A marriage of convenience: How employers and students working in hospitality view the employment relationship

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the hospitality industry has been increasingly characterized by temporary and insecure forms of employment, a development, which has coincided with rising numbers of students seeking part-time employment. This provides increased job competition for non-students and would appear to be of primary benefit to the employer in terms of an enhanced labour pool. This study reports the findings from seven semi-structured interviews with hospitality employers and six student focus groups (31 participants) in South-West England and Wales. It suggests that hospitality employers manage students and non-students to complement each other, particularly with reference to working time preferences. There is evidence that employers pay more attention to the welfare and needs of non-student workers in order to protect their core of full-time and permanent part-time staff. However, when employing students, employers and students take a pragmatic commercial view of their symbiotic relationship and both parties report satisfaction with this arrangement. Employers also consider both student and non-students as potential leaders. Finally, the study shows that student-employees can, and frequently do, provide long-term commitment to employers, contradicting the usual view of student work as transitory within the hospitality industry.