Recruiting the right people is always a progressive and sustainable step for hospitality recruitment firms, losing talent, however, for whatever reason can feel like a step in the wrong direction. It can drain your resources and significantly impact your day-day productivity. Low staff turnover is always a good attraction tool. According to research, satisfied and engaged employees can be great adverts for your brand, both to customers and to future employees which is a crucial asset to have in a skills-short and increasingly competitive market.

Attracting and recruiting the best talent for your hospitality business is only half of the struggle, devising methods to retain that talent is an ongoing problem, not just in hospitality, but in a wide range of sectors. It is an important matter that must be addressed in the short term to avoid long term operational issues.

Based on a recent discussion held by the Caterer which took place in London, multiple points were raised surrounding the issues of skills shortages and how they affect both the employee and the employer, particularly within the need for chefs. Hotels continue to search for certain roles within the kitchen, only to be sent an employee with the ‘equivalent skills set’ and not the experience that warrants the salary on offer. It’s an ongoing issue where employers struggle to hold power as many Chefs are aware of the ongoing shortage, this places them in a powerful position with lots of bargaining power. For example ‘Some take shifts off without permission, knowing that there will be no repercussions; many foreign workers leave their jobs in the run-up to Christmas only to return and renegotiate a better salary elsewhere in January.’

Another key issue is the fact that agencies can no longer meet demand. There was once a time when agencies would be more than happy for supplied staff to be made permanent. Now however, agency fees are so extortionate that this has been made increasingly problematic.

Agency apps are also a problem, they can now be used as market research to gather information on potential jobseekers, this can dilute and damage recruitment brands which can subsequently have a knock on affect for retention.

Despite the struggle, Hospitality Recruitment Firms are trying different methods to balance the feud and retain their top talent, including empowering staff through rewards and benefits schemes. The Caterer states ‘Team members from a large event management company are given branded poker chips as a reward for a job well done. If anybody gets five chips or more within a six month period, they can win prizes like televisions, headphones and trips abroad’ This can help the process in multiple ways, employees tend to make more effort as a result of the reward scheme, it also simultaneously helps improve retention as employees are more satisfied at work.

In summary, the struggle of retaining top talent is particularly difficult in the sector for Hospitality Recruitment. Despite the ongoing problems mentioned above, it is apparent that there are ways in which to combat this both internally and externally. It is also crucial when searching for Roles that you find a trustworthy Recruitment firm that specialises in the Hospitality sector, this way they will understand the range of ongoing problems like skills shortages within the industry and will use their experience to help you in the best way possible, without the need for excessive agency fees.

 

THE lack of human touch in hr

 

The continued lack of respect and standard practice of arrogance within the world of HR is something that always surprises us as an agency within the world of hospitality recruitment. As Megan Grace’s Blog states ‘There are many organisations who are still so arrogant as to think that people should be queuing around the block to work for them. Who don’t feel that they have to put in the effort.  Who don’t treat recruitment as the strategic work that it is.’

It is clear to anyone who has recently applied for a job that the process can feel rather repetitive and lack the empowerment that it should provide to anyone trying to enter the world of work. However, the lack of feedback, the fixed interview dates and the tedious e-mail applications that get no reply really do not represent a human process at all.

As an agency ourselves, it’s important to understand how the candidate can feel during the recruitment process, we feel a fundamental part of any firm looking to recruit should be their recruitment process. ‘Start with the end in mind. What would you like your candidate experience to be. How would you like people to feel at the end of the process, whether they are successful in their application or not?  What does a great, human, candidate experience look like, at your place?’

There are a range of things available to you that can improve the recruitment process that make the applicant feel welcomed and valued by your firm. Why not start with more personalised e-mails to your applicants? If they aren’t successful, TELL THEM! Avoid the dreaded ‘if you do not hear from us within the next month, please assume your application wasn’t successful’ and begin to personalise the process. If you get thousands of applications, aim to edit your automated system with a more human touch. In addition, understand your potential clients have busy lives! Stop scheduling the interview date before you even have the applications in. Are you just such a busy firm that you can only commit to one date? The answer is NO. This approach is really outdated. Candidates have jobs and a range of commitments that can’t be dropped at the click of a finger. They may have caring responsibilities or children or medical appointments and they simply can’t do your date. If you don’t change this, you are losing out on lots and lots of skilled candidates that won’t even bother to apply if the interview date doesn’t cater to their commitments.

