The Hospitality industry is not like other industries. There is a huge amount of overlap between roles. Add the huge staff turnover to this and that’s double trouble. As per research, 82% of hospitality recruiters are finding it even more difficult to find the right fit for the vacancies. Plus, retaining top hospitality talent is even more difficult. Here, in this post, we have shared a few useful tips for retaining the best hospitality talent.
The Hospitality industry is probably the only industry that needs almost every single type of job roles. From chefs to engineers; from waiters to designers; from gardeners to Software engineers and almost every other job. This makes life pretty difficult for the hospitality recruiters as with a limited budget they need to have the best from a huge option pool.
Let’s get going with a few tips to make lives a little easier for the human resource people in terms of retaining the best hospitality talent.
Setting the Tone with Onboarding and Orientation
After doing all the hard work in attracting the best hospitality talent and then getting on with the hospitality industry recruitment process, it is such a pain if employees leave in a short span of time. It is thus crucial to set the first interaction right.
The relationship with the hospitality job applicant starts with the first interaction. That is even before the interview.
However, it is the orientation that plays a key role in establishing the relationship between the employee and the organisation.
When the relationship starts on a strong and sweet note, it’s set to last longer. Wouldn’t you agree?
Here are a few quick tips for an ideal onboarding process in the hospitality industry:
- Assign a mentor to all new hires
- A checklist must be used always, especially in the first 30 days
- It is crucial to invest in the proper training of the people being boarded in the team
- One of the useful onboarding tips in the hospitality industry is to start communicating much before the joining date
- Using technology like games, PowerPoint always help new team members understand things better
- Team lunches are great places for new employees to get comfortable
Investing in the Training and Career of Employees
An employee stays if he or she feels that a career is at stake by moving out. Also, pay raises, promotions, better training, educational programmes and employee schemes all play a crucial part in retaining employees.
Yes, this is so crucial that it demands a separate heading. This is a key step in the art of retaining the best hospitality talent.
It is of paramount importance to ensure that employees are given ample opportunities to learn and upgrade their skills. Plus, they must be treated well in terms of remuneration for the work they have done. Appreciation plus bonuses are big motivators.
Some of the topmost hotel chains like Hilton provide free opportunities to take up further education or get career-enhancing hospitality industry certifications.
Employees appreciate organisations that enhance skill-building.
Did we forget to mention that investing in training can have an immediate impact on employee productivity and the organisation’s profitability?
Managing Diversity in the workplace is a key to hospitality talent management
The Hospitality industry is probably the most diverse industry.
Managing culture holds the key to better retention of employees.
This is even more important for retaining hospitality employees as even small teams in this industry have people of multiple nationalities.
The hospitality industry is one of the few industries which can boast of a balanced men-women ratio.
Ensuring a safe, happy and meaningful work environment
The hospitality industry can be extremely demanding in terms of work hours and shift times.
Working on holidays is another issue that lots of hospitality professionals complain about.
One of our earliest posts covers this issue in a very positive manner by presenting funny images about the hospitality industry.
Even the long and daunting work hours in the hotel industry give minimum leverage for the display of creativity.
A lot of top hospitality companies in the USA and around the globe have started to push for creativity workshops and team-building exercises.
Efforts are being made to make all hospitality organisations safer and happier. A sense of purpose even helps hospitality employees to stay longer with the organisation.
A meaningful work environment as displayed in the image below can do wonders in attracting the best hospitality talent and then retaining them for a longer duration.
Addressing the Employee Turnover issue through compassionate leadership is the key to reducing turnover.
Retaining the best hospitality talent requires more than the traditional set of human resource practices.
Conclusion:
All the human resource personnel would agree that the worst thing is to lose a great employee after all the hard work of sourcing, hiring and training them.
Building a rapport and a meaningful work environment is this even more important in this knowledge and technology era.
It is thus extremely important to retain the best hospitality talent. It helps in saving costs and reduces the pressure on the human resource team. Plus, it leads to a happier and more productive workplace. Hope these tips will be handy to all human resource professionals in the hospitality industry in retaining their best people.
