation with the marketing team will help communicate to consumers the importance of cleanliness. Trust is built by ensuring the public of the organization’s belief in hygiene and following up on that belief with action.

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Post Lockdown Cleaning Checklist The action required to build trust in a post-lockdown environment is adherence to a cleaning checklist.

Focusing on laundry, cleaning tools, stocking, bathroom sterilization, social distancing, and automated dispensers is crucial if the ultimate goal is to get patrons back.

Ensuring that all towels, mop heads, and other laundered items are appropriately cleaned is vital to the cleaning process.

It is also essential to provide all necessary supplies, and PPE is available to complete the job correctly. Cutting corners because of a lack of sanitizer wipes is unacceptable.

Bathrooms should be cleaner than ever in a post-lockdown hotel or restaurant. The schedule should be regular and thorough every time.

Automatic dispensers in the bathroom help cut down on the number of places patrons touch.

Finally, encouraging social distancing with floor stickers shows consumers that industry professionals want to keep patrons safe. This is an aspect of trust-building that goes a long way.

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Technology Implementing technology in the restaurant, hotel, and various food service industries is essential to enforcing safety and boosting sales. Finding ways to utilize technology for both safety and sales is a great tool to use not only for life after lockdown but a trend that will likely stay.

Technology for Safety Technology can enforce safety in several ways. A reservation system for all restaurants and foodservice locations can help to implement social distancing. Phones can operate as menus and ordering systems. Hotels can use technology to limit the interaction with people by utilizing personal phones for the check-in process or ordering room service. Smartphones can even act as room keys.

The use of personal devices means that fewer people are touching menus, pens, plastic keys, countertops, and other frequently touched items in the hospitality industry. Safety comes into play when items no longer need to be sanitized every few minutes.

Technology for Sales Imagine for a moment what the foodservice industry could do with a menu that management can easily alter. Printed menus require inserts to add dishes and a complete reprint when an item is no longer on the menu. However, with the use of technology, menus can change as often as needed without much effort.

New options can positively impact sales.

Sales are also often increased as a result of simply mobile ordering.

Research indicates that mobile ordering can boost sales by as much as 20%. Upselling on an app is easy and hassle-free to get consumers to purchase more than initially intended.

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Personnel With limited occupancy in a post-lockdown business, there has been a limited need for employees. With fewer patrons comes a lesser need for workers. Unfortunately, now we find ourselves in a labor shortage. Understanding how we ended up in this situation is a start to finding short-term answers and eventually moving on to long-term solutions.

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Labor Shortage: How We Got Here

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Short Term Management

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Long Term Solutions

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Labor Shortage: How We Got Here When organizations should be bouncing back from limited revenue, hotels and restaurants are finding it more challenging to do so with labor shortages. The demand is there, but the personnel is not. Everything is more expensive than it was in an attempt to play catch up, leaving recovery more complicated than many believe it to be.

Although many furloughed employees have been invited back, not all are back to work. Even more concerning is the fact that there are available jobs that companies cannot fill. Because of the problems associated with unfilled positions, employers have to offer higher pay to fill the void.

Why are employers experiencing such troubles in getting people to return to their formerly held positions? It is suspected that with so many available positions, workers believe that they will easily find a different job. Because of the need, a new job may even pay better than their previous one.

Some organizations decided to temporarily increase pay but dropped it back to the original rate at the end of the lockdown.

The increased pay gave employees an incentive to work and then took it away - often encouraging them to look for a higherpaying job.

Workers are also realizing that the time spent outside of work is essential. Family time was given in a way it had never been possible before during the lockdown. People are in search of careers that allow them to have a better work-life balance than previous experiences.

Knowing how the industry ended up short-staffed grants leaders the ability to determine the best possible route to getting employees and retaining them.

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Short Term Management It will likely take time to build up a well-trained team. In the meantime, it is essential to make life easier for existing staff. If the employees you have are feeling overworked, underappreciated, or like a worker more than a person, they could quit. If the current team quits, hotels and restaurants will find themselves in a greater challenge than before.

Employers have to pay workers a fair wage. If the existing employees are working extra to compensate for the lack of staffing, their pay should reflect that. Organizations must battle turnover rates with wages that make sense.

