The latest South African Hoteliers Report found that 77% of hoteliers are struggling to recruit and retain staff. At the same time, 58% say profitability has stagnated or declined over the past five years. Nearly 70% are dissatisfied with the competency of newly recruited graduates. We understandably talk about this as a recruitment problem. I think we should also ask a harder question: what happens after we have hired people?
Because I see something in businesses everywhere, including my own, people are doing their jobs: they arrive on time, complete the task, meet the basic requirements. But too often, that is where it stops. They are not anticipating the customer’s need, solving the problem before it reaches their manager, or taking ownership of the outcome. They are doing what they were asked to do, and I think we have underestimated how expensive that is.
The Happiness Index’s 2026 research offers a clue
Analysing more than 1.9 million data points across 115 countries, it found inspiration is the strongest predictor of happiness at work, yet one of the lowest-scoring dimensions, and a strong driver of productivity, retention and advocacy. Recruitment gets someone through the door. Retention asks whether they want to stay. But there is another question between the two: do they want to contribute? That distinction matters in hospitality
I run a wedding, events, and wellness venue with a small team, and a guest does not experience our organisational chart. They experience whether someone notices their coffee going cold, whether a nervous bride has to explain the same problem twice, whether someone takes responsibility instead of saying, “That’s not my department.” Those moments come from people caring about the outcome, not from a procedure.
Clarity is the floor, not the ceiling
People need to know what is expected of them, but knowing what to do is not the same as wanting to do it well. You can write the most detailed job description in the world and still have an employee who never thinks beyond it. The missing ingredient is not always information. Sometimes it is meaning.
I had to learn this as an owner
For years, I thought good leadership meant solving problems quickly, and I was good at it. Running a venue gives you plenty of practice: the marquee company that cancelled the morning of a wedding, the same kind of crisis in a dozen different forms. You become the person everyone looks for. Eventually I realised the business was becoming dependent on me.
I brought in a business coach, Shane, who confronted me with some uncomfortable truths about my own leadership. I did not want people waiting for instructions. I wanted people thinking, taking ownership of the outcome without being told.
Ownership cannot simply be announced. It has to be built: through trust, through giving people the bigger picture, through the freedom to solve a problem differently than I would have solved it. If your team needs your permission for every decision, you have not built ownership. You have built dependency. This is where retention gets interesting.
Keeping someone on the payroll is not the same as keeping their commitment. The Happiness Index’s research identifies a notable dip in inspiration and feeling valued among employees with five to ten years’ tenure. Someone can keep delivering long after they have stopped being excited about what they are delivering, which is why development cannot stop once someone is good at their job.
So how do you get people to care?
Not with another motivational programme. Give people a line of sight to how their work affects the business. Give them room to act without demanding permission for every decision, and ask better questions than “did you finish it?” Try “what would you change?”Most businesses can tell you their revenue and turnover.
Far fewer can tell you whether their people still believe in what they are building. That is worth measuring, even informally, by asking whether people understand the purpose behind their work and feel able to take initiative. The numbers show you where the problem is. The comments tell you why.
That is the workforce I want to build
I no longer measure my own leadership only by whether the work gets done. I look at what happens when I am not in the room. Does someone step forward? Does someone make the call? Does someone care enough about the outcome to go beyond their job description? Those are the signs I look for now. I do not want to build a business where people work hard because I am watching.
I want one where people care about the outcome when nobody is watching. That is what inspiration looks like to me. Not slogans. Not motivational speeches. Perhaps the leadership question we should be asking now is not “Are my people doing their jobs?” It is: “Have I built a business where people want to contribute?”
About the Author
Shirley da Silva is the Founder of Evermore Venue and Spa in Roodeplaat, Pretoria, a destination spanning weddings, events, boutique accommodation and wellness. With more than two decades of entrepreneurial experience, she is passionate about building businesses through people, purposeful leadership and practical systems that enable teams to take ownership and grow.
