Winning The Talent Acquisition Game in the Hospitality Industry

So, you meet top talent, delay to hire and before you know it – they’re gone, in the blink of an eye! In today’s job market, it makes perfect sense to react with speed whenever you come across unique talent (depending on the emergency to fill the vacant position). 

See, given the cut-throat competition for rising stars, there is no guarantee that your best employees will stay with you for years. Many top brands are always poaching talented individuals to work for them, offering irresistible perks. 

Besides, job seekers with high qualifications face significantly lower unemployment rates, especially in fields such as hospitality. The long and short of it is there is every need to recruit top talent as possible to avoid missing out. Here’s how to do it.

Use your Internal Network 

The first step of hiring involves informing existing employees of the available vacancy. Sure, this is a no brainer, but in most cases, it happens after the public knows about the open position. 

Internal job posting enables workers who may be interested in making a lateral move or want to change jobs within the organization to apply. On top of that, they can look in their professional circles for possible candidates.

Write a Clear Job Description for the Vacancy 

Again, this seems like common sense. But, it may shock you to learn how many times a search for the right candidate goes wrong because of the hiring manager’s failure to specify the skills required for the job. 

The thing is – a detailed job description that allows human resources to pinpoint the ideal fit in the first round will lead to better candidates and by extension, quicken the hiring process.

Be More Choosy about the Candidates you Interview 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a hiring manager is to interview everyone who applies for the job. Indeed, many organizations have a reasonably rigorous screening process, including calling the applicants. Even then, most end up inviting ten to twenty people for an interview, only to be impressed by two or three candidates.

It is essential, therefore, to trust your gut when reviewing resumes in round one — It’ll save lots of hours interviewing the wrong applicants. 

Think Ahead 

One of the best ways to speed up the hiring process is to ask for references once you have decided to offer a position to an applicant. Picture this – a prospective candidate can take a day or two to get his/her references and another two or three days for you to get in touch those references. The ripple effect is that it can take you up to one week to decide if the applicant is the right one. 

Plus, it’ll cost your company revenue in administrative time and lost wages. It is advisable, therefore, to ask for references from candidates during the first round of interviews. That way, you will only contact references of the applicants who make it past round one.

Create a Long-Term Talent Plan

Many companies waste a lot of time seeking out the qualified candidate to interview. Generally, the search starts when an organization wants to fill a vacant position. In most cases, it takes more than three weeks to find the right application.

So, to reduce the time, you can consider holding informational interviews with all the prospective applicants for different departments of the company – way before the job opening. The idea is to enable you to create a pipeline of top talent and even get rid of the first round human resources process that stretches the hiring process to days or weeks. 

Outsource Parts of your Hiring Process

Emerging hiring trends involve letting someone find the top talent for you. In essence, this means that you don’t have to go through the trouble of conducting interviews. Repeated research shows that the primary reason for delayed hiring is because the process is out of your control.

Paying a recruiting agency to look for the right candidates on your behalf is not only efficient but also saves time and money. Besides, you can expect top-notch screening and hiring process since you’re already spending money for it. 

The Bottom Line 

The people you employ to work for you, ultimately determine the level of your company’s success. You, therefore, need to get the best of the best if you want to succeed. Most importantly, you must bring them on board as soon as you identify their extraordinary talent. So, don’t waste time, hire the right way (and quickly).