Doing the job as straightforward as possible for employees is also helpful. When it comes to smaller teams, single-serve, individually packaged, and pre-prepped food items are more easily managed.

Many organizations fear that this kind of product may help with the ease of service but sacrifice quality. Fortunately, Bindi offers items of convenience that provide the high level of quality that you’re looking for.

Workers are also searching for employers willing to provide a better balance of work and life. The hospitality industry, especially hoteliers, is expected to be open and available to patrons every day of the year. Employers must ensure that despite the shortage in staff, adequate time is given to employees to exist outside of work. This might mean shortening open hours or limiting room availability.

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Hiring bonuses are especially popular in hiring right now. Although it seems expensive to pay someone to take a job, it is necessary in many cases. People want good pay, and the bonus shows that the organization is willing to provide it. Many organizations offer referral bonuses to current employees, as well.

Although not typically something organizations want to use for the long term, outsourcing can temporarily solve the staffing problem.

Hospitality companies can outsource the cleaning to experienced crews so that a manager’s employment effort can be focused on more skilled positions.

There are also recruitment professionals who can develop a job listing that is more likely to be clicked on and applied. It is their job to create entertaining and exciting job descriptions to draw in employees. Utilizing these professionals can help the leadership team to help lower-level employees with unfilled roles.

The short-term management plans are just as important as the long-term because the priority has to be gaining and keeping employees. Loyalty is developed most in times such as these.

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Long Term Solutions In the long term, no restaurant wants to open late or close early.

Hotels want to sell to capacity rather than leaving 15 rooms unused to avoid needing an additional housekeeper. Long-term solutions are ideal. Once the post-lockdown era is behind us, we will need to have long-term plans to keep up the momentum.

Recruiting the right people is vital to the hospitality industry. Serving others is a job that not everyone can do. Although companies are desperate to find help, that help must be qualified for the position.

Consider getting in touch with schools, universities, and other organizations to find the right talent for your open positions.

Market the benefits available to employees. With pay increases, it can be hard to promise better pay than the competition, but there are other ways to benefit workers. Overtime bonuses, fun bonding events, and deeply discounted or free meals can be wonderful incentives for current and potential employees.

Build a diverse team. Diversity has been proven to impact the workplace in numerous ways positively. By hiring people that you wouldn’t typically hire, you can fill the position and reap the rewards of having someone that thinks differently. Consider hiring someone that does not fit the ‘perfect’ you envision in your head and take on someone passionate or willing to learn.

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Remember that your employees are human! Illnesses, family emergencies, and other unexpected events are going to come up. Although it can be stressful to manage as a business, people cannot always prevent these things from happening, and treating employees as humans goes a long way to build loyalty in workers.

The same goes for days that are requested off. Be reasonable about your expectations.

The expectations of our workers should also be managed from a task standpoint. Adding on more and more tasks to a worker’s already heavy workload will not pan out well. Instead, help your employees by providing them the technology to make their jobs easier. Many tasks can now be completed with an app or program.

The purchase of that technology can remove some of the weight from employees’ shoulders.

Always be honest with your staff regarding what is happening behind the scenes. Being secretive about big decisions, especially those that involve them, is an excellent way to lose loyalty. Building trust requires honest communication in an organization.

The hospitality industry thrives on workers that are skilled at their profession and care about what they do. Finding ways to locate, hire, and keep on employees with a loyal mindset is crucial to surviving the post-lockdown time we are in. Although the labor shortage has introduced new complications to companies and their management, long-term solutions are necessary for success.

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Food and Beverage The changes in food and beverage brought about by the pandemic and its lockdown will likely stick around for some time. There is no quick fix to going back to normal. Fortunately, there are a few quick fixes that will make life in the hospitality industry easier.

The Value of Single Serve The food industry was once encouraged to move away from singleserve items for more environmentally friendly options. The feeling of safety has been enforcing the use of individually packaged items.

This trend is likely to continue beyond the pandemic, as people will continue to be concerned about their health for years and years to come.

Consumers trust single-portion food items during these difficult times. Providers like Bindi offer items that are wrapped in small portions and still taste fantastic. Many also feel that the individually packaged food served at events is perfect for a quick Instagram photo op.

Single-serve also has the benefit of providing just enough.

