How to hire while opening your hotel?

In order to succeed with new hire while opening your hotel, you will have to be planned.

Starting a hotel is always a special event. With so many moving parts, you will be up to your neck in work.

In order to help you effectively manage all the tasks associated with the hotel opening, you need to hire people at the right time.

If you are stressed over the fact that you have to finish hiring for all positions before the hotel opens, this guide is for you.

Plan in advance

You know when your new hotel will open. Not really ..depends on a lot of factors. But still you have a general idea.

To start with:

Know how many positions you have to fill.

A department wise manning sheet will help you with it. In general staffing guidelines vary depending on the type of property so you will need to make one for your hotel in advance

Understand the local market

Even if you have a general idea, you can plan in advance. Some of the traditional hiring times are June to October when people tend to search for jobs and leave the companies.

College students finish their term in April – June and many freshers are available during that period

If you know these cyclical events in advance, you will be able to plan you calendar and put a strategy in place to target those subsets.

Have a basic Job description ready

Keep your Job description ready. You should know what you are looking for. If you do not know what you want out of the person you want to hire, you will end up making costly mistakes.

Imagine if your need a North Indian chef for your specialty restaurant and you hire someone with Italian background. That is an expensive hiring mistake specially when you have not time to the hotel opening.

Source your candidates

Your network on social channels like linked in can provide you with candidates while hiring for a running hotel.

But to hire for a hotel opening you need to be active beyond social channels. In this post we mentioned 4 sources to hire for your hotel . That article can be a good start. However if you have money earmarked for the mass recruitment additional strategies can be

• Using advertisements
• Attending career fairs
• Partnering with local NGO to provide training to potential candidates before hiring

Screen candidates

While engaging in mass hiring, you will have to screen potentially large number of resumes. Having a clear guidelines can help you with identifying the right fit.

Most branded hotels work with 3rd party assessment agencies to pre screen candidates. If your hotel has one, send out links to all applicants in advance so that you can screen them.

If you are doing a mass hiring, set up some computer stations so that you can run these tests before you meet the candidate.

In case you don’t have these assessment in your hotel, develop some internal guidelines to screen candidates based on the culture you want to set up in the hotel.

Follow up

After you do all the hard work and complete all the steps, finalize the candidate and send them offer letters, your work does not end there.

Usually candidate will have many offer and they may not turn up on the day they are supposed to join

You need to constantly engage with the candidates to ensure they actually turn up on the day they are supposed to .

If possible, send out a stream of information about the hotel, the culture you will create and what their first few days will be like to create a buzz and sense of belonging.

In conclusion

Hiring while opening a hotel can be an easy to achieve goal if you are

• Planned in advance
• Know where to source your candidates from
• Screen them effectively
• Follow up closely with them