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The hospitality industry is incredibly varied. Taking in everything from hotels and motels to bars, restaurants, and entertainment spaces, hospitality businesses come in all shapes and sizes. However, there are a number of things companies operating in the industry have in common. One of the most universal is security.

Nurses do incredibly important work in high-pressure conditions, and thanks to the levels of stress experienced by many nurses, the industry has an exceptionally high turnover rate. Since 2016, the average hospital has turned over 90% of its workforce and 83% of its RN staff. As well as impacting patient care and staffing levels, this significant turnover costs healthcare organizations millions of dollars, with the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN ranging from $28,400 to $51,700. Subsequently, with such large numbers of experienced nurses leaving their roles, hospitals are losing up to $6.5 million per year.

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals are often dealing with people when they’re at their most vulnerable. As a result, emotions can run high and tempers can flare. This means that however good your customer service skills, and however professional your staff members are, you’re likely to have to deal with angry and upset customers at regular intervals during your career.

Professionals in the healthcare industry suffer a disproportionately high number of violent events and physical injuries in the workplace. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 2016 saw U.S hospitals record 228,200 work-related injuries and illnesses, a rate of 5.9 work-related injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time employees. That’s around twice the rate of private industry as a whole. The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have made the situation worse, with some parts of the country seeing violence against health workers increase by a shocking 300%.

According to the CDC, of the 20,870 workers in private industry that experienced trauma from workplace violence in 2019, a staggering 70% worked in the healthcare sector. From doctors and nurses to healthcare assistants and receptionists, people employed by healthcare organizations are significantly more likely to experience violence at work than those in other areas.

Due to the nature of the work, employees in the hospitality industry are particularly vulnerable to assaults and threatening or inappropriate behavior. In part, this is down to the fact that a lot of housekeepers work alone in guest rooms and food preparation areas, making it difficult for both managers and colleagues to always ensure safe working environments.

Irish statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797) once famously said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” He also said, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Mr. Burke’s creed is a lesson that is applicable today.

“We can’t implement a no-fly zone, and as a small company, we can’t send millions of dollars, but we also can’t do nothing, so we will do what we can,” announced Yasmine Mustafa, CEO and founder of ROAR for Good.  “I founded this company almost a decade ago to help people feel safer at work and in their lives.  We are achieving our mission, and helping our clients achieve theirs in our core markets of hospitality and healthcare, and we are compelled to do what we can to help Ukraine during this devastating humanitarian crisis.”

“This despicable display of war crimes hits particularly close to home in our ROAR family, not only because of my personal experiences as a refugee but because it is directly impacting a member of our team. One of our software developers, now a proud American, is of direct Ukrainian and Russian descent and has family in Ukraine – some in flight, some in the fight.” Yasmine added.

In honor of his family, and all the brave men and women who are standing, and in some cases dying for freedom and democracy, ROAR for Good will be donating 5% of proceeds from transactions that are initiated through this inquiry form through April 15 will be donated to the Bethel Russian Church, a Denver based church who have people on the ground in Ukraine delivering aid to those who need it most.

ROAR has chosen the American Hotel & Lodging Association Safety Summit as the time and place to announce this program because the hospitality industry has a long history of supporting global causes, as they always have a local level impact. This initiative is as close to their mission as it is to ours.

The U.S. hotel industry is facing mandates and deadlines to install Employee Safety Systems (aka panic buttons) by year’s end. ROAR is gathering data to statistically demonstrate the economic benefits to owners of doing the right thing for employees, through gains in staff retention and satisfaction and limits on workman’s comp and liability. In the interim, we encourage owners and managers to do what they must do eventually, now, and do some good in the process.

We will also be applying this donation effort to participating healthcare organizations, who have been suffering onslaughts of their own over the pandemic with rates of violence more than doubling, although not as severe as a war. Facilities wishing to participate may do so through this link.

“The only way we can raise money and remain true to our B-Corp mission of People-Planet-Profit is through customer acquisition,” said ROAR for Good SVP Peter Klebanoff. “This is one reason donations will be made in the name of the participating client, not ROAR for Good. The client gets the best available technology with the best economic efficiency, and Ukrainians who are starving, get food and a place to rest. My family was chased out of Russia 125 years ago, Yasmine is a refugee from Palestine, and we have a team member whose family is under assault today in Ukraine, so we must act with conviction and decisiveness. It's uplifting to see this tremendous response, and we hope to see it with refugees from other countries as well.”

As most healthcare professionals will be only too aware, workplace violence disproportionately affects those working in the industry. In the US, 70-74% of workplace assaults occur in healthcare settings. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of professionals reporting assaults went up even further, with violent incidents in some areas increased by 300%.

As featured on Lodging Magazine

As 2021 nears its end, hoteliers across the U.S will already be planning for the year ahead, and while budgets and capital expenditure are usually at the forefront of these plans, the unique challenges presented over the past two years mean that preparing for 2022 will require an unprecedented level of attention and forethought.  

Alongside contingency plans and flexible budgeting designed to mitigate any potential setbacks during the year, careful consideration must also be given to staffing, supply chains, and commitments relating to legislation or brand mandates that have been delayed or deferred during the pandemic. Chief among these considerations are new technologies and procedures intended to limit the potential spread of COVID-19, however, impending panic button legislation across several states, and the deadline for compliance with brand commitments also needs to be high on the list of priorities.  

With an increasing incidence of violence/threats to staff safety in the healthcare industry, a lot of facilities are looking into implementing increased protection measures. A recent example that drew attention is that of the Cox Medical Center in Missouri, where the incidence of violence against healthcare staff tripled in the last year. Total assaults rose from 40 to 123 and total injuries rose from 17 to a whopping 78 according to hospital data. Cox Medical Center decided to curb this issue by installing panic button solutions to protect their staff from this increased threat of violence.  

We previously wrote about common threats and safety hazards in the healthcare industry and safety tips for healthcare facilities. In this blog post, we want to examine what a culture of safety might look like in the healthcare vertical, as advised by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other prominent organizations.