Introduction
Brandt Hospitality Group (BHG) is a hotel development company with more than 900 team members. From site selection through construction and hotel operations, BHG directs all phases of hotel development with an established portfolio and a growing number of new projects.
As a part of the company’s ongoing operational support for its properties, BHG’s small HR team implements and manages systems that the hotels leverage for day-to-day recruitment tactics on their own. One resource the company offered its hotels in 2022 is Hireology, which has helped BHG build a pipeline of great talent and fill roles faster. Read on to learn how they did it.
The challenge
The post-Covid employment market has presented a real challenge for all hotels and resorts when it comes to hiring. Hospitality workers who lost their jobs at the onset of the pandemic have now sought work elsewhere that meets their needs, leading to a widespread shortage of industry workers. In fact, the leisure and hospitality sector is still short roughly 300,000 workers from the pre-pandemic level according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
BHG’s hiring challenges were aligned with the overall market trends at the time — most of their properties were struggling to recruit enough talent to fill critical open roles. That’s when BHG decided to shift their mindset to a more candidate-centric approach to recruiting. Rather than only sourcing new candidates for every single new role via traditional sources like job boards, they decided to double down on employee referrals. This allowed them to constantly recruit new talent via their existing employees’ networks.
Thankfully, BHG’s people-first culture made prioritizing employee referrals easy. Teams across BHG properties were happy in their roles and eager to make referrals, and managers were ready to drive even more candidates via this channel. However, the highly manual and inefficient process they were using to manage referrals prevented the organization from realizing the full potential of their program. They would encourage property managers to socialize the program themselves and provide flyers to place at the hotels, but didn’t have a cohesive plan for following up with each property or ensuring consistency. They also relied on spreadsheets and outdated methods for tracking referral candidates and bonus payouts.
That’s where Hireology Referrals came into play. BHG invested in the platform in 2022 in order to drive more referrals and generate a larger pipeline of great talent across properties.
Enter Hireology Referrals
Hireology Referrals is Hireology’s built-in employee referral program management software. The tool allows users to automate campaigns to drive referrals, simplify the referral submission process, manage referral candidates and bonus payouts, and much more. BHG now manages their entire program via the platform, particularly valuing the following:
Campaigns
Rather than relying on managers at each hotel to socialize the program (which offers $100 after 30 days of a referral’s start date and another $100 after 90 days), BHG sends regular text and email campaigns directly to employees each month. The ability to automate and schedule these campaigns ahead of time frees up the small HR team’s time to focus on other tasks, while also ensuring that referral campaigns don’t fall through the cracks.
“Everyone on our team is doing more than managing recruiting, and we all get caught up in the day-to-day. But Hireology Referrals makes it so easy to set up campaigns in advance, saving us time and ensuring that our messages reach employees consistently.”
— Tenielle Schmidt, Director of HR at BHG
BHG’s campaigns incorporate timely and seasonal messaging in order to encourage referral submissions. For example, ahead of the holidays BHG sends messages encouraging employees to submit referrals in order to earn extra cash ahead of gift-giving season. They also experiment with creative angles to drive engagement, such as, “What would be better than working alongside a friend? Submit a referral today!”
BHG also relies heavily on text messages as the primary channel for these campaigns. Given that most hotel employees work on their feet during the day, text messages reach people more directly and are much easier to respond to quickly. Hireology’s referral chatbot makes referral submission seamless from a mobile device.
Hireology Referrals then provides BHG with analytics across different hotels, giving them insight into which properties drive the most participation and referrals and which could use extra messaging and support.
Bonus management
In addition to automating campaign management, Hireology Referrals also streamlines the process of managing referral candidates and bonus payouts. Prior to adopting Hireology, BHG would track candidates and bonus payouts in a spreadsheet, sometimes leading to delayed or missed payments. But with Hireology Referrals, the team can now track the exact status of each referral candidate in the hiring process, which employee referred each candidate, exactly when each payment is due, and the total amount owed.
Customer support
Hireology’s customer support team also plays a role in BHG’s employee referral program success. Hireology’s platform and industry experts work closely with Tenielle’s team to offer advice for improving their referral program over time — including ideas for creative campaigns as well as tips and tricks for getting the most out of the Hireology Referrals platform.
“Our Hireology customer success rep feels like an extension of our team, she’s here to help us and think about how we can push our program further and make it easier for ourselves.”
— Tenielle Schmidt, Director of HR at BHG
The results
In just one year with Hireology Referrals, BHG has significantly boosted referral candidates and hires. Moving forward, BHG is looking to leverage Hireology Referrals’ campaign functionality to more than just drive referrals. For example, the team is hoping to automate campaigns for different groups of talent including alumni as well as new talent relationships formed at career fairs.
Key results from BHG’s first year with Hireology Referrals include:
- 355 referrals
- 182 hires
- 51% referral conversion rate
“The numbers really show that investment in your employee referral program is the way to go”
— Tenielle Schmidt, Director of HR at BHG
