Finding Value: Identifying and Assessing Social and Emotional Skills in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to business closures and employee layoffs in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector, severely impacting young workers with little work experience and few transferable skills. Understanding social and emotional skills (SES) strengths and gaps can help people understand what skills they have and where they can improve and can drive larger scale upskilling initiatives.

This impact paper identifies the value of a focus on SES recognition for employees and employers in the industry and examines SES assessment frameworks, approaches, and platforms that can support credentialing. We draw from our previous research on SES-related studies and on an external literature review of academic research on social and emotional skills, soft skills, human skills, and emotional intelligence in the T&H sector. The paper presents a detailed description of SES assessment platforms that support group assessment and training and suggests next steps in the process of working toward a standardized definition of SES that will improve employability for people working in the sector.