Engineers need blueprints to construct new buildings from the ground up. Chefs need recipes to make the same tasty dishes again and again for their dining customers.
Likewise, hospitality businesses need a well-crafted hospitality recruitment plan to consistently attract, hire, and retain top talent. Without a structured approach, staffing gaps can lead to inconsistent service, high turnover rates, and operational inefficiencies.
Just as blueprints and recipes provide a clear roadmap for success, a recruitment plan ensures that every hiring decision aligns with business goals, brand values, and customer expectations. Use Cadient’s guide for creating a hospitality hiring plan to build a strong and reliable team.
Why A Hospitality Recruitment Plan Is Necessary
Adopting a new plan for hospitality recruitment is essential for keeping hiring procedures fresh and aligned with industry demands of employees. Maintaining service quality, decreasing turnover rates, and implementing an efficient hiring process are a few of the key objectives to achieve when developing a hiring strategy for hospitality businesses.
Failing to develop a clear strategy can lead to employee staffing shortages and inconsistent customer service. Learning the best practices and key tactics for implementing a hospitality hiring method is essential. Once the plan is in place, it can benefit companies by:
- Enhancing hiring efficiency.
- Instituting higher employee retention rates.
- Refining guest satisfaction.
- Saving costs on recruitment and training efforts.
3 Best Practices for Hospitality Recruitment
Implement these three best practices for a hospitality business’s hiring and onboarding.
1. Prioritize the Candidate Experience
Ensure a positive candidate experience from application to onboarding. Respond promptly to candidate inquiries via email or social media and remind them to use the company chatbot for faster answers.
Create clear job descriptions outlining required experience and responsibilities. During interviews, be welcoming, use consistent questions, and provide equal opportunity for all candidates.
2. Hire for Attitude and Train for Skill
Onboarding candidates with a positive attitude and well-rounded customer service skills is essential for operational efficiency in the hospitality industry. Even if the applicant has never worked in hospitality before and has generated customer service and interpersonal skills in other roles, recruiters should still give them a chance. Training the right candidates with awesome personalities and work ethic can lead to enhanced productivity and workplace collaboration.
3. Utilize Technology for Efficiency
Leverage an applicant tracking system (ATS) to collect applications, conduct resume parsing during screening, and allow candidates to self-schedule video or in-person interviews based on the recruitment team’s availability. The best recruitment tools reduce time-to-hire for a more optimized hiring experience.
5 Steps to Create an Effective Hospitality Staffing Plan
Follow these steps to build a strong plan for staffing a hospitality company.
1. Define Your Hiring Needs
Evaluate your current and future staffing needs. Defining them early in this process is essential for knowing what is required for your company to succeed.
2. Build a Strong Employer Brand
Showcase company culture, such as mission and vision statements, within job descriptions to enhance employer branding. Publish employee testimonials on the company’s career page so candidates can learn what it’s like to work for your brand before they are potentially onboarded.
3. Leverage Multiple Recruitment Channels
Using many candidate sourcing channels can enhance candidate quality over time. Posting the vacancy on the company website, job boards, social media, and other digital platforms can help expand your reach. Even pitching the vacancies at in-person networking events is a smart move.
4. Offer Competitive Compensation & Benefits
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), the average hourly earnings for employees in America’s leisure and hospitality industry is about $22.48 per hour as of January 2025. Employees in this sector work an average of 25.3 hours per week. Especially since many entry-level hospitality positions are part-time, companies need to maintain these competitive wages to retain employees.
5. Focus on Employee Retention
A hospitality recruitment plan should prioritize employee retention. Long-term staff are well-trained and maintain operational efficiency. Invest in professional development and mentorship to keep employees engaged.
A Hospitality Recruitment Plan Example
Here’s a basic hospitality hiring plan template. Customize it to fit your company’s hiring objectives and agreed recruitment steps.
Objective: Hire five experienced hotel front desk representatives within the next three months.
Steps:
- Post job openings on general and hospitality-themed job boards. Leverage social media as an additional sourcing channel.
- Utilize an applicant tracking system (ATS) to shortlist candidates with resume parsing to create talent pools.
- Conduct structured interviews of qualified candidates with predefined questions.
- Extend offers to top candidates with competitive benefits.
- Provide a comprehensive orientation program for new hires to complete while onboarding with the company.
