Exploring employee attraction and retention in hospitality: A marketing perspective

The hospitality industry continues to face significant challenges related to high turnover and labour shortages. These issues have become even more acute in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, talent attraction and retention have emerged as central concerns for companies operating in this sector. While existing literature has examined various aspects of human resource management (HRM) to address these problems, the role of internal marketing and employer branding remains largely underexplored. This paper-based PhD thesis draws on marketing theories and methodologies to investigate the factors that shape perceptions of hospitality employment and influence attraction to and retention within the sector, particularly in the post-pandemic context. The thesis comprises three complementary studies. The first uses semi-structured interviews and the Theory of Consumption Values to explore the factors and values associated with attraction to and retention in hospitality work. The second applies an exploratory factor analysis to examine whether Italians’ perceptions of hospitality employment are homogeneous and how they vary across socio-demographic groups. The third adopts laddering interviews and Means–End Chain theory to investigate the links between job attributes, perceived benefits and personal values influencing employees’ decisions to stay. The findings identify the key values prioritised by current employees and prospective job seekers and show that perceptions of hospitality work are not homogeneous, with distinct groups displaying different attitudes toward employment in the sector. By integrating the perspectives of current and potential employees, the thesis contributes to research on internal marketing, employer branding and talent management, while highlighting the importance of aligning recruitment and retention strategies with employees’ and candidates’ values and expectations