HSS usually works with hotel and resorts. Today, we’re providing cleaning staff to senior living facilities. We’re helping these new customers fill their needs for qualified workers and helping put displaced housekeeper, food prep staff, and janitors from hotels to work during this crisis. We’re also working with our parent company, KBS, to provide deep cleaning and post-COVID cleaning response teams.
Luke Lindahl, SVP of Operations and James Krouse, VP of Sales and Marketing speak about how HSS is working with these new customers and what this pivot looks like today and in the future.
Like many businesses in the hospitality sector, the coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted our business here at HSS. However, we’ve been able to turn our focus quickly to areas that do have a need for cleaning services, and by deploying our dedicated workers to senior living facilities, shipping and fulfillment centers, pharmacies, grocery stores, and medical facilities. Basically, any essential business that needs cleaning and disinfecting now more than ever. We’d like to send out a big Thank You to all of the HSS Heroes out there every day helping to fight this virus and keeping us safe. The work you’re doing is so very important to all of us, at HSS and well beyond.
So you’re looking for a job with Hospitality Staffing Solutions. What do we look for when searching for a new hire? What attributes do we like to see?
Be Honest
Honesty is a big part of any team effort, and the same is true in hospitality. Easy and open communication helps to get the job done.
Detail Oriented
Paying attention to even the little things can be very important in hospitality and seeing that you can take into account all the details of the job description and expectations will get you far.
Teamwork Oriented
Oftentimes, the work you’ll be doing means that you’ll be working with other people. Being able to operate well with a group of others is a good sign that you could perhaps be a fit for the position.
People Skills
One of the things you should be able to do when working in the hospitality industry is to have good customer service skills! It’s one of things we look for in potential candidates.
Has Experience
Having previous knowledge of what the job involves shows that you understand what may be required of you. Experience is always a thing that we’re looking for in new recruits.
A Q&A with Scott Wintrip, author of High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant on Faster Hospitality Hiring
Scott Wintrip is the author of High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant, named a must-read book by SHRM’s HR Magazine. Over the past 19 years, Scott has led the Wintrip Consulting Group, a global consultancy that has helped more than 22,000 organizations build talent rich companies that have eliminated their hiring delays forever. For five consecutive years, Staffing Industry Analysts, a Crain Communications company, awarded Scott a place on the “Staffing 100,” a list of the world’s 100 most influential leaders. He’s also a member of the Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Staffing 100 Hall of Fame. We spoke with Wintrip on the topic of faster hospitality hiring and more effective.
You’ve had experience both in staffing and in the hospitality industry. What do you see as the biggest obstacle to finding talent in hospitality today? What are some strategies for faster hospitality hiring?
The biggest obstacle to filling jobs in the hospitality industry is that companies aren’t drawing in enough quality job candidates. The skills shortage often the blame—there are more jobs than qualified individuals to fill them. The right recruiting process makes this talent shortage irrelevant. Companies in hospitality that draw candidates from all eight talent streams have an abundance of qualified people, more than they can hire. For more details on those eight streams and faster hospitality hiring, readers can download a free report I wrote on the topic.
Your book High Velocity Hiring advocates for a fast process that results in faster hospitality hiring. What do you say to hiring managers who say that High Quality takes time? Particularly in the context of hospitality where quality and brand standard can be rigid.
Brands that are struggling to fill their jobs (and do quickly) are stuck in the old way of hiring. They keep a job open until the right person shows up. Leaders in these companies have been operating on a faulty premise: They equate time and effort spent on hiring with making a quality hire. The more time they take, the more energy they expend, the better the hire will be. Actually, it gives them a false sense of control. Taking lots of time to hire doesn’t save brands from bad hires. It only saves people from making a decision they’re afraid may be wrong. These are not bad people. They’ve simply have bought into a bad idea.
Can you explain what the concept of candidate gravity is and why it’s essential for faster hospitality hiring?
Every property in the hospitality industry has a pull on talent. That pull is weak, inconsistent, or strong. This pull is Candidate Gravity.
