Mr. Catlette

Human Resources, Recruitment & Training

Recruiting and Retention: Nine Tips For the Hotel Profession

By Bill Catlette, Co-Founder, Contented Cow Partners, LLC

Co-authored by Richard Hadden - Co-Founder, Contented Cow Partners

With the economy on a slow but determined path to improvement, the equation, with respect to the balance of supply and demand for labor is, once again, shifting. Over the last three to four years, employers in most industries, certainly to include hospitality, have enjoyed relatively stable teams, and an abundance of available talent.

Hotel executives who have been in the business for a few years will remember that it wasn't always that way. Taking the good with the bad, most executives we know are happy to welcome the higher occupancy rates in exchange for a tougher labor market. Those who are adept at navigating the dynamics of the changing workforce scene will enjoy the benefit of those fuller houses more, and be in a much better position to serve the guests who are slowly, but surely, returning.

If there's been one benefit from the economic downturn, it's been a return to better service practices in just about every service profession. Hungry employees, less confident of their ability to seek greener pastures, have put a little more bounce in their steps, smiles on their faces, and willingness in their attitudes. Guests have noticed, and having tasted a little better service, will be loath to accept less as conditions improve.

So, the two-headed beast of Recruiting and Retention rears its ugly, hibernating head. Nearly two decades of research by our firm leads us to the strong opinion that employers, especially those in the service sector, who learn to tame this beast, will enjoy better results, and suffer far fewer headaches along the way. Here are some ideas:

First things first – retaining the people you've got:

1. With the economy on the upswing, it’s safe to say that at least a third of your staff is looking right now. The best ones will have the earliest success. Properties with competent, caring leaders will see less attrition and have more attraction. Those on the other end of the scale will have managers who go home each night thinking of the metaphor involving rats and sinking ships.

To get in front of this eight-ball, we recommend something we call “Re-Recruiting”. Yes, recruiting. When you were in hiring mode before, you spent time and other resources wooing the best people you could find. What are you doing now, to convince them that working for you was, and still is, their best career decision?

Start with your three best people in every part of the house. Do you know who they are? Have you told them they mean a lot to you? Do you know what makes them stay with you, with your organization? If not, find out, and then feed it.

2. Survey after survey tells us that at least two of the top five engagement drivers (things that create stickiness between your staff and the organization) pertain to worker learning and development. Plain and simple – people want, and need, to feel confident in their competence. It’s time to re-load and refocus your training programs, now. If you’re spending valuable resources on programs that don’t support strategic interests, stop. Likewise, it is time to get serious about enhancing core skills. One way to demonstrate your commitment (aside from funding the effort), is through your personal participation in training initiatives. What we’re suggesting is akin to the very real difference between sending your kids to church, and taking them. Your guests will notice, and so will your staff, especially the ones you want to keep.

3. On the premise that people usually “quit their manager”, rather than their job or the company, make effective leadership skills an absolute requirement for anyone in a management or supervisory position. To make this work, now would be a good time to resume use of employee climate or engagement surveys, and to get serious about the results. Insist on getting discrete reporting for every manager who has at least three direct reports. Make the survey results a regular part of your business metrics, and a significant factor in determining promotions and other rewards.

4. As the business climate improves, there is a tendency to re-open the cookie jar in an effort to restore staff morale. Be careful. The one thing you don’t want to do is pile on fixed costs alongside an economy that seems destined to take one step back for every two steps forward. A much better idea is to implement targeted, meaningful recognition measures that are firmly linked to performance. As a management team, determine, and document a few top performance measures for each department, things like banquet sales, guest satisfaction comments, repeat business, etc., and design attractive rewards for achieving goals in those areas. Not sure what kinds of reward would be attractive to your staff? Ask them.

Want to take it up a notch? Recognize that when it comes to reward and recognition, one size does not fit all. One size fits one. Encourage department managers to get to know their people well enough to know what kinds of rewards will be meaningful and valuable to them.

5. Do your own “Undercover Boss” activity, minus the “undercover” part. Take a week and work alongside staff in various parts of your organization. Better yet, insist that your entire C-level do the same. This will be more valuable education than most of us have had since college. Suggested stops: Reservations, front desk, housekeeping (yes!), room service food runner, and maintenance. You'll discover first hand what (and who) is working in your organization, what’s not. When we've prescribed this activity for clients, many of them, after taking the medicine, reported that one of the most valuable elements of the exercise was learning what sort of systemic issues are driving guests away, driving employees crazy, and keeping them from doing their very best work.

