Insider: Tips on Marketing Hospitality Careers to Recent College Grads
By Jason Ferrara, Vice-President of Corporate Marketing, CareerBuilder.com
Mr. Jason Ferrara
In hospitality, employees play one of, if not “the” most important role in an organizations’ brand. One bad experience for a customer can quickly undo even the best marketing efforts. As the labor market tightens with more and more baby boomers approaching retirement age and a much smaller, less experienced replacement workforce entering the market, finding and retaining high quality talent will undoubtedly be more challenging. Your competitors for talent will also broaden as companies in all industries increasingly go after the same talent pools.
Distinguishing and promoting employment opportunities to the next generation of jobseekers will be critical to any organization’s long-term success. In my article "Tips on Marketing Hospitality Careers to Recent College Grads” in the Hotel Business Review, I look at ways hospitality employers can reach and attract college graduates and educate tomorrow’s leaders about the long-term career opportunities that exist in the hospitality industry.
Like your other marketing activities, when it comes to attracting talent, it’s important to be targeted and relevant in your communication. Most likely you have developed unique marketing strategies and utilized different marketing vehicles to reach various customer segments in your hotels (e.g. business travelers versus leisure travelers versus families). Similarly, jobseekers who are just entering the workforce versus those who have been in it for 10, 20, 30 years, have different priorities and learn about opportunities in different ways. If you want to attract the highest quality new talent, it’s important not to treat college students and recent graduates as an after thought.
In the article, I first look at what really matters to this new generation. Beyond salary and benefits, how should hospitality employers be talking about employment opportunities to appeal to recent and prospective graduates? What motivates them, what are they looking for, what do they think makes a company an employer of choice? Next I offer suggestions for really getting in touch with this generation – how can you go about learning more about their preferences, their impressions of the industry and what matters when they are making career decisions.
The article then discusses some of the ways to reach this target audience through mediums they prefer and with messaging and content they deem relevant. From social networking to web site content to the way you write your job descriptions – all paint a telling picture of what it is like to work for your organization. What are the opportunities for growth? Is it an organization that removes the red tape? What will my career path look like? Do I feel like this company is driving innovation in the industry? These are just a few of the questions these young jobseekers are asking themselves when they consider employment opportunities.
Throughout the piece I also provide examples of companies that are being innovative in their approach to college hiring: how they are reaching this new generation of jobseekers, gaining insight on their target audience’s preferences and marketing their employment opportunities.
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Sincerely,
Jason Ferrara
Vice President of Corporate Marketing
CareerBuilder.com
773-353-2601
jason.ferrera@careerbuilder.com
