Competition for experienced staff During the pandemic, the restrictions and lockdowns have caused many businesses to cut their costs by...
Competition for experienced staff
During the pandemic, the restrictions and lockdowns have caused many businesses to cut their costs by laying off their staff. This results in a higher unemployment rate. Many people are looking for different positions within the hospitality industry. But many have also left, in the search of job opportunities in other industries. This means that when hotels and restaurants open again, there would be a lack of experienced employees. Moreover, the same positions will be offered from every hotel. This will eventually translate into an even bigger competition between companies to get qualified staff.
Tips to stay ahead of your competitors
Make your job vacancies look attractive! In a competitive environment, an eye-catching job advertisement creates advantages. An infographic will let you go wild with your creativity. They also tend to perform better on social media platforms. Be careful not to forget to highlight your company culture, values, and lifestyle while keeping it conceit and easy to read. Some useful websites providing creative templates are:
- Canva.com
- Crello.com
- Visme.co
Make use of job search websites! Job searching websites are the easiest way to put your ads out there. Some big portals for job searching in the Netherlands and around the world:
- Werkenineenhotel.nl
- Glassdoor.nl
- Hospitalityonline.com
- Hcareers.com
Click ads are also great for reaching a wider range of audiences.
Take it to the next level…
Focus on your LinkedIn page! LinkedIn is a great network for recruitment as you can sell your company via your own timeline. It also allows you to investigate people’s profiles and see their experience level. There are many competent candidates to be discovered on this professional social media platform. Post your vacancies on LinkedIn and pay for ads to reach an even bigger audience. Make sure the content is relevant to your businesses and reflects your values. Also make it show strong relationships with your employees.
Revise your training plan! Recruitment would mean more inexperienced staff. You should be ready to train them in the fastest and most effective ways. Work closely with the managers or team leaders. Sort out what can be trained through an online training session where everyone can join via Microsoft Teams. Whatever needs more in-depth training will be given on locations. Be flexible and innovative, play around with the combination of both virtual and real-life interactions.
Virtual/Remote working creates social barriers
Job interviews have been shifted to virtual. Remote working becomes a norm, many people prefer working this way, actually. This creates an advantage because we can recruit talents from anywhere around the globe. But this imposes one problem: the lack of social interactions. Many recruiters have shown fear of not having face-to-face reactions to see the “real” candidates. This in turn can lead to misjudgment of characters. For those who prefer working remotely, it would be a challenge with onboarding and training.
Get familiar with your technology and comfortable with interviews virtually. Microsoft Teams have become a very useful tool for most organizations when it comes to working virtually. You can learn how to use this tool effectively through tutorial videos or join a training class online. Once you are comfortable using this tool, communicate with your candidates, and onboarding new employees should be done without any obstacles.
To carry out virtual interviews successfully, practice the interview beforehand with a colleague. Get comfortable dealing with any technical issue that could happen. This helps to practice your ability to judge characters via minimal body language, backgrounds, how prepared they are for the interviews, or do they get comfortable just because they are at home.
Getting started
Have a trial period. Give the potential candidates a one-month trial, give them time to get to know the team. Have them work on task to see if they fit into the culture of the company and if they can capture the needs of your organization. During this trial period, try to engage your candidates as much as possible with other members of the teams. This could be team meetings online, or they can join virtually in an on-location meeting. With the tasks, make sure that an effective way of communicating is agreed on, a schedule of when they should give you updates, and be clear of the deadlines. After this trial period, you and the employee will be able to say if they are fit for the organization or not.
Virtual onboarding
As soon as the new employee joins the company, assign a buddy to them. Make sure they are provided with basic knowledge of the company and to be available to answer their questions whenever it is needed. This buddy, if they are an employee on location, can video call the new employee and take them around the office. Getting to experience the real working environment and meet the other team members is important. Also, try to get personal with them by having a meeting just to talk about their everyday life. For instance by have a webcam dinner together, and it does not have to be about work. This is the extra step that you should take, especially when doing virtual onboarding, to let the employee feel inclusive and welcomed.
Those are the recruitment challenges imposed by COVID-19 and they will continue to be challenging after the pandemic. In conclusion, the best tip we can give you is to be prepared. As long as you are well-prepared for the interviewing process, onboarding, and training, changing your plan to deal with the challenges ahead then you can overcome the challenges imposed above.
