INTERNATIONAL REPORT—Forget simple job postings in newspaper classifieds or online job boards. To recruit the best and brightest and effectively bring them onboard, hotel companies must develop robust online platforms that anticipate the needs of new hires on the mediums to which they’ve grown accustomed.
Marriott International, for example, has a dedicated career website that includes information about employee benefits, commitment to diversity and career advancement. The company also posts video testimonials from current Marriott employees and managers recounting their journeys through the Marriott family of brands.
U.K.-based Premier Inn offers a dynamic search feature that allows potential hires to search by job type, function, broad geographic region and specific market. The company allows candidates to upload CVs, sign up for job postings via email alert, and keep track of other developments via Facebook and Gumtree.
The goal, said Charles Conine, is to reach out to a new pool of job candidates using the channels with which they’re most accustomed.
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“The use of those tools corresponds with the ways in which today’s employees, particularly generation Y, search for and acquire information generally, and specifically about jobs and potential employers,” said the president of Hospitality HR Solutions and HotelNewsNow.com columnist.
- Read “Redesigning employee on-boarding.”
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Charles Conine |
“If hotels want to appeal to, first of all, a broader demographic of applicants than they may have been able to appeal to in the past … they are going to need to think about the methods that are likely to produce the greatest draw,” Conine said.
“When a job applicant sees a hotel is reaching out and wanting to connect with them in ways that they like, you’d be more inclined to access that content,” he added.
Reaching the right applicant
In his experiencing working with clients, Conine has found the content that draws the biggest pool of applicants is that which is easily accessible, regularly updated and provides information that answers particular areas of interest:
- What jobs are available?
- What benefits does the company offer?
- Does the company offer opportunities for career advancement?
- How does the company reward top performers?
- How can a new hire add value?
- Does the company offer cross-training?
“Today’s applicants are interested in more than just a simple job,” Conine said. “They tend to be interested in jobs that have very readily noticeable opportunities to grow.
“(Hoteliers should be) detailed in anticipating the needs of applicants just as they historically have attempted to anticipate the needs of guests,” he added.
To do so, hoteliers should consult a wide panel of stakeholders.
“The design of the Web platform and particularly what’s being communicated should be done by integrating a diverse cross section of not only your existing employees but of applicants or those employed elsewhere who represent the communities you wish to have as part of your group,” Conine said.
The human touch
The recruitment process can’t take place exclusively online. While websites are great for disseminating information and drumming up interest for a particular job or company, the human touch is essential to ensure the right hire is made.
“Our business is strongly focused on providing our customers with excellent service, and selecting team members who will deliver this requires a special type of person,” said Ruth Jackson, hotels and restaurants operations resourcing manager at Whitbread plc, parent company of Premier Inn. “Academic qualifications are not always the most important criteria when selecting team members for our hotels and therefore the interview process is equally as important in our selection process.
“The emphasis on things like service and the company’s brand, you can learn some of the basics if you’re sitting in front of a screen … but a lot of that really requires you to be in the mix with others so you can, as the new employee, learn the kinds of normative behaviors and get a sense of the types of expectations that are required for you to fit in on that level,” he said.
“It’s absolutely essential that the human interaction takes over,” Conine said. “That’s the essence of tremendous guest service and strong employee relations. It’s the essence of retaining employees—the strength of the human interaction, the quality of it, and the consistency of it.”
Online tools can certainly enhance that process, however.
“Once team members are onboard we have a range of tools including a range of e-learning modules to help with the induction and orientation process. Core skills, such as health and safety can be trained through interactive tablets at our sites,” said Whitbread’s Jackson.
“Each employee has access to an additional online tool called The Academy Online, which has suitable training courses for them to complete according to their specific job role,” she added.
Tracey offered another example: A company could send a new hire the employee handbook a few weeks before her start date. By outlining some important things she should know ahead of time, her transition into the workplace will be that much smoother.
Online resources also allow employees to learn at their own pace once they’re on the job, he said. A company could create a POS training module to let that same new hire practice while at home or another stress-free environment.
Employers must follow up to ensure retention of that information, Tracey said. They can’t just assume a new hire has engaged with and learned from the online tools.
To ensure retention and maintain some oversight and support throughout, Premier Inn pairs each new hire with a designated “New Starter Champion,” an existing employee who acts as mentor during the on-boarding process.
After all, online tools are just that—tools, Tracey said. “If you put too much emphasis on it and don’t consider it as just a complimentary part of the learning process, then you will sub-optimize the learning outcomes.”