You’ve heard about diets that say you can lose 10 pounds in two weeks and the exercise routines that promise to give you six-pack abs. Unfortunately, when something claims a result that is too good to be true — it often is.
It’s the same case for short term solutions to the long-term issue of the labor shortage in the hospitality industry. Sure, you can hire housekeepers at a rapid click through a third-party source, but are those new employees going to stand the test of time?
Like crash diets, the answer is no. These are just band-aids hiding a bigger issue.
In order to build a staff that will stay, you need to move toward a more sustainable approach to hospitality hiring. Read on to learn how you can build a sustainable hospitality hiring approach at your hotel.
How to build a sustainable hospitality hiring approach
If you want to play the long game with your staff, you need to build systems and processes that allow you to increase the overall quality of hire you make. Below are three ways you can begin making sustainable hires at your establishment.
Take hiring into your own hands
The first place you should start when creating a sustainable hiring approach is by taking hiring back into your own hands with an applicant tracking system. Staffing agencies certainly have a time and a place in the hospitality industry, but you want to hire employees — not temps. When you’re filling a permanent position, you want to be more discerning about the quality of hire you’re making instead of finding as many workers as possible to turnover rooms as quickly as possible. If you focus on the quality of hire, then you can provide a better experience for your guests by building the best team possible.
Proactively recruit
Another benefit of taking hiring back into your own hands is that you can proactively recruit, instead of moving as quickly as possible to fill roles. While the hospitality industry is still 2.2% (approximately 369,000 jobs) below pre-pandemic employment levels as of June 2023, there is speculation that this sector will be able to recoup those losses this year thanks to the unprecedented amount of travelers. With less pressure on your HR department to make hires as quickly as possible, you have the luxury of recruiting in slower travel months and even when your hotel is at optimal staffing levels so when someone has an emergency or chooses to move on, you’ll have extra staff trained and ready to go.
Create your own talent database
The final — and perhaps most critical — component of a sustainable hiring approach in hospitality is creating and maintaining a database of talent. The best way to do this is by establishing a passive talent pipeline where you continuously receive leads on potential candidates through an ongoing employee referral program.
If you don’t have an employee referral program in place already, you’re missing out on one of the best drivers for quality candidates — and recruiting ROI. Instead of paying to market your open roles on job boards, you can use significantly less of your hiring dollars to internally market this program throughout the year. Your best employees already know people just like them; these potential candidates exist in their networks of former colleagues and friends. In our recent State of Hospitality Hiring Report, we found that even former employees are willing to help their networks (and previous employers) source talent as 90% of hospitality job seekers said they would refer a friend to a previous employer if their experience was a good one. The key is to make the submission process as easy as possible — just ask for name and contact information. Your hiring team can take it from there!
Are you ready to lengthen your employee lifecycle?
Crash diets aren’t viable — and neither is relying on an outside source to provide the staff you need. Instead of relying on short sighted solutions to ease your labor problem, it’s time to create a hiring approach that will lengthen your employee lifecycle.
Hireology can help you turn your hiring process around into one that your team — and candidates — will love. Take this product tour to see how our all-in-one hiring and HR solution can help your hotel find long term hiring success.
