SINGAPORE — Hotels are keen to adopt the Sectoral Manpower Plan (SMP), citing manpower crunch and foreign manpower reliance as perennial problems plaguing the industry.

Already, 32 hotels and two hotel groups, including Amara Singapore and Far East Hospitality, have pledged their support for the SkillsFuture Earn and Learn programme — even before it starts next year.

Citing attrition rates as high as 25 per cent and a foreign manpower dependence of up to 40 per cent of their total staff, hotels are pinning their hopes on the manpower initiatives to attract millennials — and more importantly, retain them — in the sector.

Noting that many graduates do not stay in the industry past the five-year mark, Pan Pacific Singapore’s general manager Gino Tan said grooming talent straight from their schools — through enhanced internships and the Earn and Learn programme — would be one way to cultivate interest and prevent staff from moving onto other industries.

Dr Richard Helfer, chairman of One Farrer Hotel and Spa, felt that having strong human resource practices, as suggested under the SMP, would also draw staff. His hotel, which has 250 employees, offers flexible benefits to staff, allowing them to customise their company benefits — such as medical claims or gym perks — to their lifestyle.

But Singapore Hotel Association’s executive director Margaret Heng dished out a cold dose of reality: “That (the SMP) alone will not be sufficient to resolve the manpower shortage. Internally … how do we ensure that existing staff will also be supportive?”

She added: “More importantly, how do we manage with being manpower-lean, and yet ensure that service levels will still be on the high side?”

The solution, say some hotels, lies with technology.

Resorts World Sentosa’s vice-president of rooms, Mr Chow Keng Hai, decided to improve efficiency by purchasing spray mops — all-in-one mops, complete with a water storage — for the chambermaids. This, among other practices, has bumped up their cleaning speed, allowing them to cover an additional room per day.

While large hotel chains could easily adopt the SMP, Ms Heng acknowledged that smaller hotels — “because they’re so lean” — could struggle.

“But small also has its beauty. When you’re small, you sometimes have more of a family, caring environment. People would say, I don’t mind, I want to stay on,” she said.

Several hospitality students, such as Ms Lycia Ang, said they were excited about the SMP.

Ms Ang, 20, who has a Diploma in Leisure and Resort Management from Temasek Polytechnic, said she would have considered entering the hotel sector had this plan been launched earlier. Although she had interned at Four Seasons Hotel in Mauritius for six months, she felt that “it would have taken a long time to climb up the corporate ladder”, and chose to pursue a university degree instead.

With the new initiatives, Ms Ang plans to re-enter the hotel sector after getting her degree.

However, Singapore Polytechnic’s Cleon Oh Yun Zhen, 19, was not convinced that the SMP will help to draw students to work in the hospitality industry. “People are reluctant to work in the hotel industry due to unstable work timings as well as work during the weekend and holidays,” said the Hotel Leisure and Facilities Management student.

“But, it (the SMP) will definitely be a nice morale boost for interested students like me and help me ensure that I want to work in the hotel industry,” he added. VALERIE KOH and FRANCIS LAW