 

Remember – The world doesn’t revolve around you.

 

 

Recruitment Trends

 

We live in a recruitment era where the power is beginning to shift dramatically. The way we recruit, regardless of the industry, has changed one way or another in the last decade. Candidates now have far more power during the job seeking process. According to John Zappe ‘90% of recruiters and HR professionals say the market is now candidate driven’

 

It is now very clear that the tables have turned, you no longer have the pleasure of choosing the talent, the talent chooses you.

 

Two of the key Recruitment trends for this year, according to Kristina Martic (Head of marketing @TalentLyft) are Employer Branding and Candidate Experience. These are destined to be significant factors within the world of recruitment.

 

Employer Branding

 

Employer branding is simply a term used to describe a firm’s reputation and popularity as an employer, this is something which is incredibly important to all firms when looking to retain talent and recruit new employees. Research by LinkedIn has proven that ‘more than 75% of job seekers research about company’s reputation and employer brand before applying.’

 

Candidate Experience

 

“Candidate experience” is current, past and potential future candidates’ overall perception of your company’s recruiting process.

The importance of this is reflected in multiple aspects of a firms current and future staff positions. Candidates who had a positive experience in your recruiting process will more likely accept your job offer, reapply in future and refer others to your company. Not only does candidate experience directly affect your current recruiting problems and needs, it can also indirectly affect your firm’s chances of recruiting in the future. A good candidate experience is likely to make future job hunting much easier which means less resources and finances are needed to find someone you are happy with ‘Next time’

 

For more information on Recruitment trends and any other queries regarding Recruitment, contact us.

 

using facebook to recruit

 

When it comes to sourcing and recruiting, you should not ignore the potential power of Facebook as a recruitment tool. The fact that it has 1.38B monthly active users and 890M daily active users immediately presents a clear opportunity for people on either side of the employment spectrum (People looking to recruit or people looking for work) Incredibly, 76% of social job seekers found their current position through Facebook.

Recruiters seem to overlook the potential of Facebook as a method to contact potential clients directly. Employers either don’t understand the different methods in which contact candidates through the platform or they feel it is somewhat ‘Strange’ to approach people through social media.

 

Here’s why the big FB shouldn’t be overlooked…

 

You can actually send a message to ANYONE on Facebook. So why not?

Recruiters can make hires consistently on a monthly basis through Facebook – The key is to use LinkedIn first. Find people on LinkedIn, if you don’t have a premium account and are unable to send them InMails, simply cross reference people on Facebook and send them a message. You will rarely (if ever) get a negative response.

As Glen Cathey states in her blog ‘‘a common approach is to first apologize for reaching out to people on Facebook. If you’re concerned that the person might feel that Facebook is “private,” show some understanding of and respect for this by recognizing it and apologizing, then letting them know why you’re trying to contact them, and then ask for the best way to continue to communicate with them outside of Facebook.’’

Once you have used Facebook as the primary method of networking and communication, the recruiting process thereafter is exactly the same. FB simply acts as a way to get your foot in the door with potential candidates OR get noticed by potential employers if the process mentioned above was the other way round!

 

Remember, social media isn’t just for selfies or pretty pictures of your cat…

 

 

Artificial Intelligence and recruitment

 

Nobody can truly understand or predict the true outcome and potential of artificial intelligence and how it will affect the world in the years to come. Within the world of recruitment however, it is important to prepare for its imminent arrival.

Worryingly, any task that takes no time to think about, will be automated. However, where there is influencing possible, thought, planning and opinion needed – it is much harder for AI to replicate and replace us. Within the recruitment world, we need to see AI as a tool which will allow us more free time to do much better at the tasks which only we can do. We shouldn’t fear AI in recruitment, the technology will work alongside agencies to make our jobs much easier and our results much better.

