We were at capacity for yesterday’s #JobbioBreakfast, a brainstorm among the brightest and best of London’s hotel industry. Jobbio’s Christof Jaritz, a hospitality veteran, opened the morning discussion on hospitality hiring at Jumeriah Carlton Tower. Before he embarked on his career in tech, he worked in hotels from a very young age. For him, while training is important, the best hospitality staff have two things that can’t be taught: A good attitude and an “eye for work”.
“Hospitality is all about being a good host, making people feel welcome, having a smile on your face. All of the employees that your guests will interact with, they are the real face of your brand.”
To attract employees of such calibre is a time consuming process, which isn’t helped by archaic methods like the paper CV. Christof compares job application with an email or paper CV, to reservations made on the phone and recorded in a notebook.
“When it comes to Talent management we are kind of back where we were for reservations 20 years ago. You get paper CVs or email PDFs but as soon as they land on your desk, they’re outdated. It’s time to get hiring into real time.”
He addressed hospitality as an international industry. Skills are transferable which means there are lots of opportunities for Talent to work abroad. This was highlighted by the fact that not one single attendee had just British employees.
Dee Murphy, Expert in Residence at Jobbio discussed the importance of building your brand – explaining that for hospitality staff the ‘pedigree of the establishment’ and ‘public perception of the brand’ is more important than ‘on-the-job perks‘. She recommended identifying those with long term potential early in the season:
“Employees currently studying for a qualification in hospitality who may be looking for a full-time role upon graduation should be earmarked for up-skilling and mentorship during their time with you.”
She talked about the importance in effectively ‘off-boarding’ staff by providing excellent personal references and regularly reaching out to successful ex-employees to offer them perks such as vouchers for an overnight stay to ensure you keep your brand and relationship strong. She also talked of the importance of leveraging social media to build you employer brand, and encouraging your employees to be online advocates for you, something hospitality as an industry has been slow to adopt.
“Off-Boarding is as important as On-Boarding. Don’t lose the connection with the employees that move on. They’ll make or break your reputation.”
The rest of the morning involved an open discussion among attendees and a pastry filled networking session.
