Ms. Cooper

Human Resources, Recruitment & Training

Employer of Choice or Last Resort? Five Key Methods to Attract Great Employees

By Caroline Cooper, President, Zeal Coaching

The recruitment process can be costly, so any business that wants to try to and attract the perfect employee and get them up and running with a minimum of disruption. Management time to sift through all the applications, let alone advertising, interviewing, and induction, all take their toll. And that's without considering the potential lost opportunities for productivity, customer service and increased sales due to lack of key staff. So what exactly can you be doing to attract and hire the best employees to your hotel?

1. Build Your Reputation

Create a culture where the best employees will want to work, and build a reputation as a good employer so you attract the best people. A prerequisite is looking after (and retaining) your existing staff; they are far more likely to recommend you to others and spread the word that it's a great place to work.

Monitor the reputation of your business; listen to what your staff say, especially those who leave. Conducting exit interviews with staff who leave can provide you with valuable feedback, providing you are prepared to listen and take on board their comments. It will help you to pinpoint the main causes of staff turnover e.g. poor conditions, lack of leadership, low pay relative to comparable positions, few opportunities for progression, sour relationships, so you’re in a position to address these. Keep an eye on social media sites too, to see what people are saying about you. Even if you think comments are unfounded, ask what’s prompted the comments.

Put yourself forward for awards to help build your repetition as a good employer, and use every opportunity to get your name known. Think about what your prospective employees will be looking for and will be important to them in looking for that perfect job and a good employer.

2. Know what you’re both looking for

Start by defining precisely what you're looking for and specify this in your advertising and to your agency if you use one.

Identify precisely what type of person would best suit this role. You can’t hope to find the right person if you don’t know what you are looking for. What skills, attributes, training or experience are essential? Recruit on attitude rather than on skills alone. Systems and procedures and basic skills can be taught, whereas an enthusiasm for food and wine, and a passion for hospitality and service need to be minimum requirements.

Think about what your ideal candidate will be looking for too. Avoid the role appearing unattractive; sometimes we are over ambitious with our expectations of what one person can achieve. Be realistic about the roles and responsibilities that this position can cover.

What else will make the role attractive? What opportunities are there for development or progression, how much flexibility does the post allow, what’s included in the overall benefits package?

3. Explore your Options

Don’t limit your recruitment search to people who respond to your adverts. Use your network of business contacts, your existing team and even your customers to help you find the best candidates.

Network or socialise where your prospective staff are; this will not only help to build relationships and reputation but will give you an opportunity to see people in a more relaxed environment. Consider where your great potential employees hang out. Are there specific organisations, network groups, exhibitions, seminars, etc. where they may meet en mass? This includes social media sites as well as in person. Start developing a "candidate pool" rather than waiting until you suddenly have a vacancy to fill.

Develop relationships with agencies as well as recruitment officers from local colleges and universities. Allow your existing team to participate in professional associations and training where they're likely to be in contact with potential candidates.

Provide opportunities for work experience, graduate placements, and apprenticeships. This provides an ideal opportunity to recruit into the lower ranks and promote internally.

Promote from within when ever possible. Develop a culture for learning and development, providing opportunities for people to learn and grow on the job. As well as providing you with a ready-made pool of potential applicants for internal promotion, it adds to employee engagement and a more flexible workforce.

Always let your existing staff know when a position is available. Even if this is not a step up, it may present a new challenge to keep someone motivated.

4. Systematic approach

Put systems in place so that all applicants are treated with respect, and even if unsuccessful, come away with a good impression of your business. This includes promptly acknowledging all applications, and keeping people informed of where you are in the selection process. Too many ideal potential candidates are lost through a lack of communication - they hear nothing and in the intervening period accept a job elsewhere.

Allow plenty of lead in time for interviews; applicants who already have a job elsewhere can't just attend for interview at the drop of a hat.

Allow yourself time too to adequately prepare for interviews so that every interviewee gets a fair opportunity, and you adopt a consistent approach to enable you to make a fair comparison. Consider how you're going to assess key criteria you are looking for. This may be easy with skills, but may be more difficult when assessing attitude, leadership ability and values. Look for and ask for details of situations where they have demonstrated these attributes.

Involve your existing team in the recruitment process. This will demonstrate your belief in them and strengthen their commitment to helping the new employee succeed. If you're not involved with the recruitment process yourself, ensure you train your management team how to recruit. Do they also know what values and attitude you are looking for?

If you have internal applicants treat them in the same way as your external ones - acknowledging receipt of their application, interviews, offer letters, salary details, etc. If internal candidates do not get the job ensure you give feedback to help with their development and to encourage them to apply for future positions.

5. Induction

Don't throw all your hard work away by throwing people in the deep end; ensure your employees get a thorough induction to get them up and running as quickly as possible. This should include not only an outline of their job and what's expected of them, but how their contribution fits into the bigger picture, the values and culture of the business and an insight into what happens in other departments and parts of the business.

But recognise that a one-off training session will never be enough. Your staff - new and old - need to be kept up-to-date all the time. They need to know what is going on in the business, and how this will affect them and they need feedback on how they are doing.

There's nothing more frustrating, and demotivating for staff than lack of communication and being kept in the dark. Unless people know what's expected of them and what's going on you'll end up with an unhappy team, and ultimately an impact on performance levels and increased staff turnover, and you’ll then be left having to start the process all over again.

Caroline Cooper is a business and leadership coach working with hospitality business leaders and owners to enhance business, personal and team performance and effectiveness, with a strong emphasis on the bottom line results. She founded Zeal Coaching in 2004, and now works with a cross section of hospitality businesses. She is a published author of the 'Hotel Success Handbook', on practical sales and marketing for small hotels. During her career Ms. Cooper has provided leadership development and consultancy to a broad range of industries, ranging from FTSE 100 corporate clients, charities, local government and small businesses. Ms. Cooper can be contacted at +44 (0)7887 540914 or caroline@zealcoaching.com Extended Bio...

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