The search for training and skill improvement of seasonal workers in tourism
| Date | 23 January 2024 |
| Pages | 340-365 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2023-0339 |
| Published date | 23 January 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Vincenzo Fasone,Giulio Pedrini,Raffaele Scuderi |
The search for training and skill
improvement of seasonal workers
in tourism
Vincenzo Fasone, Giulio Pedrini and Raffaele Scuderi
Department of Economics and Law, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –The paper aims at assessing the role of the different stages of the employment process in gauging
workers’willingness to upskillthemselves at the end of a seasonal employment contract by investing in further
training.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper analyses data from a dedicated survey administered to a
sample of seasonal employees. Through a regression analysis it explores the different stages of the
employment process (job search, selection on the job activities), making a distinction between monetary and
nonmonetary components of the investment in training.
Findings –Results show that all stages matter, but they do not have the same importance. Ex-ante
motivations and work experience, notably the level of perceived workload and organizational commitment, are
the main factors affecting workers’willingness to acquire industry-specific skills through training.
Originality/value –So far, the literature has extensively dealt with the poor levels of training in seasonal
employers, but it did not analyse worker’s willingness to invest in training over the different stages of the
worker experience. This paper fills this gap by separately testing the relative importance of such stages and
identifying the most important phases of the employment process.
Keywords Training, Employment process, Seasonal labour market, Tourism-related skills
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Seasonality is a prominent feature in most tourism destinations (Koenig-Lewis and Bischoff,
2005;Highman and Hitch, 2002), mainly engendered by demand peaking in different periods
of the year (Baum, 1999). Demand variability mainly stems from natural and socio-
institutional factors. Natural factors usually deal with climatic changes that may favour or
hamper specific outdoor activities, whereas socio-institutional factors refer to consumers’
behavioural patterns, such as habits, school calendars and religious holidays (Park et al.,
2016). A major seasonality-related challenge concerns the efficient use of available facilities
and production factors, in particular labour (Jolliffe and Farnsworth, 2003;Park et al., 2016)
due to the difficulty to develop dynamic competences and capabilities in absence of an
adequate core of stable employment (Krakover, 2000;Baum, 2015). Indeed, the quest for time
flexibility may penalize employees’motivation and commitment, endangeringservice quality
and organizational performance (Ainsworth and Purss, 2009). A topical issue in this respect
deals with the inadequate levels of training caused by both managers’reluctance to upgrade
workers’skills because of frequent turnover (Poulston, 2008;Pang et al., 2015), and poor career
expectations, that may inhibit workers’incentives to acquire industry-related competences
(Ainsworth and Purss, 2009). Accordingly, the tourism industry needs to address a recurrent
trade-off between the appropriate use of flexible workforce and the development of industry-
related skills (Park et al., 2016), which would encourage seasonal workers to stay in the
ER
46,2
340
The authors want to thank Prof. Giuseppe Cappiello for having coordinated the research project, two
anonymous reviewers for the useful suggestions, and the Provincial Labor Office and “Centro Sviluppo
Commercio, Turismo e Servizi”(Cescot) for the availability of the data. Obviously, the responsibility
belongs only to the authors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 10 July 2023
Revised 5 December 2023
28 December 2023
Accepted 4 January 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 2, 2024
pp. 340-365
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-07-2023-0339
industry at the end of the contract, and potentially become, in perspective, an “ideal tourism
worker”(Costa et al., 2017). The underlying risk, in case of failure, is a systematic exit of
human capital from the labour market at the end of the tourism season with a consequent loss
of productivity to the benefit of other locations or industries (e.g. Baum, 2015).
This issue has become more stringent during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the
industry to massively cut its workforce (Assaf and Scuderi, 2021). In absence of labour
hoarding practices (Mason and Bishop, 2015) a deep and long-lasting recession could
jeopardize workplace training in the entire tourism industry (Majumdar, 2007). Moreover, at
the time of the recovery workers will enter the sector again, and the industry will need
appropriate skills to support the rebound (Thomas and Long, 2001;Seyito
glu and Costa, 2022)
and to tackle the rise of the “Great Resignation”phenomenon,which identifies an unparalleled
phenomenon of mass voluntary quitting that reached its peak at the end of the COVID-19
lockdown in 2021 (Fuller and Kerr, 2022;Celbis et al., 2023). This is particularly true for
seasonal labour markets since voluntary separations have been particularly widespread
among people employed in temporary contract with unpredictable work schedules (Ravenelle
and Kowalski, 2023), and unsurprisingly in the tourism industry, which has experienced one
of its most severe labour shortages during this period (Formica and Sfodera, 2022).
Understanding the determinants of workers’willingness to autonomously acquire
industry-related skills through additional training appears thus crucial, also for the
elaboration of ad hoc policies aimed to improve the quality of the workforce in the tourism
sector, either seasonal or permanent, which in turn may stimulate a reduction of the quitting
rate in times of Great Resignation.
The factors that may influence workers’willingness to attend tourism-related training
programs (WTT) are several: personal characteristics, individual motivation, employer’s
attitudes and behaviour, as well as the perception of job experience. This paper classifies
these factors according to the employment stage they refer to, and proposes an assessment of
their role in stimulating/penalizing WTT along the sequential experience of seasonal
employment. So far, the literature has extensively dealt with the poor levels of training in
seasonal employers (Lillo-Ba~
nuls, 2009;Lillo-Ba~
nuls and Casado-D
ıaz, 2012), but it did not
analyse worker’s WTT over the different stages of the worker experience. This paper fills this
gap by testing the relative importance of each stage in order to identify the most important
phases of the employment process and, within each stage, to point out the main interventions
that tourism firms and institutions could undertake to stimulate workers’WTT. Specifically,
in accordance with the literature, we split a worker’s employment experience in three main
stages: (1) the decision to look for a seasonal job in tourism, (2) the hiring process and (3) the
experience in the workplace. We then correlate measures related to their subjective
assessment of each stage’s features with their WTT, also accounting for a set of controls, in
order to assess whether a peculiar employment stage is likely to influence WTT more than
the others and to identify the specific factors affecting workers’WTT within each stage.
The empirical analysis is based on primary data collected in the Rimini Province (Italy)
through a dedicated survey conducted in 2019 on a sample of seasonal workers. Rimini is one
of the most popular sun, sand and sea tourism destinations in Europe, while in the Emilia-
Romagna Region (to which the Rimini Province belongs) the role of tourism-related training
courses has been increasing in recent years (INAPP, 2022). We present a regression analysis
to assess the determinants of workers’WTT, even distinguishing the monetary and non-
monetary components of WTT. Our findings provide an overview of the peculiar factors
influencing WTT in tourism destinations characterized by high seasonality. It emerges, in
particular, that workers’ex-ante motivation, the characteristics of the workplace, as well as
the relationship established with the employer, are elements that strongly influence the future
choice of the worker in terms of skills upgrading, although to a different extent. Although this
evidence refers to the pre-COVID era, it provides usefulinsights for a deeper understanding of
Training
among seasonal
workers in
tourism
341
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