92 – How Your Hotel’s Digital Presence Impacts Recruiting and Staffing

Host Ryan Embree discusses methods hoteliers can assistance bring in workforce in the midst of the staffing shortage by concentrating on their digital existence. From status management to social media to evaluate responses, hoteliers will need to make confident their lodge is providing the correct impact not just to guests, but to foreseeable future employees as properly. Pay attention now to understand what you can do to assist overcome the staffing crisis at your lodge.

Episode Transcript

Our podcast is developed as an audio resource. Transcripts are created applying speech recognition program and human enhancing and may have problems. Before republishing prices, we check with that you reference the audio.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Place where hoteliers check out-in and we verify out what is trending in lodge promoting. I’m your host, Ryan Embree.

Ryan Embree:
Hello everybody. And welcome to a different episode of the Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. Thank you for becoming a member of me and listening in. We have got a terrific episode for you now. And these days we’re gonna be talking about recruiting and employing. Now I’m certain this is a conversation that you have experienced with a lot of your groups appropriate now. I know we are hearing it all around the nation. Wherever can I uncover staff members? We are just hunting for extra and extra hospitality gurus to fill our entrance desk staff members, to fill our administration teams. Management groups out there searching for men and women. We experienced just gotten around this just devastating pandemic to our market, and now we have this staffing disaster. Accommodations cannot obtain individuals proper now to operate. So what this episode is chatting about is how your hotel’s presence impacts recruiting and selecting. Now I know that is a weird correlation.

Ryan Embree:
Your hotel’s digital presence, things like social media, evaluations, even review reaction, but this has an affect. And that is what we’re gonna chat about now. But 1st we’ll start off with a rapid couple stats. Now, hospitality work is nonetheless down 1.2 million jobs from in which it was in February 2020. 1.2 million, which is so unfortunate due to the fact this is a individuals-serving-persons industry. So when we simply cannot discover the people to give these great hotel encounters, we certainly see that impacted each individual solitary working day and, and could influence vacations and, and the, just the in general visitor practical experience. So get in touch with it the excellent resignation, contact it what ever. The lodge market is a loss of 7.2% of its workforce. Now that’s in comparison to 2% for the rest of U.S. positions. So hospitality has been very impacted from this staffing shortage, and it’s just so complicated to get people today all over again, to do the job for our accommodations.

Ryan Embree:
So it is an staff occupation industry. As you can think about, employees are having to decide on where they want to work. They’re likely to do their because of diligence in advance of signing on, and that is where your lodge digital presence will come into play. So nowadays what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna talk about the way all over again, your digital presence impacts recruiting and the very first place we’ll start off is popularity administration. Now just like Glassdoor, workforce are going to check your hotel’s opinions to see in which they’re gonna be doing work. They are gonna request the query, “What will my working day in the daily life seem like at this property?” Now, a genuinely superior training that I would advise to you, the hotelier, is to go to your hotel’s evaluations on the net. So think about Glassdoor, appropriate? When someone’s wanting to probably sign on and develop into an worker, they go check out reviews for that business on the web page Glassdoor.

Ryan Embree:
So of study course, workforce are gonna do this for your hotel due to the fact there’s public opinions on line about your lodge encounter there. So the physical exercise would be, is go through all of those opinions and envision that rather of them getting reviews, imagine being at the rear of the front desk and hearing that feedback right from your friends. How lots of situations is that visitor complimenting you? How lots of periods are they thrilled to chat about their stay with you? How numerous instances are they getting yelled at? How numerous occasions are you remaining questioned to remedy problems? So your detrimental reviews, simply because that is what’s likely by way of a likely employee’s head as they are examining the opinions. No one needs to get the job done at a hotel in which they’re regularly getting to address challenges or issues are going completely wrong. They wanna work someplace that’s exciting, persons are taking pleasure in them selves and owning really fantastic encounters. So that is how your reputation administration can affect employing and recruiting for your resort.

Ryan Embree:
We have heard so much about mental wellness around the previous pair many years. So that’s what these workforce are gonna be thinking about. What form of toll is doing work at your house likely to choose on my psychological health and fitness in comparison to perhaps the home down the road that’s shelling out a extremely comparable wage. So that could be the variance there. Now, one more dilemma that your reputation is gonna response to a possible staff is what is the longevity of this organization of your hotel. So if you come onto TripAdvisor and see that you’re just getting just smashed with destructive opinions, and this individual has been in the hospitality for years and a long time, 2020 was just all-around the corner, just a pair yrs in the past. They went by means of all of those furloughs and getting layoffs in our hotel industry due to the fact travel was not happening anymore. So they are a whole lot a lot more cognizant now of the longevity of your small business.

Ryan Embree:
And they are gonna appear and say, “If I signal on this resort, can I make this a vocation? Will I be in a position to be right here for a pair many years, a decade even, and really advance up, or will this resort enterprise not be in this article any more because of the way that it’s trending appropriate now on reputation web-sites?” Once more, just a little something to imagine about. And this is the, this is the way of thinking that these staff suitable now are owning as they’re, as they are doing their job search. And then and lastly, when it will come to standing administration is an employee’s physical wellbeing, ideal? So health and fitness and basic safety, COVID 19 health and fitness protocols. If they see critiques conversing about absence of cleanliness or even talking about COVID 19, unsafe journey disorders for your friends, how do you consider that is likely to make a possible personnel truly feel? So just some items to feel on when it will come to how your hotel’s popularity can make an influence and vice versa.

