SURVEY: What's your pulling power?

Hotelier exclusively presents the findings of the Catererglobal Hotel Brand Survey 2010, which seeks to find out how hotel brands are perceived by job seekers and internal employees

Brands have the power to differentiate your product, get you noticed, build trust with your partners and call out to your customers. They act as signposts for potential guests and form an emotional bond with them, before they have even stepped foot in your lobby. Ultimately, they should aim to “take the choice of choosing”, says Professor Ben Fletcher at the University of Hertfordshire.

There are two dimensions to this; not only does your brand influence your customer, it also provides advance information to hoteliers seeking their next job role. With this in mind, it will be no surprise that 82% of jobseekers strongly believed that a hotel’s brand influenced their decision to work for them.

This is one of the findings from the Catererglobal Hotel Employer Brand Survey, which is being published in Hotelier Middle East for the first time. The survey asked 2800 hospitality professionals what really motivates them when choosing a hotel employer, which brands are the most appealing from an external point of view, and how they rated the hotel brand they currently or formerly worked for.

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It is often the case that companies with a strong consumer or corporate brands have an advantage in employer branding, so the aim of the survey was to find out if your employer brand really practises what it preaches.

As Catererglobal business manager Jeremy Vercoe said: “A consumer brand might be very different to the employer image and this can often lead to misconceptions. A strong consumer brand might inflate expectations amongst candidates, who face the risk of disappointment and consequently high staff turnover”.

He said the factor identified as the most important for respondents when choosing a hotel employer was career progression.
“The vast majority of hospitality professionals are moving into the region from other areas of the world and developing their careers is their prime driver — indeed, to do this within a happy working environment is key when choosing a hotel employer,” said Vercoe.