AI will inevitably march in on the industry in an attempt to replace human minds at every opportunity, but can it really replace us? What we do very well is SELLING, not cold calls, handing out business cards or sending repetitive e-mails, but influencing, advising, consulting and negotiating the best talent nationwide and building a reputation and brand for our respective recruitment agencies. Our expertise and human touch will be here long after the machines turn up. Always remember that.

Greg Savage said something very powerful about the arrival of AI that we will always remember ‘It’s impact will be vastly overstated in the short-term and hugely underestimated in the long run.’

 

For now, keep working!

 

 

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP YOU ATTRACT CANDIDATES

 

With the millions of apps, websites and other platforms for people to communicate through, this is truly the age of social media. But it’s not a magic bean that grows overnight into recruitment success. It’s a platform for real work. The tools are new, but communication and interaction are as old as the world itself. That’s why so many essential principles of web communication haven’t changed much from the old days of door-door selling.

What the internet and social media does alter is the pace, scale, and cost of communication within the recruitment industry. You can send more messages to more people, more quickly and more cheaply, than ever in history, making the tool absolutely priceless to both recruiters AND candidates. But what you’re going to say doesn’t change just because you’re using more efficient technology. It’s key to use social media effectively and communicate correctly to reap the benefits that the platform can provide.

As a recruiter, your social media profile should follow certain criteria. Firstly, ensure you post content on your profile regularly to avoid it looking like a derelict ghost town. However, this doesn’t mean post any old rubbish. The content must be engaging and interesting to your audience so they don’t find you boring. Secondly, NETWORK. Always be connecting and following. On this occasion numbers do count, so keep on connecting with people on LinkedIn, following them on Twitter, Instagram etc. Last but not least, inject character into your profile! Make it clear that you are a recruiter but always look to do something different in terms of the way you operate your channels. It not only helps you differentiate from others but also helps build a personal brand. (Which is priceless!)

 

As a recruiter, if you don’t have social media, you are currently losing out on thousands of potential candidates. Move quickly and join the movement.

 

Credit: Andy Headworth (Sirona Says Blog)

 

 

KPIS THAT REALLY MATTER IN RECRUITMENT MARKETING

 

 

There is often the perception that the average marketing department has lots of felt tipped pens and whiteboards, and is awaiting requests for another PowerPoint presentation and job advert image creating.  This is often lead or influenced by the KPIs they have (or often don’t have) and the metrics that they use as a measure of success.

Lisa Jones (Barclay Jones) often talks to her clients about vanity vs sanity metrics in recruitment marketing. When she works with recruiters she often sees a clear difference in the way different departments operate. She states ‘Sales people have KPIs / targets / goals / commission’ whereas ‘Marketers have… well, er… communities to grow, time to tweet, lists of documents to brand…’ the most important thing to take away from her observation is that the marketing function appears to offer very little ROI.

 

Vanity Metrics for Recruitment Marketers

 

Here are some examples of what Lisa Jones calls “vanity marketing metrics”:

Impressions / Likes / Followers / Engagement – none of these make money and leads

Get shortlisted for an award

Numbers of web hits / unique visits

Email open rate

Google Analytics Goals

 

The reason that these are dubbed vanity metrics is that a sane person / sales person who is not close to hitting a target is likely to say “so what” to the list above.  Winning an award doesn’t make you more money, it’s what you do with it that counts. Gathering more followers or traction on social media is also very unlikely to help the cause. Recruitment marketers need to be allowed to demonstrate sanity metrics to generate ROI.

 

Sanity Metrics for Recruitment marketers

Convertible leads generated

LTV (life time value of leads)

Recruiters attracted (of the correct “grade”)

Candidates registered (of the correct “grade”)

Client meetings generated from events

 

It’s clear to see and very easy to understand that marketers in recruitment need more sanity measures.  They need to be allowed to develop lead generating / recruiter attracting / client engaging strategies – otherwise, the process of making things look fancy on social media will continue as normal.