Properties with a weak pull are typically only effectively leveraging two or three of those eight streams of talent I mentioned previous. Those with an inconsistent flow of talent are often using only four or five. It takes all eight streams to maintain a strong flow of qualified people. Using all eight also comes with another benefit—less time and effort. Tapping into all eight take less time than using just a few.
You spoke about not worrying about all the positions that need to be filled, just the one that must be fill. How does that change the day to day struggle many properties face in finding talent?
I break jobs down into three categories: core, essential, and supportive.
Core Roles: An open seat creates an immediate and significant negative impact. The nature or amount of work in this role makes it hard to delegate. Filling the job, because of market demand, tends to be quite difficult
Essential Roles: A job opening has a negative impact, but is less severe than a core role. The nature or amount of work isn’t as hard to delegate, but is still vital to the company. Filling an essential role is challenging, but tends to take no more than a few weeks.
Supportive Roles: Supportive jobs are important,; however, openings for these roles have less impact when compared to core and essential jobs. Work is easier to delegate or cover while a replacement is found. Finding qualified candidates to interview for these roles usually takes a matter of days.
Breaking jobs into these categories helps leaders fill jobs in order of priority, making hiring more manageable given other daily demands.
Given your experience in hospitality and staffing, what are some of the unique challenges in the industry? Some benefits?
Hospitality jobs require that people always be “on.” The guest doesn’t care if your dog died that morning. Nor does that guest want to hear about relationship drama. People go to hotels, restaurants, and other properties to be served. Finding people who can manage the demand of always having to be “on” makes it more challenging when hiring. This must be baked into the selection.
The chief benefit I believe is the dynamic nature of hospitality—it’s a stage. Every meal, interaction, and guest interaction is an experience. People who enjoy being on the hospitality stage and performing in a role of service will find themselves with a lifetime of opportunities that will never be dull.
How does technology help enable faster hospitality hiring? How is it hurting?
Automation helps us make smarter choices and be productive. Take, for example, innovations in the automotive industry. Cars can now warn us of oncoming traffic when we’re changing lanes. There are cameras and sensors to help us when we’re backing up. If we’re poor parallel parkers, some vehicles can park themselves. Certain models will automatically slam on the brakes to keep us from crashing.
The risk with this technology is that we become over reliant on it. When we rely too much on automation, our skills become rusty and our senses dull. Such was the case when a semitrailer pulled in front of a car with autopilot. The autopilot failed to avert an accident. The driver didn’t react in time, losing his life in the collision.
Automation isn’t perfect. It’s created by fallible people and used in imperfect ways.
That’s why hiring technology also has its pros and cons. It, too, isn’t perfect, nor is it perfectly used. On the one hand, it makes some aspects of hiring more efficient (digital candidate information is paperless and searchable). On the other hand, it creates effort and undesirable outcomes; for example, job boards can flood recruiters with the resumes of hundreds of unusable candidates.
Striking a balance, when it comes to automation, is the best strategy. You can use too little or too much automation. Use just enough technology that fits your hiring process, and you’ll constantly be able to hire quality people quickly.
What are some ways that hospitality hiring managers can work with staffing companies more effective and create processes for faster hospitality hiring?
The most powerful thing hiring managers can do to create better working relationships with staffing partners is to set clear and reasonable mutual expectations. These should include how you’ll communicate with one another, what you each need to do quality work, and what you’ll do when conflicts arise. By treating this relationship like a healthy marriage, the hiring manager is more likely to have a satisfying experience that meets his or her needs.
Do you need help create faster hospitality hiring? Get in touch with HSS. We can help with you fulfill your hiring needs.
Hotels Hiring Puerto Rican Refugees Should Maintain Their Overall Hiring Strategies
Finding qualified workers is tough. That’s stating the obvious. With low unemployment, finding housekeeping, maintenance, kitchen staff, and servers is almost impossible in some areas. In fact, finding any employee today is a challenge in most industries. But hotels generally need specific skills and experience, making the problem even worse. Many hotel general managers, housekeeping directors, directors of rooms, and janitorial managers are looking at new pools of talent. For example, the recent migration of people from Puerto Rico has gained headlines. This group is seen as an influx of workers that can broaden the pool of available workers. Here is advice for hotels hiring Puerto Rican refugees at some of the job fairs popping up across the country.
