‘Great thanks for coming to see me; so what I need is someone that is young, talented, high-performing, can work 24/7, has no external commitments, and is willing to be a senior waiter for 2.5 years – I’ll pay them $15.00 per hour and I can’t afford your fee so you’ll need to sort that’.

It’s simple – said no one ever.

Welcome to the world of hospitality recruitment – a diverse, unique, constantly moving field of activity. Its no easy feat being able to recruit strategically in an industry that’s in a constant state of reinvention, where talent pools are tight, and where industry networks rule supreme.

Here are some insights into my learning’s in hospitality recruitment.

The Clients

Just like our industry our clients are diverse – from global QSR brands and hotel chains, to brewery backed Publicans or innovative owner operators and groups what defines performance and talent is as unique as each operation in the market.

To exceed your clients expectations 

• Understand their brand – from the structure and core strategies through to the intangible look, feel, and atmosphere of venues and spaces.
• Understand their roles – A venue manager in one organisation is more often the not entirely different to the operation next door.
• Be the industry expert – know their market standing, the accolades they’ve won, their competition, their target market, and their past, current, and potential future employees.
• Don’t do it for the $$ – dollars in our industry are spread thin, be realistic when it comes to fee’s, payment options, and budgets. Of course your time is valuable, but building long-term beneficial relationships is priceless.
• Walk the walk, talk the talk – delivery is key, if you can’t – communicate it! Clients haven’t come to you so that you can advertise alongside them, they’ve come to you so that you can present them talent that wasn’t event looking.

The Candidates

Spanning four working generations our industry has to have some of the most diverse, exciting, and at times polarizing personalities, and professionals! Like many recruiters I often delved into why they work in hospitality, and what makes them tick. I can tell you 99% of them like people, human interaction, or customer service.

To really know your candidates you’ve got understand how they want to apply this love and passion within a role or organisation. Some candidates want to be customer centric (and some operations demand it), others want to apply this passion toward their staff and focus on internal relationships, training and development, and engagement. Then there are those that have ‘done their time’ but want to explore this passion through digital experience, marketing, or ‘behind the scenes’ roles.

To exceed your candidates expectations 

• Be the industry expert – I can’t repeat this enough.
• Understand their personal brand, career goals, and external passions and commitments.
• Be truthful, transparent, and understand their non-negotiable’s when it comes to roles, organisations, and brands
• Communicate regularly, effectively, and quickly.
• Put in a genuine effort to help build their careers – it’s the extra 10% that they truly value – helping with CV’s, interview practice, career planning.

My tips for success

Never forget that under all of the strategies, theories, and processes talent sourcing and recruitment at its core is built on relationships.

Clients may become candidates, and candidates may become clients but if you’ve built meaningful relationships with people you will always succeed in recruitment.

People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.

– Maya Angelou

This article was kindly supplied by Haystack Jobs.