In summary, recruitment marketers must have strategies in place to execute targets and goals based around both vanity AND sanity metrics. Despite the feelings of Lisa Jones above, Vanity metrics can’t be overlooked. Regardless of whether more followers on social media will lead to solid life time value of leads or whether more site visits will attract clients, it’s still important to build a solid base of brand foundations around your agency. If your firm can dedicate time and resources to the marketing functions surrounding the acquisition of clients (which they should) then the vanity tasks will only help the longevity and sustainable success of your firm.

 

Dedicate time to both types of metrics when looking to recruit, but never lose site of the fact that you are always looking for ROI, not more followers on Instagram.

 

 

 

 

cHOOSE THE RIGHT TIME FOR YOUR INTERVIEW. TRUST US, IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

 

As with everything in the world, timing is everything. Interviews are no different. Research states that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week. The most productive time can even be pinpointed to 10.30am on Tuesday.

 

The key thing to understand is that when your interviewer is at their best and happiest, they are more receptive to your ideas, answers and individual personality. If you choose the optimal time for the interview, it will run more smoothly and it might just be enjoyable (Maybe)

Top tip for interviews – if you feel that you’re perhaps not in the best mood or feeling 100%, try and switch to a better mind-set prior to an interview by either having a coffee break, going for a brisk walk or doing something that really perks you up and makes you feel good. Whether this is a morning swim, watching your favourite TV show or having a tasty breakfast at a local coffee shop. Make sure you are prepared for this, you only get one shot.

 

When thinking about booking your interview, it’s also important to consider:

 

Avoid early mornings and the end of the day. You and your interviewer will more than likely feel far from your best which makes it a losing battle before it has even begun.

Avoid lunch interviews when possible. Hungry interviewers and interviewees is a recipe for disaster.

Why not contact your potential employer to ask what their preferred interview time is? Then cross-reference it with what we’ve said in this blog post before making a decision. The choice is yours.

 

Think of it like this, if you and your interviewer are feeling nice and relaxed, you are immediately in a better starting position than many of your competitors.

 

By reading this blog post, we know you are the right type of candidate who is willing to prepare to and cover all the bases, well done and good luck!

 

 

Credit: Joe Burridge (Joe Blogs)

 

social media and personal brands

 

Social media presents an opportunity to create and manage a personal brand in an effective way. The question is, why bother?

Aside from the obvious reason that firms now look at social media as a huge indicator when recruiting, social media now presents a whole range of other opportunities that can be taken advantage of. (If used correctly)

Social Media is now a tool in which you can use to build your personal credibility, to position yourself, and to create opportunities within the world of recruitment. It provides a way for you to shout about yourself, this is what I’m good at, this is what I bring to the party, yadda yadda yadda.

Before you begin your personal brand adventure, here is something to think about: what do you want to be known for? This is the essence and fundamental factor that builds the foundation of a personal brand.  This is the what you want people to say about you when you are not in the room.

 

From this point, everything falls into place.

 

If you want to use social media for your personal brand, here is some stuff to think about:

 

How do you explain who you are and what it is that you do?

Your image. This is partly about your actual image – the photographs you use, how professional you look, this means no blurry pictures from your crazy nights out!

Set rules for yourself. If you use lots of social media platforms, which ones are private and which ones are for public consumption? What will you share…. and what won’t you?

Clear up. When you have a clear route for your personal brand in mind. Clear up the past! Delete your dodgy photos, remove the ones that don’t portray the personal brand you are aiming for.

Pick your platforms. Decide which platforms are the right ones for you, and do them really well. Before deciding – figure out just where on social media the people you want to influence are likely to be.

Play to your strengths. If you can write, blog. If you can take great photographs, go shoot. If you have a face for video…. you get my point. Show off your skills.

 

The most important thing to take away from this blog post (Inspired by Gemma Dale) is to be yourself and don’t be afraid to take the plunge into social media!