First, it’s important that hotel managers look at these hiring opportunities with caution. Hiring teams should stick to an overall strategy before engaging in a frenzy of hiring. For example, hotels often use temp staffing in order to hedge against the regular highs and lows of business coupled with unexpected events. As 2017 taught us, the hotel industry is very vulnerable to extreme weather so planning for downturns is important. Advice to hotels hiring Puerto Rican refugees is basically to follow the same playbook that you follow for any other pool of new hires. It’s also important to note that there is still a cost to on-boarding from various hiring events.
Keep An Eye on Costs
Hotels hiring Puerto Rican refugees at various job fairs taking place in the U.S. may not be weighing all of the costs. These costs can range of background and drug screenings to simply interviewing for skills and communicating to candidates in Spanish. A staffing firm can help overcome these challenges.
Ongoing Costs to Employ
Finally, the ongoing cost of employment is another key factor. A windfall of talent may sound like a great problem to have. However, unemployment, payroll taxes, workers comp claims, and other ancillary costs to employment can’t be ignored.
HSS has an active recruiting campaign to work with people from Puerto Rico looking for jobs in the mainland U.S. This program has been successful in finding candidates both ready to travel to the US to find jobs and those already here. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with clients to fully align client needs with what this pool of talent is looking for. Avoid possible hiring pitfalls by staying the course of hiring even when you’re presented with new hiring opportunities. This can help avoid short and long terms problems ahead.
What hotel staffing model is right for you? Plan for the worst to get the best results.
2018 is right around the corner. Most mangers are finalizing their Staffing Model and budget for the new year. 2017 was a tumultuous year for the hospitality industry. Major weather events showed that events that impact one region severely can impact regions untouched. While you may not be able to plan for disasters in the future, you can help prepare your hotel for the highs and lows that might come with severe hurricanes or other natural disasters. Here are 5 ways supplemental staffing (sometimes called temp staffing) can help hotels ride these highs and lows.
1.) Greater Flexibility
A staffing model such as supplemental staffing can help you shrink and grow your staff to fit the needs of your organization at a specific time. This may mean cutting staff after an event or adding staff. However, supplemental labor gives you the opportunity to control your spend with room usage. It can also help reduce the cost of serving your customers. In addition, if a disaster does hit, reducing your staff is less costly in terms of unemployment payments. These are hotel staffing models you should consider to use now in your hotel staffing budget for 2018.
2.) On-demand Hiring
Hospitality is often unpredictable making planning a hotel staffing budget difficult. This can be due to weather or an array of other issues. Needing to add staff and do it quickly can be hard to predict. This is especially true when budgeting 6 months to a year in advance of that need. Contingent labor helps to meet that need when it arises. After all, meeting demand for your property should be a good problem. A great hotel staffing model, supplemental staffing, helps get you there.
Planning Your Hotel Staffing Budget? We'd Love To Help!
Remaining compliant should be in the budget for 2018. Safety concerns along with immigration law are major compliance issues for 2018. Staffing companies like HSS are well versed in compliance issues and can help avoid costly mistakes in the future. They can also help ensure that safety is a top priority with workers. This can help avoid workers comp claims. Compliance issues are not often (but should be) considered in a hotel staffing budget.
4.) Broader Pool of Talent
Staffing companies can also help you tap into a broader pool of talent when the need arises. In today’s challenging hiring environment, reaching potential employees can be costly. By planning to work with a staffing company in your 2018 hotel staffing budget you can reduce or even eliminate the cost of reaching new pools of workers.
5) Often Unseen Savings
Downtime costs, costs due to low customer ratings, recruiting, hiring and on boarding — these are all hidden costs that are often not planned for in a hotel staffing budget. In a disaster recovery situation these costs can spiral out of control. Working with a staffing firm reduces these costs both during a disaster and in the ramp up afterwards. A staffing firm also offers these savings during normal operations.
In planning you hotel staff budget for 2018, its worth considering supplemental staffing as a way to add stability to your outlook in 2018. If you are in a disaster prone area or have felt the ripple effects of a disaster, a supplemental staffing model can help you plan for these unpredictable highs and lows in the future.
3.) Staying Compliant
5) Often Unseen Savings