Hotels Hiring Puerto Rican Refugees: A Good Thing, But Stay The Course

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.

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Follow the Playbook

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.

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