Mr. Ferrara

Human Resources, Recruitment & Training

Tips on Marketing Hospitality Careers to Recent College Grads

By Jason Ferrara, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, CareerBuilder

In the hotel industry, your employees truly are your brand and as the labor market continues to tighten, understanding and appealing to the next generation will be critical to your organization's long-term success. Beyond salary and benefits, what are you doing to attract recent or prospective college graduates? How are you distinguishing your employment opportunities? What are you doing to dispel some of the myths about hospitality jobs and raise awareness about the lucrative career paths the industry offers?

It's About the Connection

As you think about marketing your employment opportunities to new graduates, it's important to understand what motivates them. For members of this new class who have grown up on the Internet and regularly share the details of their days on Facebook, it's all about connection - and employment is no exception. Building a company culture that helps employees grow and feel like they are part of something bigger, will help you attract this new generation of workers.

The company that has arguably achieved this better than most is Google. According Fortune's Best Places to Work list, Google added just over 3,000 jobs in the U.S. this past year, but had more than 760,000 applications. What makes job seekers flock to this company? Is it the on-site dry cleaning, free lunches or the ability to spend 20 percent of their time working on their own projects? Perhaps... but it might be something else. "Googlers," as they call themselves, feel that working for the company somehow makes them special.

Not every employer can offer these kinds of perks or provide so much freedom, but there are similarities in the companies that are regularly identified as employers of choice: they have a deep understanding of what motivates the employees they would like to attract, they place great emphasis on empowering their workforces and they build environments that make employees feel like their jobs set them apart.

Qualities College Grads Look for in an Employer

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) annual Graduating Student Survey of over 13,000 students, recent graduates named the following factors as most important when considering a job opportunity:

• Enjoying the work
• Integrity of the organization
• Ethical business practices
• Good benefits package
• Stable company
• Friendly co-workers
• Opportunity for advancement What are some of the other things this generation cares about and that you should be considering when you're growing and communicating your employment brand?

Agility - this generation is used to immediate gratification and having everything at their fingertips. They will be attracted to organizations that have a strong base, but that can quickly switch gears to take advantage of new opportunities and drive innovation.

Clear Path - this generation has been raised on the Internet - getting instant access to anything they need. They will therefore be drawn to organizations that remove the red tape, clear the obstacles that stand in the way of success.

Feedback/Recognition - waiting a full year to be updated on performance and set new goals could seem like a lifetime to these Facebookers and YouTubers. Consider more regular reviews and recognition programs - which will also allow your organization to more quickly switch gears to take advantage of new opportunities or adjust if something isn't working.

Learning/Development Opportunities - new graduates want to clearly understand their opportunities for advancement: where they will go, what they will learn and how invested the company will be in their future.

Social Responsibility - Gen Y workers are motivated by more than a paycheck; they want their companies and their employment to mean something.

In Deloitte's 2007 Volunteer IMPACT Survey of Gen Y workers, 62 percent of respondents said they prefer to work for a company that provides opportunities to apply their skills to benefit non-profit organizations. Seventy percent said companies should use volunteering as a professional development tool and half even thought involvement in the community should be considered part of a performance review. Yet 66 percent of survey respondents said their company's community involvement was not discussed during the hiring process - 20 percent said it was only briefly mentioned.

Get In Touch: Build Your Own Focus Group

Think of the above as a guide, but don't limit yourself to what is working for others. Google carved out its own space by deeply understanding the motivations of the workers they identified as critical to their success - those who continually push the limit, who pride themselves on being unique and effective. Find out for yourself what makes your target audience tick.

In an effort to connect with the recent college graduates, Ernst &Young launched "The Reel Influence" video competition for College students. The program encouraged students to share their thoughts on career expectations and the accounting-professional services field. The best videos were posted to the company's Facebook page and will be used in a campus recruiting campaign. The winner accompanied Ernst & Young CEO James Turley on a business trip.

Whether it's your own college panel, a social networking effort or just spending a few hours sharing ideas with a class at a local university, be more relevant by getting in touch with your target.

Put Your Interns to Work

Most internship programs moved past fetching coffee and filing long ago, but are you fully leveraging this valuable resource? Not only are internships an opportunity to attract high quality talent, they can also help you get in touch with the preferences of this new generation of workers.

Consider projects that involve researching and building social networking programs, search engine marketing, online video and any other marketing channels that you may not be fully leveraging. If you don't currently have a careers page dedicated to college recruitment or if your current page is tired, this is your chance to get ideas and develop relevant, engaging content. Some innovative employers are also having their interns document their experiences in videos and blogs on company college careers pages.

Promoting Employment Opportunities

Web site - According to the NACE study, employer Web sites are the top resource graduates rely on when deciding to apply for a job. So it's important not to treat students as an afterthought when you develop your career pages. Make them interactive and develop content that speaks directly to students' concerns, interests and motivations. Employee profiles, video and blogs can make you career page and opportunities stand out.

Video - Instead of sitting in the library, Gen Y students wrote their papers outside on the quad, relying on wireless connections to simultaneously keep their friends on Facebook updated. They are connected in every way and want to work for companies that are also "tuned in." That's why organizations like Microsoft are utilizing YouTube to post videos about the company's work environment and projects. Whether it's Day in the Life employee snippets on your Web site, clips of company events on You Tube or interns capturing their experiences, videos give job seekers a sense of what it's like to work for your organization and can distinguish your culture from other employers.

Job Descriptions and Listings - Next to employers' web sites, job postings on company web sites, college career sites and job boards are the most popular way students pursue positions according to the NACE study. In order to distinguish your organization/opportunities and to appeal to a higher caliber of talent, your job postings should be viewed as marketing vehicles. Include components like video, employee profiles and be sure to communicate career advancement, learning opportunities and the ability to impact the organization.

Social Networking - More and more employers are looking to connect with job seekers on social networking sites and for good reason. According to eMarketer, Facebook is the top Web site used by college students in the U.S. with 74 percent of college women and 60 percent of college men logging on. Social networking sites give employers an opportunity to communicate directly with students. Employers can reach and gain insight from potential job seekers, show off their environments and demonstrate career path opportunities. Students can ask questions, learn more about a company and get a sense of what it's like to work there.

Ernst & Young's career page on Facebook has more than 13,000 fans. It promotes the company's internships and features weekly polls, stories about the environment and Q&A with job seekers. A "McDonald's Opportunity" Facebook page demonstrates career growth and education opportunities through the story of an employee who started in an hourly position and worked his way up to become a vice-president and general manager.

Be Targeted - As a leader in a hotel operation, much of your time is probably spent trying to better understand your customers - their preferences, their motivations and how best to reach them with marketing messages. You likely employ different communications strategies to effectively reach various customers segments (e.g. leisure versus business customers). In a hotel, your employees are arguably one of your most powerful marketing tools and taking a targeted approach to hiring will give your organization an edge in securing its future leaders.

Jason Ferrara leads the development of strategic marketing for the Corporate Marketing team at CareerBuilder.com, the nation's largest online job site with over 22 million unique visitors each month and over 1.5 million jobs. Focused on the recruitment needs of employers, Ferrara is responsible for business-to-business strategy including communications, advertising, promotions, e-commerce management, customer lifecycle and loyalty, and sales support. Prior to joining the company, Ferrara worked as Director, Online Marketing for SPSS, Inc. He holds a MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Ferrara can be contacted at 773-353-2601 or jason.ferrara@careerbuilder.com Extended Bio...

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