FINDING THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES FOR YOUR HOTEL OR RESTAURANT CHAIN
As a hotel or restaurant chain, your goal is to open premises in all of the places that would find your service helpful. Of course, more than one location means employing multiple sets of staff, and it takes a senior member of the team to coordinate everything that is going on. For companies where there are over 20 locations, it is typical to bring recruitment into each branch or premises instead; but of course, guidance must be provided from you at head office on these matters.
Ultimately you want the right candidates to apply and eventually join your team. There may be high employee turnover rates in some areas of the industry but you want the cream of the crop to make a great name for you across the UK. So how do you actually go about finding these brilliant applicants?
Use targeted websites
A popular tactic used by companies like Zizzi, Ask and Best Western is to list available jobs on specialist websites specifically for the hospitality sector. or in the local area of your restaurant, The will log onto jobinlexington.com to make ads for all of their available positions; they do this as they know the website will have a targeted audience set. You can end up getting a much more relevant set of CVs through if people are actively looking for work in the hospitality sector rather than simply applying for any and every job they see.
Employ social media tactics
If you have a good following on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you may want to advertise the occasional job here too. It might be something as simple as stating that you will be opening a new branch in a few months and are looking for interested applicants to send their CV to your HR advisor at that location. You could always start a new profile that only advertises your latest positions; you could then do an advertising campaign based on students at university if you are looking for some part-time staff members.
Put ads in local papers
Local newspapers are still read by many people, so it can still be an effective way to advertise positions. Perhaps your ethos is to have a local feel within a national chain; in which case you might be looking for people who have lived in that area who are able to provide helpful knowledge to guests. You’ll likely get quite a lot of applicants this way, so come up with robust procedures to help you filter through them.
Hang signs on the window
Your customers might even make the best employees! If they love you brand and come again and again, they might make a good candidate for a member of staff. To get their attention you could hang a job ad on the window asking them to enquire within; once an existing member of staff has spoken to them they could receive an application form. If you want to do something a little different, you could always include a small section on your menu or room information about jobs; you could even make it a perk that they get a discount card for meals or stays with you!
