Inspire to Hire: 6 Tips for Hiring Exceptional Staff

Inspire to Hire: 6 Tips for Hiring Exceptional Staff

The success of your lodging business depends on several factors, including brand image, your integrity, and reputation as the hotel owner, manager, or operator.

To achieve this, hire exceptional hotel staff to help maintain that image, to acquire and retain guests and steer the business forward.

With a 26% increase in employee growth in the leisure and hospitality industry from Jan 2021 to Jan 2022, your next hire will be one of many that will lead to your overall success!

Here are some insights into the hiring process that we believe will help you attract and hire the most qualified candidates to join your hospitality team. 

1. Define the Job Roles and Skills

The first step in the hiring process is:

to define the specific job roles and skills you're looking for in your ideal employees. Take into consideration the required size of your hotel staff. For instance, a small 5-unit B&B, or mid-sized 30 room boutique hotel will employ significantly less staff than a 300-room hotel.  

The next step is:

to set priorities on which role to hire first. How many kitchen staff do you need to add or replace? How many more receptionists, cleaners, or innkeepers do you need?

Consider the five most vital soft skills to look for in hotel workers which include WETCO. 

• Warmth 
• Empathy
• Teamwork
• Conscientiousness
• Optimism  

With that in mind, you might also want to adopt the 'hire for attitude, train for skills' hiring method. Creating a detailed candidate profile enables you to stay relevant, professional, and focused throughout the recruitment process. 

2. Create an Outline of the Job Description

Create a detailed description of every position, using professional, yet inspiring language that doesn't discourage potential employees. Highlight brand personalities, attributes, goals, achievements, and what the business expects from the new employees. In other words, sell the job to attract highly qualified and experienced candidates. 

3. Look for the best traits that meet brand and guest needs

The third crucial factor you must never overlook when looking to hire hotel staff is their interpersonal skills. Pick candidates that have the business and guests’ best interests at heart. Special interpersonal skills to look out for include: 

• A guest-first attitude: It's normal for people to be busy and preoccupied with different responsibilities in the hospitality industry, especially during peak hours and high seasons. No matter how busy your staff will get, they still need to develop a guest-first attitude and put their needs first above everything.  
• Ability to handle stress and work under pressure: Like every other occupation, hotel jobs come with their fair share of challenges. There will be frantic moments where a lot will need to be done at the same time within a limited time frame. The ideal candidates must have the ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment, handle difficult clients professionally, and therefore must be able to face and handle stress through patience and resilience. 
• Tech-savviness: We live in a digital world where almost everything is done online. It's not just the IT guy or webmaster that needs to be tech-savvy. Consider tech-savvy candidates who understand the internet and can help you keep with modern computer and phone apps.  However, attitude is key, so they should be ready and willing to learn. 
• Teamwork and collaboration: Teamwork is crucial for the success and growth of the business. Therefore, your team must be able to collaborate effectively with various departments to ensure every operation runs smoothly to provide the best guest experience. Use the interviews to assess the character of each candidate to determine who is the best fit for your property. 

• Communication skills: Communication skills are one of the crucial interpersonal skills that you should never overlook as you hire hotel staff. Ensure you onboard people who can listen to instructions, pay keen attention to detail, and give timely and reliable feedback. Look out for people who will not talk while you or a guest is talking to them, listen keenly and professionally, and give accurate and complete answers.  

4. Hire from Multiple Channels

When you have vacant positions that you need to fill, you may choose to place ads on job boards relevant to the hotel industry. While this is a noble approach, you should diversify and work with multiple channels as the best candidates may not be available on those job boards.  

Therefore, utilize multiple strategies, channels, and platforms to source the best candidates. You can work with a professional recruitment agency, social media, mainstream media, or your business website to attract as many potential employees as possible. Who knows your next guest might be the front desk manager you’ve been looking for! 

Post job openings on:  

• LinkedIn & Facebook to attract professionals in the hospitality industry 
• Indeed and Glassdoor to attract professionals in the job market from all over with a proven hiring process 
• Recruitment and temp agencies to take the stress out of searching for top talent 

• You brand website if your hiring budget is small and you’re in need of local talent, fast 

5. Provide a Seamless Onboarding and Training Process

The process of hiring and onboarding exceptional hotel staff doesn't end at the recruitment phase. Ensure you establish a seamless onboarding process by equipping the recruits with the right training, job-shadowing, and mentorship opportunities.  

This allows the new employees to understand how your business operates, expectations, and your guests. This will not only motivate them to perform and deliver the best services, but they'll embrace their new roles with a lot of enthusiasm. Lastly, keep communication channels open to help them blend in and address whatever challenges or concerns they may have. 

6. Consider Third-Party Agencies as Staff

Not all staff members are required to be on-stie. Collaborate with third-party agencies such as your marketing agency, that handles all your online needs from search engine optimization, to web development and design to optimizing your social media platforms, etc.  

And although these agencies work independently, you can work together with them as an extension of your business or staff.  

To learn more about how rezStream can be an extension to your staff, give us a call today. Learn about our suite of lodging solutions to see how our dedicated team will boost your revenue and simplify operations.