Winning the war for talent in the Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism sector

The hospitality industry alone has grown faster than any industry since 2008 and contributes over 17% of the entire workforce. So, it is big business… however, the big business sector needs the right mix of candidates, salaries and budgets to keep delivering!

Based on research from the 2017 Candidate Attraction Report we can break down how in-house recruiters are attracting talent and managing the industry attraction challenges.

First off, the survey indicates that there is a distinct lack of candidates within this sector, the quality is ok, but no channel is delivering exceptional quality and quantity. This is further backed up by industry reports of general shortages in the labour market for this sector, and it is unclear the impact Brexit will have on the status of migrant workers post-Brexit.

What is working and what can be improved?

If you look at the sourcing quadrant below it shows the quality and quantity of candidates by channel for in-house recruitment teams in this sector.

Even at first glance, it is easy to see that no one channel is delivering exceptional quality and quantity of candidates. General Job Boards in the bottom right of the quadrant generate a decent quantity of candidates, but the quality is lacking.

As you can see from the sector channel usage, social media is used by 69% as a sourcing tool but it isn’t delivering the required results. Interestingly, it is used more than ATS/CRM/Talent Pool which is providing a decent quality of candidates but still has some way to go to get the desired quantity.

The survey reveals there are some common issues across this sector that appear to be hampering results. Salaries being lower than market average is a primary issue, affecting 62% of companies. Also, we see half of recruitment teams have problems with location and reduced marketing budgets, meaning there is a distinct need to do more with less.

Looking in more detail at two of the channels used, how can your ATS/CRM and Company Website/Careers Site help you to deliver more?

Many vacancies within this sector require organisations to act quickly and have a talent pool of warmed up, engaged, pre-screened candidates ready to be onboarded.

There is sure to be more that can be done to fully utilise your ATS/CRM and Talent tools to address this. A practical tip is to evaluate your existing talent pools and check how easy it is to pinpoint the right candidates to target. Chances are you aren’t effectively grouping talent by skills, experience, qualifications, and location.

Another tip is to understand how easy it is for passive candidates to join your talent pool via your careers site. Can you build your talent pool using social networks and CV libraries? Is your talent pool screened and matched against your required skill sets?

In having the answers to these questions you will be better placed to capture candidates at the start of their application process and build engagement to convince and convert candidates.

Having a great online candidate experience through your website/careers site to support your recruitment strategy can support candidate attraction, candidate engagement, streamline your recruitment, improve onboarding and create brand consistency. So how would candidates rate your careers site for candidate experience? A good place to start is to visit your careers site and review it against our handy candidate checklist.

Finally, accessing your careers site analytics will enable you to understand candidate’s on-site behaviours fully and should alert you to the things you need to know to take the appropriate action.

Want to know more?

You can read more on candidate engagement in the Travelodge story and how they seamlessly integrated their website with their ATS/Recruitment CRM to attract the right prospective talent through consistently communicating their employer brand and values.

The Candidate Attraction Report also looks at website/careers site channel by industry and this industry currently falls below the midpoint. However, the report goes on to share markedly improved results from those recruiters who actively monitor, measure and benchmark channel effectiveness – are you one of these recruiters?

You can download the free Candidate Attraction Report 2017 to learn how to maximise your channel effectiveness and how you compare to other sectors or take a self-guided tour across the e-recruitment journey.

*British Hospitality Association – Backing the future for hospitality and tourism 09/15