Rebuilding Our Hospitality Workforce
Workforce challenges continue to plague restaurants, hotels, attractions, bars, breweries, and other hospitality-related businesses in North Carolina. With funding made available from the American Rescue Plan, the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (NCRLA) is working on two fronts to help address the issue:
- The NC legislature has allocated $5 million of the state’s portion of the American Rescue Plan funds to support a recruitment campaign to help rebuild the NC hospitality workforce in the aftermath of COVID-19. Elements planned as a part of this campaign to attract and retain workers in the hospitality industry include:
- Labor Market Analysis
- Employer and Employee Focus Groups
- Identification of Best Practices in Employee Recruitment and Retention
- Developing Concepts and Messaging to Support a NC Hospitality Workforce Recruitment Campaign
- Development and Execution of a NC Hospitality Workforce Recruitment Campaign
- North Carolina Department of Commerce (NCDOC) was awarded $6.4 million to establish a new tourism-focused economic recovery initiative. The new program, Supporting and Strengthening Resiliency in North Carolina’s Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Sectors, is designed to develop and implement economic-building strategies for the recovery of North Carolina’s travel and tourism industries that suffered economic losses due to the pandemic. The NCDOC has contracted with the NCRLA Foundation to administer a $1.1 million hospitality workforce training program. The training program will offer formal training and certifications to help attract, expand, and retain talent needed to fuel NC restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality-related businesses. Targets for the training will include:
- Career and Technical Education Programs
- Post-Secondary Education Programs
- Workforce Entry and Re-Entry
- Professional Advancement for Employees Currently Working in the Hospitality Industry
As a first step in our work on both fronts, we are eager to hear from human resource managers, business owners, operators, managers, and others involved in talent acquisition about:
- Challenges you are experiencing with hiring and retention
- Positions and roles that are most difficult to fill
- Recruitment and retention strategies you are currently using, including which have been successful and which have not
- Obstacles and issues that are impeding recruitment and retention (pay, benefits, transportation, childcare, hours of work, etc.)
- Your thoughts and ideas about strategies we might employ to help recruit new workers to the industry and to retain our existing workforce
- Insights on key messaging that would be helpful in defining the benefits of employment in the industry
To get started on these important initiatives, NCRLA has contracted with professional facilitators who will host a series of regional roundtable discussions across the state. We need your participation to help shape both exciting initiatives.
What: Regional roundtable discussion sessions designed to shape our work together in helping to rebuild the NC hospitality workforce and retain workers
Who should attend: Owners, operators, human resource managers, training managers, and others responsible for hiring, training, and retaining workers in hospitality related businesses across the state.
When/Where:
| Wednesday, August 3 | Charlotte | SpringHill Suites – Charlotte Ballantyne |
| Thursday, August 4 | Asheville | Renaissance Asheville Downtown Hotel |
| Tuesday, August 9 | Greensboro | Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons |
| Wednesday, August 10 | Durham | Sheraton Imperial Hotel RDU |
| Tuesday, August 16 | Raleigh | DoubleTree by Hilton Raleigh Midtown |
| Wednesday, August 24 | Wilmington | Holiday Inn Wilmington-Market Street |
| Thursday, August 25 | Greenville | Greenville Convention Center |
| Monday, August 29 | Virtual | Zoom Link Included in Registration Confirmation |
| Tuesday, September 6 | Outer Banks | Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk |
Registration is free, but please RSVP.
