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While the human resource
management efforts of
large hospitality corporations
such as Hilton and
Disney are often
spotlighted and reported
in national and international
news and media outlets,
efforts made by
smaller operators
often receive far
less media coverage.
With this in mind, I reached
out to Steve Kurland,
partner and general manager of
Boston area Pizza Restaurants Za
and EVOO to get an
understanding of the efforts
both large and small that he and
other members of his
leadership team took since
the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic to
improve workplace experiences
for their employees.
During our roughly
20 minute interview,
Steve shared several
seemingly small decisions
that he and other
business leaders made.
As part of this case study,
I would like to share a
couple of these efforts
being sure to highlight
how each effort was
centered around
first identifying
employees' needs and then
striving to provide
employees with
critical work-related
resources to meet these needs.
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Near the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic,
a global health catastrophe that
forced many fortunate
hospitality organizations to
reduce business offerings and
the less fortunate ones to
close either temporarily
or for good,
countless workers in
this industry found
their working hours slashed or
worse, they found
themselves unemployed.
Indeed the US Bureau
of Labor Statistics
reported that the leisure
and hospitality sector saw
the greatest drop in
employment numbers
between February 2020
and February 2021
compared to other
sectors of the economy.
In particular, within
the hospitality sector,
72.3% of the job losses were
among employees in service
occupations followed by
8.1% in sales and
related occupations and
6% in management, business,
and financial occupations.
Moreover, Black and
Hispanic women as well as
Asian Americans or
Pacific Islanders
demographic groups that are
often the victims of social,
political, and economic
disenfranchisement and
marginalization experienced
disproportionate job losses
in the leisure and
hospitality sector.
Steve recognized
that for many of
his employees the loss of
a job and the income that
comes with a job would cause
further negative
ripple effects in
the lives of his workers
and their families.
As more and more employees
of restaurants and bars in
the Boston area saw their
incomes largely disappear,
Steve decided that his
employees not only needed
job security but also
financial stability.
To meet the needs
of his employees,
Steve affirmed his
decision to stay open and
to keep as many of his
workers employed as possible.
