“Welcome to the Seaside Paradise Hotel, where every sunset feels like home!” your front desk hotel receptionists have been trained to say each time a guest visits the check-in counter. But what happens if your scheduled receptionist quits at the last minute, leaving no one to cover? This stresses hotel managers, forcing them to juggle check-ins and their managerial duties until a replacement arrives.
Here are 7 hospitality recruitment tips to stay fully staffed and reduce stress if turnover inevitably happens.
1. Prioritize Soft Skills
While technical skills are integral for deciding candidate quality, soft skills are also vital for determining whether a candidate will be successful as a hospitality professional. Communication skills, adaptability, and problem-solving capabilities are just as important as having the technical prowess to operate a cash register, clean guest spaces, and perform administrative duties like updating a hotel booking.
Screen candidates effectively by having them complete a soft skills assessment. Integrate behavioral interview questions to gauge a candidate’s reaction to customer service situations. This ensures that their reactions are within the company’s customer service parameters.
2. Optimize Your Careers Page
Implementing hospitality recruitment tactics involves optimizing how the hospitality company presents itself to candidates. Do more than enhance your job descriptions with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by including keywords related to the role’s description. Take it one step further by optimizing the careers page as a whole.
Does the careers page include employee testimonials and the company’s mission and vision statements? If not, get them on there. The best way to start a careers page is by highlighting the mission and vision statements. Integrate employee testimonials in the middle of the page and a list of open roles at the end to encourage candidates to apply. Placing open roles at the end of a career page is almost like the call-to-action of the entire setup.
3. Offer Flexible Scheduling
One of the best hospitality recruitment tips is to offer flexible scheduling to candidates. This option attracts more candidates to the applicant pool because of flexible scheduling’s convenience for a work-life balance. Everyone has a different routine that could make them available only during certain hours.
For example, parents may seek a day shift while their children are in school to cut down on babysitting costs that may be incurred if they are scheduled for weekend shifts. Conversely, caregivers for elderly family members may have daytime responsibilities that make evening shifts a more practical option.
Flexible scheduling options allow a hospitality company to attract a diverse candidate pool, build a robust team, and ensure they can satisfy difficult-to-fill shifts.
4. Engage Passive Job Seekers with Social Media Outreach
Unspoken hospitality hiring best practices usually signify to engage with passive candidates. These individuals currently work at another job, but they are open to possible new career opportunities. Hospitality recruiters may find great results by engaging with passive candidates on social media.
Over 90% of recruiters utilize Facebook and LinkedIn to source candidates, underscoring the platforms’ usefulness in discovering high-quality applicants. Post engaging content to attract passive candidates, including employee testimonials, career growth opportunities, and company culture highlights.
5. Collaborate with Hospitality Schools to Find Fresh Talent
Partner with local hospitality training programs at local colleges and universities to collaborate with them and find fresh talent for when your company has to fill vacancies. Current students and recent graduates are eager to gain real-world workplace experiences to implement what they’ve learned in the classroom.
You can establish these partnerships by attending local job fairs, offering internships at your hospitality company, and engaging in mentorship initiatives. These above-and-beyond candidate sourcing methods will enhance talent pools while developing the next generation of hospitality professionals for your company brand.
6. Maintain Recruitment Efficiency with An Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Traditional hiring methods only hinder hiring success in the hospitality industry. Instead, modernize your hospitality recruitment strategies by integrating with an ATS that can make hiring easier with higher efficiency.
Cadient’s ATS helps hospitality businesses to:
- Automate job postings across multiple platforms.
- Simplify applicant screening with AI-driven resume parsing.
- Enhance compliance and reporting by keeping up-to-date hiring records to align with industry regulations and local and national laws.
- Implement expedited hiring with interview self-scheduling and direct communication tools to reach candidates promptly.
- Enhance the candidate experience with a user-friendly application to reduce candidate drop-off rates.
7. Improve the Candidate Experience
Refining the candidate experience is the backbone of implementing hospitality recruitment tips because the lack of a positive hiring procedure can damage employer branding. Hence, simplifying the application process increases candidate engagement to maintain interest in the position as applicants wait to be contacted for an interview.
Streamline hiring with a mobile-friendly application process. Send automated responses showing confirmation of application submission and when an interview is scheduled. Submit timely follow-ups after application submission and interviewing to keep candidates informed.