Ryan Embree:
If you’ve received some definitely fantastic testimonials, I would say, use that in your pitch to attempt to get men and women to come and keep with you. If, if people are regularly conversing positively about their lodge expertise or mentioning some of the other employees members on your workforce, which is one thing to share on these recruiting web pages. And that’s anything to share inside these interviews and conversing about the perform surroundings that you are generating and cultivating that perform ecosystem and which is one thing we’re gonna communicate about a very little bit afterwards when we converse about social media. Now, another element that I want us to, to genuinely see where there’s an effects in recruiting and hiring is overview reaction. So one particular issue that we all do, no matter if it is lodge industry or tech or finance or something, is we want to know who we’re doing the job for, ideal? Our manager and, and how they’re heading to regulate us.

Ryan Embree:
Just one of the ways that offers a likely staff a clue on how they are gonna be managed is seeking at the way that challenges are solved on property. And a single of the greatest places and, and windows that a opportunity staff can get a fantastic search at that is by way of your critique responses. So are you even addressing issues at the house? If that worker in their footwear suggests, I could possibly have an challenge and I want to come to my boss for that, are they going to listen to me? How are they gonna problem resolve? What kind of issue solver abilities does my manager have? Yet again, some good insights and approaches to glance at that is, are you responding to your reviews and how are you responding to all those evaluations? So anything to imagine about, and the previous section of our digital presence that we’re gonna converse about now is social media.

Ryan Embree:
Social media is another put that specially youthful generations are constantly on and wanting at and give a glimpse into what kind of operate setting you are cultivating at your house. It could be a fantastic position to recruit. Places like obviously LinkedIn are key for recruiting. Fb, Twitter, Instagram: now we can use these as a recruiting instrument speaking about the open up positions, probably providing some aspects about the position, but I would argue that staff members will also glimpse at your property on social media and commence to make some assumptions on, “Okay, what would it be like if I worked in this article?” So a person of the sites that we can make your house far more desirable than probably levels of competition is recognition courses. Highlight some of your other staff customers there. People adore becoming acknowledged, particularly in an atmosphere wherever you never really get a lot of thank yous from your attendees on a everyday basis.

Ryan Embree:
The expectations given that COVID 19 have risen to all time higher. So the tension amount for your personnel, you require to keep in check and that is, what is producing a lot of this personnel attrition. So recognizing your staff is a smaller minor token of appreciation that companies can do, and truly will give you some goodwill relocating forward as personnel are on the lookout for possible landing spots and support you in your employing journey. Possibly highlighting some of your other team if any of them have moved through the ranks. When I was doing work at a pair resorts, I commenced off as a bellman, transferring to the entrance desk, speaking about people inner promotions. That’s gonna give that likely personnel that’s hunting a journey in a vocation route if they come to a decision to inevitably join your workforce at your lodge. Highlighting some of the things that you are executing on residence.

Ryan Embree:
So, organization events, holiday seasons, celebrations, birthdays. We want to create a incredibly enjoyable ecosystem at function. Everyone needs to appreciate what they do. So the much more moments that you can emphasize it’s possible a dive in motion picture at the home, this is gonna be good for your, of course your vacationers and your attendees that are gonna see this, but you never really consider about it and how it appears to be like as, as a prospective worker, proper? If I’m searching to get hired as a front desk agent, and I see that a lodge, each individual other Friday in the summer does a dive in film, that could be some thing that I could say, “I’d adore to get included in that. That appears like a great deal of enjoyment. This could build some genuinely interesting memories” compared to anyone that, that actually does not have this sort of occasion calendar heading on. So, and then charitable get the job done.

Ryan Embree:
So these are, yet again, it is a acquire-earn scenario. You are accomplishing excellent, but now extra than at any time with staff really obtaining their preference on where they wanna get the job done, they wanna work for another person and for a thing, for a cause. So if you are carrying out charitable get the job done, if you are executing some type of foodstuff drives, charitable situations at the residence, this could be something that new hires could experience a reason for and want to be a element of and be a part of. So any kind of charitable operates that you are accomplishing all over again, that is a win-earn problem for the lodge, since it is good PR as well for them. So I described this before anticipations have risen exponentially and this has triggered much more anxiety than at any time. So just one of the methods that we can really consider the pressure off the limited staff that you have now is outsourcing some of these factors.

Ryan Embree:
So critique reaction, name administration, social media, we have found by way of the staffing disaster, GMs, DOS’s, entrance desk managers have to consider on tasks that they’ve in no way performed before. Cleansing rooms, correcting items on house. Even a little something as easy as proprietors responding to testimonials, they applied to have personnel capable to do that. This produces a good deal of strain and a whole lot of inns correct now are turning to 3rd celebration distributors, this sort of as Travel Media Group, to get the stress off so that the restricted team that they have can genuinely focus on the visitors and make certain your hotel’s popularity and digital existence are remaining taken care of correctly. What it comes down to is a superior status implies staff members is additional possible to be happier, continue to be for a longer time and do a greater occupation general. So once again, we know this is a large crisis right now, resorts ideal now are on the lookout for, for staff members just about everywhere.

Ryan Embree:
And they are for each individual single edge to test to get ahead of the levels of competition and capture some of these, these workers and, and aid them guy their assets to give the greatest lodge working experience and visitor working experience that they can. So with this episode, you truly have to have to take into consideration how your hotel’s online existence is impacting that recruiting and hiring to a new prospect which is doing study for your assets. So if you’re intrigued in finding out much more about some of our solutions at Travel Media Team and how we can probably take some of this things off of your plate, you’ve never viewed as having a third occasion do your social media in advance of or respond to your critiques, access out to us. We would love to discuss with you. We’ll give you a session and show you what would make us the best at what we do. So I want to thank you for listening right now, and we’ll communicate to you up coming time on the Suite Place.

Ryan Embree:
To be a part of our loyalty plan, be guaranteed to subscribe and give us a 5 star rating on iTunes. Suite Place is developed by Journey Media Team with deal with artwork by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you liked your keep.