Hotel Recruitment – Key Skills and Tips for the Right Hire

Tip 1: Break Down The Recruitment Process

Hiring isn’t just about getting employees at your door; it’s also about getting them to stay. Having stated that, the employment process shouldn’t be limited to hiring and conducting interviews. Instead, it should be divided into the following 3 important stages:

• Recruiting Potentials

This stage entails a variety of activities, such as creating job descriptions, publishing them online, collaborating with regional career services, and attending local job fairs. Hiring managers should market open positions to make them genuinely appealing to top-tier candidates. 

They should write thorough job descriptions that completely describe the position, including all duties, responsibilities, information about whether the position is full- or part-time, and potential scheduling options. Education and experience qualifications should also be emphasized. To attract more qualified potential, hiring managers should also include information on employee perks and benefits.

Lastly, to avoid wasting time later in the hiring process, they should also mention any prerequisites for background checks or drug tests in the adverts. Besides that, they should advertise their positions on online resources like Indeed, LinkedIn, and even Facebook to connect with a large audience. 

• Official Hiring and Onboarding

This stage involves meeting potential employees, assessing them, hiring, and onboarding them. It involves pre-hire processes like applicant interviews, screenings, and background checks as well as making an offer, having the offer accepted, and successfully onboarding a new employee. 

Here, hiring managers need to be keen and welcoming. Keen because here’s where they identify a candidate who passes the qualification criteria and can mesh well with their team and welcoming because they need to make the candidates feel at ease with the environment. This encourages them to put their best foot forward. Remember, the hospitality industry is 90% about people’s relationships with others, so start by setting a good example. 

Place a big emphasis on communication skills, attitude, interpersonal skills, teamwork, and punctuality. These play a key role in professionalism, which is a top priority for guests at hotels. If you want your team to work well, they need to work on similar timelines, relate well, work together towards a common goal and have a positive attitude about their work. With these 5 skills, you save your entire workforce from unnecessary stress.

• Retaining Hired Employees

It beats reason to invest a lot of time and energy into recruiting employees, only to have them quit after their first month of work. That is why employee retention should be part of your hotel recruitment strategy. This one has a lot to do with how valued your employees feel. Seeking assistance from a reputable hotel recruitment agency such as Maria Logan is the best option if you are willing to invest. 

What is their level of trust in management? Are they satisfied with their roles? And with turnover rates so high for hotels, how can you be the less than 30% that retains its employees? It all comes down to the culture. How can you make your employees feel appreciated?

Keep them first. Provide fair pay, decent benefits, room for personal development, and career training while working to enhance employees’ innate abilities. Be open-minded and attentive, and respond to any grievances. Remember, a hotel is the sum of its parts (and in case that’s not motivation enough, hotels spend about 33% of a lost staff member’s annual salary to get someone to replace them)!

Tip 2: Other Stand-Out Traits To Look For

Now that you’re looking to hire the best in the market, and retain them in a very competitive market, what guarantees that you’ll pick the right man or woman for the job? We mentioned 5 key skills which are teamwork, communication, good attitude, punctuality and good interpersonal skills. Here are 3 other stand-out traits to look for:

• Long-term potential – establish whether they have any traits of commitment and longevity by looking at their passion for pursuing their education and advancing their career. 
• Passion and Enthusiasm – Where did they work before? Can their success speak for them? If not formally employed before, what are some projects they’ve taken on independently to explore their passion? This can show you how well they will do their jobs because the more they love their work, the more likely they are to deliver great results. 
• Courtesy – A candidate who thoughtfully reacts when being addressed, properly welcomes others, and says “thank you” and “you’re welcome” will stand out from others who lack appropriate social interaction skills. It shows a willingness to be responsive and respectful and can be a sign of excellent communication and interpersonal skills. 

Tip 3: Flow With The Times

Digitization has radically changed hospitality roles, and you need to be part of the movement to keep your employees up to par. Drones, self-help kiosks, automated roles, and mobile app menus are the order of the day, and such features can help potentials choose to work in your hotel because there’s a hybrid system that makes everything work better. 

Besides that, after COVID-19, nearly all industries have adapted to much more flexible terms. Some work can be done outside the hotel through cloud-based digital tools and e-conferences. If you can help your workforce retain autonomy while working, therefore, do so because few people like to be tethered to the same environment day by day.