Attracting the best: recruiting new talent:

6. First, be as judicious about adding headcount at work as you are at home, but when you do add, be zealous about the quality of the people brought into your organization. Focus first on whether or not applicants are a good cultural fit with your organization and then, and only then, on things like knowledge, skill, and ability. Sit down with your management team and determine a short list of non-technical “fit” requirements for a person to be happy, productive, and successful working for your organization.

One company we're very familiar with, in the service sector, looks for people for customer contact positions who naturally do the following four things well: listen, smile, demonstrate care for their customers, and say “thank you”. If, during the initial screening, they don't pass that test, they probably don't make it to the formal interview stage.

This is only an example. No one can prescribe what those non-technical fit requirements should be for your organization. But you, and your management team can. What's important is that you determine what really does matter, that you can articulate those few requirements as clearly as the company in the example, and that you hire with great discipline around those requirements.

And interviewing, in most cases, should be a group activity. Nobody should be hired to work at your property without at least 2 multiple-rater interview.

7. Never stop recruiting, regardless of the way the economic wind is blowing. One mistake that far too many employers make is to acquire talent only when there's a whole to fill. Think about it, though. The odds of your having an opening at your property during that narrow window when the best person for the job happens to have an opening in his or her career are astronomical! That's no way to populate a high quality organization with exceptional people, and yet it's common practice.

Both of us enjoy fishing. One of us is good at it. But neither of us has ever had a fish jump, voluntarily, into the boat. Keep your line in the water, and your eyes open for people whose membership on your team can enhance your operation.

We know of a manager for an upscale restaurant in a large city who regularly dines at the competition. When she encounters exceptional service, she leaves a huge tip...and her business card. All's fair in love, war, and employee recruiting.

8. If you're serious about recruiting, demonstrate it by participating personally in interviews (for jobs up to 3 levels down from you). Except for positions that report to you, take an “advise and consult” role; don't be the final decision maker. And under the notion that what gets measured and rewarded gets done, base 25% of management bonuses on the quality of their hiring. Do their hires perform well? Do they stay around for a reasonable period of time? Do they get promoted when applicable?

9. Spend at least as much time worrying about your employment brand as your reputation with guests. Each one feeds the other. If you become known in the business, and in your community, as an exceptionally good place to work, you'll notice that the quality of your applicants rises, and the need to feed the revolving door of staff coming and going diminishes in a measurable way. Then, and only then, will you be able to build a team, and create a place that becomes known in the business, among guests an the competition, as an exceptionally good place to stay.

Richard Hadden co-authored this article. Mr. Hadden is a Certified Speaking Professional with a focus on creating great workplaces. He is co-author of the popular Contented Cows leadership book series, and the new book, Rebooting Leadership. He has a management degree from Jacksonville University, in Florida, and a Master of Business Administration degree from The University of North Florida. In 2000, he earned the Certified Speaking Professional credential from the National Speakers Association. This is the highest professional designation in the speaking industry. After a career as a manager in the fields of banking and information technology, he joined the adjunct faculty at his undergraduate alma mater, Jacksonville University, where he taught Principles of Management and Comparative Economic Systems. During this time, he began delivering keynote presentations and leadership training programs for organizations across the United States and Canada, and left the university in 1991. Since 1990 he has spoken for or delivered training programs for more than 800 audiences on five continents. Mr. Hadden can be reached at Richard@ContentedCows.com.

Bill Catlette is an author, leadership trainer, speaker, and human resources consultant with 35 years’ experience helping build highly successful organizations. In 1996, Mr. Catlette and Richard Hadden formed Contented Cow Partners, LLC. Since then, the firm has served more than 300 organizations in numerous industries, by delivering customized keynote addresses, corporate leadership training, and employee engagement surveys. He is co-author of Contented Cows Give Better Milk: The Plain Truth About Employee Relations and Your Bottom Line; Contented Cows MOOve Faster: How Good Leaders Get People to Put More OOMPH! into their Work; and the new book, Rebooting Leadership: Practical Lessons for Frontline Leaders (and their Bosses) in the New World. Mr. Catlette can be contacted at Bill@ContentedCows.com Extended Bio...

HotelExecutive.com retains the copyright to the articles published in the Hotel Business Review. Articles cannot be republished without prior written consent by HotelExecutive.com.