Organizations can reduce food waste by delivering individually packaged items. Portion control is an added benefit to the singleserve movement.

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Buffets: Dead or Alive?

In the past, buffets were affordable options that many people enjoyed. Recent events, however, have led some people to rethink buffet-style eateries and the foodservice industry. The changes in thought and cleanliness at a buffet require creativity to move beyond the previous standards.

Individually packaged items can be incorporated into a buffet-style restaurant or hotel breakfast. New offerings are always exciting.

Bindi is a great resource for high-quality food items that are prepackaged and safe in a post-lockdown environment. A buffet that offers packaged options for appetizers, salads, each course, sides, and desserts is a buffet that enforces the idea of food safety.

With social distancing practices still in mind, patrons will likely be attempting to visit the buffet one at a time. The presence of singleserve items will speed up the line by creating a smooth flow.

Buffets have had standard cleanliness and sanitation practices in the past, but recent events have created a need for strict rules. With this in mind, the design of a buffet is vital to the safety of patrons. A buffet requires a lot of work to meet the safety requirements, but it is possible to develop a working buffet-style setup. Where buffets once provided utensils in a communal area, they should now be offered to each guest in a napkin. It has even been suggested to staff the buffet so that employees can serve the guests. Wider buffet tables can help to distance the guests from the food, as well.

Adding these factors to a buffet-style eatery helps to reinforce the safety of patrons.

Although a buffet-style meal is possible in a post-lockdown world, the challenges involved have many wondering if it will continue.

Prepackaged and to-go meals are convenient and easier to manage than a full buffet. However, experts believe that the buffetstyle meal will not disappear forever. When things start to go back to normal, hotels and other providers of buffet-style eating are hopeful that buffets will return to their original glory.

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Modified Menus Menu changes, for most foodservice companies, were expected after the lockdown was lifted. As a way of keeping food safe, the hospitality industry started focusing on local food. As a result, some menu items were no longer possible. With changes like these, modified menus have been implemented in numerous organizations.

Menus are smaller in response to food safety and social distancing concerns, but will they grow when regulations are no longer necessary? Many locally owned and corporate restaurants have said that the smaller menu is to stay. A smaller menu allows for lower costs in food and labor. Additionally, fewer options mean that the meals cooked will be perfected like never before. A permanently small menu is a benefit, not a detriment.

How do you modify a menu to keep guests happy? Keep the preferred menu items and eliminate those that are not ordered often. The elimination of a menu item does not have to be permanent. When feasible, reintroducing particular menu items can be accomplished rather easily.

If you hadn’t offered take-out before the pandemic, it is the time to start. A take-out menu can be the same as what is provided inhouse, but versions that can be taken home encourage patrons to order again. It is also ideal if consumers access restaurants and room service menus online via smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Online menus, QR codes, and online ordering allow an easier transition from food to consumer. The complications on the front line can be far easier when certain food items can only be ordered online. It is a perk that take-out orderers will benefit from, and the restaurant will find less friction in such limited-time offers.

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Conclusion: What Can Bindi Do For You? Managing the pandemic and post-lockdown requires the willingness to adapt to new ways of operating. The world expects new levels of hygiene and technology designed to keep people safe. Industry professionals are expected to use technology to boost sales while working with a lackluster workforce and incorporating significant changes to menus and items. It is a challenging time.

As luck would have it, Bindi helps those in food service meet their patrons’ needs.

Bindi USA is the North American division of the Italian Frozen Food Manufacturer and Distributor Bindi. They offer a wide array of products, including desserts, pasta, pizzas, and more. Bindi is recognized and trusted in the industry.

Bindi offers a one-stop shopping experience with products that have applications for any time of day. When people see our product line they are pleasantly surprised because we have so much that people have not seen before.

Customers comments once they hear about Bindi from our sales reps…

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Just what I’ve been looking for!

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Your product line “offers elegance that is hard to find! ”

Amid the pandemic, Bindi has become imperative to foodservice organizations seeking single-serve and individually wrapped items. Chefs, buyers, and food professionals are finding themselves in need of products for events and turning to Bindi for quick, easy solutions with reliable service. Whether they need high-quality, single-serve food items remains a long-term necessity or fade out. Bindi USA offers everything required for a successful food experience.

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