As the first part of a mini-series looking at staffing and recruitment in hospitality, in this episode, we find out how to recruit the right leaders and managers in senior positions and technology development. We are joined by Eric Rogers, Director of Eric Rogers Global Ltd a Hospitality & Technology Recruitment & Consultancy with over 20 years experience. We explore
Where are hotels struggling to recruit staff
How is recruitment changing?
The recruitment channels the industry needs to lean on
The type of benefits, payment or support are employees looking for
Discover why poaching talent is better than advertising.
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Programme Notes
Ryan Haynes:
Hello and Welcome. To Travel. Market Life. I'm Ryan Haynes. And in today's episode, we are going to be looking at Staffing and recruitment in hospitality. As part of a mini-series, we'll be speaking to specialists across the sector to understand where the challenges are and the opportunities for finding the right people to service hotels, technology and senior management positions within the industry. We won't just be looking at senior positions, but we will be looking at the service levels as well as back-of-house operations and housekeeping. Joining me today is Eric Rogers, who is a hospitality and Technology Recruitment consultant.
Ryan Haynes:
Eric. Thanks ever so much for joining us and looking at Staffing and recruitment in hospitality. I'd love to start with understanding where hotels are struggling to recruit staff at the moment.
Eric Rogers:
Well, first of all, thank you very much Ryan for inviting me to talk with you today. I think, although it's not my forte, I think it's very clear where hotels are struggling and that is at the more standard level. In other words, with housekeepers, front-office staff, back-office staff, admin type roles, they're finding it more difficult to fill them these days. Also, in restaurants, on the F&B side of things, there just aren't enough staff available to them. The area where I cover more when we start to get in involved in hotel technology and the IT directors, they're a slightly different case in so far as when Covid hit, a lot of them went out and found roles in the enterprise, in small business, effectively working outside of the hospitality.
Eric Rogers:
And what they found when they got there is that they left the office at five o'clock. They didn't get phone calls at two in the morning. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite as much fun as they used to have, but you know what? You can make your own fun in the evenings when you don't have to work them and when you know you're not going to get calls at, you know, stupid o clock to wake you up because the, the key cards aren't working. So, getting those guys back has proved to be somewhat of a challenge.
Ryan Haynes:
So, looking at actually the recruitment process, I mean that's one thing where we've gone from sort of having printed CVS to having all these job portals to LinkedIn. How is recruitment changing or what is the best method of actually recruiting people? And but let's focus on your speciality here, particularly within senior leadership positions because you know that today, you know if you are looking for a quality leader with good experience, you need to know where to find them.
Eric Rogers:
You shouldn't be trying to put an advert on LinkedIn or on any other source. You need to use a recruiter, a head hunter. But you still should use somebody with the requisite skills. The reason is quite simple. The people that will apply for a job, they may, you may find the right person there and it may be that that person is going to be spot on for you, but it's a limited market. You're looking at people that are actually looking for a job. The job of a head hunter. My role is to find people that are not actually looking and figure out whether they are the ideal fit for the company.
Eric Rogers:
And it's not just a matter of whether they have the right qualifications and whether they have the right experience. Will they actually work in that environment? Are they going to be a success? You have to take these things into account. If I feel that they would, then we start to move on, and it is my job to persuade them that their future now lies with company X. It's not always that easy to do, but you know, that's what I'm meant to do.
Ryan Haynes:
No, and I'm sure it's quite flattering when someone like yourself approaches them and says that they seem to be perfect for a new opportunity. And I and I and for you, you know, you are able to profile them a lot more, particularly with a, like with, with, with platforms like LinkedIn, because you can see where they've been, what they've been doing, how active they are, and I guess particularly for roles in very senior leadership positions, to be able to no notice their connections, how well networked they are within their industry or the, the, the level that the career and the path that they've been on will help you identify how much of a fit that they are.
Eric Rogers:
Absolutely. It is critical that they are able to fit in well with the organization and yes, very much I use LinkedIn to find the right people for the roles to approach them via LinkedIn. And I think the fact that typically I will have at least a few direct connections to this candidate, they may be a first-level connection. If they're not a first, then they almost certainly will be a second-level connection. It does make my life a lot easier because at least we have, we've either communicated in the past or we have a few friends, and colleagues in common, so they will tend to take my call.
Ryan Haynes:
Over the years we've had everything from, you know, having a nine to five 40, let four 40 hour working week. We've had flexible hours working from home, and we've had increased holidays, and learning and development programs. What is attracting people today? What are they expecting as a standard and what sort of things is, is a little icing on the cake?
Eric Rogers:
I think little icing. I mean I know one company is offering unlimited holidays and I think perhaps a few more do that as well, which I kind of can't quite get my head around. But I think the answer is so long as you're, you know, you're doing well, you can take as much holiday as you like, but I would always find that if I took as many holidays as I might like, I might not be doing quite so well at the end of the year, after all.
Ryan Haynes:
Well, I've actually heard people who've had that opportunity actually take less holiday than the standard holiday, which is, which is I guess, you know, an interesting sort of reverse psychology there.
Eric Rogers:
Yes. That's the flip side of it. And I, I tend to sort of feel that if I were given in one of my previous roles from say unlimited holiday, I would end up taking less holiday. I can't remember ever having taken my full holiday entitlement in all the years that I've ever worked. So just because it's now unlimited, you're hardly going to start sort of, you know, maxing it out on what sort of basis. I think the sorts of benefits that people look for, what people like, people like new laptops, people like getting the latest mobile phone these days because it sort of resonates with them, but it depends on the age of the people that might not necessarily be quite such a cha a, a benefit for somebody at a C level role, just expectations shall we say.
Eric Rogers:
But for somebody joining a company coming out of let's say the hotel side and coming into the tech side, being given a brand-new laptop makes you feel pretty good. In terms of home office balance, this is a bit of a challenge quite simply in, if you work in most, most businesses should we say as a manager, you may end up being allowed to have so much time a week, maybe two or three days working from home. Nowadays, well always should, I should say actually for hotels, hotel staff have to be in, cause at the end of the day their job is very much guest facing, so it's very difficult to do from a remote position.
Eric Rogers:
I know some hotel IT departments that are moving along in the direction of having a couple of days a week working from home. So, it has improved the hotel IT, but it will never improve housekeeping, it will never improve front office staff. Cause quite simply by the very nature of their business, they do need to be there. I think the biggest benefit for them would be to understand that they can actually grow within the business. And it's one of the attractive things of our vertical that you can start off in front of the hotel.
Eric Rogers:
I mean literally standing in front of the, the, the hotel sort of carrying people's bags and you can end up being the GM of that self-same hotel 20 years down the line. So, it does allow for personal growth. The particular candidate needs to take advantage of it. You know, it won't just come to you. It allows for travel; it allows for the ability to learn. If you can work opera and you can do front office or you can work RMS or whichever PMs you wish, and you can travel with that knowledge and go and spend a year in another country working in a hotel and that's not so bad.
Eric Rogers:
You know, it gives you a chance to expand what you've done in your life.
Ryan Haynes:
Wonderful. Eric, thank you ever so much for your contributions today to the Staffing and hospitality topic that we're looking at here.
Eric Rogers:
Thank you very much for your time. It's been a pleasure.
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