Can hoteliers minimise the expense of recruitment?
Kamal: Hoteliers shouldn’t be reducing expenses in their recruitment procedures, they should be increasing them. Finding the right staff for the right level of service costs money, time and effort – reducing your expense in any of these areas will usually lead to recruiting the wrong staff.
Raj: Most hospitality companies work with niche dedicated hospitality job boards that offer good quality candidates at a much lower cost, thus keeping the recruitment costs low. The cost of retaining staff through various team building activities is always lower than finding fresh recruits and providing training programmes.
Daniela: Key solutions include reducing turnover in the hotel by promoting staff internally, cross-training employees to be able to perform in several departments which will enhance their knowledge, establishing a candidate pool/database with sister properties and sharing vacancies and organising specific job fairs to target the candidates needed.
Alina: The key-solution to minimising recruitment and turnover expenses is internal resources and transparent collaboration of units within the group. Tactical distribution of internal human resources, along with a strong retention strategy of best talents, will not only save on budget, but will sustain an organisation’s competitive advantage of its human capital.
Freddy: In the past, hotels were counting heavily on recruitment agencies to find the right talent, now we find that hotels participating in job fairs, attending hotel schools and universities to solicit internship programmes. Social networks, company web portals and word of mouth are all examples of how to reduce the cost of recruitment.
How can hoteliers incentivise employees to stay loyal?
Kamal: Many groups have different methods – but most importantly we have found that a clear structure for career progression works well. Employees want to see their future; a flat structure is usually the main reason people move on.
Raj: To begin, all team members should have a sense of job security together with growth and learning options. Internal promotions are also very effective in motivating staff to try to work harder to achieve their goals, this leads to increased loyalty too.
Daniela: To make sure employees remain loyal, employers can ensure proper development and training programmes are in place for their career enhancement, providing high level of housing, facilities, pool, staff dining room, recreations and activities and increasing salaries and benefits with length of stay.
Alina: Despite the common perception that salary is the primary role for an employment decision, remember that career advancement, development programmes and working environment are crucial points in employment acceptance and remaining loyal to an employer.
Freddy: Training and development are key factors in incentivising employees to stay loyal. It is also important to establish a specific career path that leads to promotions and career progress within a time frame. Implementating a recognition programme in the hotel operations, providing a combination of good benefits structure and team spirit work environment has also proven to be successful in reducing turnover.
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