Best Practices for Recruiting Diverse Talent in the Hotel Industry

We value the standards you have for operating successfully, including the precision required for hiring a variety of roles. The operation will run much more smoothly if you have people with diverse and cross-functional talents. So, how do you go about recruiting?

Create a Culture That Values Talent

There’s no point in recruiting talent if you’re not prioritizing your investment. Before you carve time out to recruit, hire, and train, make sure your hotel has a culture that values talent.

What does that culture look like?

• Promote from within: When you are looking to fill higher positions in your organization, consider your existing staff first before recruiting from outside of your organization.
• Promote skills, not politics: When you are choosing people for career advancement, select individuals who excel at their jobs, not those who spend their time prioritizing favor from leadership.
• Give people freedom to express their talents: Talented individuals love the opportunity to do the things they’re good at and get frustrated when they’re hemmed in by arbitrary restrictions. Do you have a decorator with vibrant style? Why not extend the chance to redecorate a space or two. Do you work with a chef with a passion for research or recipe design? Empower them to demonstrate their creativity and add to the menu.
• Open yourself to suggestions: Talented individuals give great insights which might improve the way you work at your hotel. Make sure you give them an equitable channel to communicate their insights.
• Champion a fair conflict resolution system: Talented, passionate individuals may have alternative views on best practices or hotel operations. Have a repeatable system to manage conflict without bias or favoritism. Talented employees don’t leave an organization because they don’t get their way – they leave when burdened by communication barriers.

These are a few ways to make your culture more hospitable to good talent. Be conscious how your culture treats and develops talent and you will find more ways to welcome and cultivate it in your hotel.

Keep Employees Happy

Keeping your current employees happy is a key lever in recruiting diverse talent. First, it should go without saying retention is always superior to hiring. Hotel industry employee turnover is notoriously high, but it’s worth repeating, nonetheless.

In addition, today’s job market gives potential employees many ways to gather intelligence about your hotel’s workplace culture. The more disgruntled employees you have writing negative reviews of your hotel, the harder it will be to recruit talented individuals who will have many potential job offers.

Remove Unnecessary Skills from Job Descriptions

We understand that hotel employees often are assigned a variety of work, and you want to find people who can perform cross-functionally to best serve your guest. However, the more different skills you ask for in your job descriptions, the less likely you are to get employees who have experience in all skill areas.

Focus each job description on the core talent you are trying to recruit. Then, during an interview, you can explore a candidate’s willingness to take on other duties to broaden their professional toolkit.

Emphasize On-the-Job Training

Talented individuals love to practice their talents, they also love to improve them. Make sure you let all candidates know you’ll give them the opportunity and tools to develop their talents.

Make a concerted effort to offer training courses or invest in external training courses if it doesn’t make sense to have in-house programs. Create a mentorship program which pairs new talent with experienced experts on the team. Give employees challenging assignments which encourage career development.

Promote Realistic Advancement Opportunities

Talented individuals don’t look for fruitless work; they look for jobs that let them utilize their talents. As part of your recruitment strategy, communicate the organization’s training and development programs while emphasizing career advancement opportunities.

However, stay realistic. If there’s no clear path from the employee’s current role to their desired next steps, be honest. Remember, promoting from within, while offering training, are two key aspects of having a culture that values talent.

Evaluate Hires for Their Skills

Often, organizations take things like degrees, certifications, and experience as proxies for having certain skills. However, if you’re really looking to hire someone valuable, there is no substitute for evaluating their professional experience and skillset.

Incorporate methods like skill tests and even job “auditions” as ways to evaluate the talents of potential hires. This will ensure you’re getting the people who really have what your hotel needs to succeed.

Need Help Getting Talented Staff at Your Hotel?

Despite known industry headwinds, these strategies can improve your hotel’s ability to attract, hire, and retain talented individuals in any economic environment.

Xclusive Services is here to help your hotel fulfill its hiring needs including emergency staffing, seasonal staffing surges, or even take over staffing completely.

When you work with Xclusive Services, you’ll benefit from our Xclusive Excellence™ commitment:

• High quality staff
• Localized 24×7 Service Management
• Human Resources and Employee Compliance Assistance for all employees

This commitment, in addition to our strong pool of talented hospitality workers, can dramatically improve your ability to staff your hotel despite labor and economic challenges.

We are available immediately to assist you, please request a quote for seasonal or long-term staffing solutions.