Recruiting Challenges for 2014

Are You Ready to Meet the Challenge of Recruiting in 2014?

written by Dana Baith
VP of Recruiting – Horizon Hospitality

Government agencies, industry publications and travel associations are all shouting the good news…”The hospitality industry (especially the hotel sector) will continue to see an increase in business during the coming year.”  Obviously that means that there will be an increase in heads-in-beds and, hopefully, more opportunity for profit.  However, along with more business comes the need to serve those guests and after a few years of budget cutbacks and staff reductions that might be a challenge unless…you are planning ahead and beefing up your hiring programs.

In light of the significant hiring changes that have occurred over the past couple of years you may wonder what, exactly, is an effective hiring program in today’s marketplace?   The nation’s leading job board for the hospitality industry, Hcareers, recently published what they believe to be the key areas of success for an effective hiring program:

  1. Quality Rather Than Quantity – You must find ways to source quality candidates.  There are millions of unemployed workers and the old practice of placing ads will only overwhelm your inbox with unusable candidates.  So, find new and innovative ways to target the qualified, passive candidates.
  2. Online Candidate Assessments – A bad hire is far too costly in this fragile economy and companies need to use every available source to ensure the quality of their new employees.  Successful organizations are taking advantage of tools such as behavioral assessments, cognitive testing, background checks and automatic reference checking to strengthen the success of their recruitment efforts.
  3. Extensive Use of Social Media Social networking is no longer having a few drinks with industry cronies at the chamber event.  If you really want to network you must be a savvy user of today’s social media.  Most successful recruiting personnel are capable of maintaining an active network of 1000’s of industry contacts through their social media.
  4. Targeting Boomerangs – The most productive employees are those that are coming to your company from a similar role in another organization. Productive recruiting departments are actively seeking these passive candidates that are able to step into a role with little training and produce near immediate results.
  5. Improved Candidate Experience – Finding and attracting the right candidate is only the beginning of the process.  Today’s candidate is seeking the best company that will provide a long-term, beneficial work experience and the recruiting process provides the initial insight into the ability of the company to provide that environment. 

Does your process move swiftly with communication at every step along the way?

Do you utilize the latest technology to interview and screen candidates? 

Can you track your progress with candidates to make sure no one falls through the cracks? 

Are you clearly communicating your compensation and benefits package? 

Are you confident that your offer will be accepted by the person you want to hire? 

If you can’t say yes to all of these questions your program might need an overhaul.

We would all love to place an ad or two, pick out the top 10 candidates, set up a couple of interviews and hire the best person for the job.  It sounds so simple.  But, honestly, it isn’t that simple anymore.  Competition is too great, candidates are holding fast to good companies and who has time to wait for the right candidate to surface in our market? 

If you would like to learn about the value of Horizon’s recruitment and human resource solutions and how we can help your company, call Leigh Ann at 913-897-3100 ext 11

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