Oh no! Summer is fast approaching, and your new hotel company has never conducted a seasonal hiring campaign. Take a step back and a deep breath. Conquering seasonal hiring challenges prominent in the hospitality industry can be scary, but with the right strategies, it can be done with ease.
Examining the different challenges and the solutions that can solve them is the first vital step to maintaining a quality staff of temporary employees. Grab your proverbial life preserver and let’s jump into the hospitality applicant pooling process!
What Seasonal Hiring Challenges Plague the Hospitality Industry?
Many hurdles are associated with hospitality recruitment measures for onboarding seasonal talent to fill hospitality roles. Let’s examine them for further understanding.
Increased Demand
During peak seasons, hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality companies experience a surge in customer traffic. For hotels, summer and the holiday season in November and December are peak times for increased customer traffic. Hence, temporary staff must be onboarded to maintain operational efficiency and employee productivity.
Short-Term Employment
Many workers prefer long-term roles over temporary employment. This can make it challenging for hospitality companies to discover quality talent willing to stay with their company for 3 to 6 months.
Time Constraints
Seasonal hiring involves many time constraints as hospitality companies scale their business. It influences how quickly companies must recruit, onboard, and train temporary employees for seasonal roles. Hospitality staffing solutions, such as evergreen job postings, can increase a hospitality company’s applicant pool to prepare for when seasonal hiring starts.
High Turnover
Seasonal jobs naturally have higher attrition rates since employees know the role is temporary anyway. This disruption in workflow continuity is one of the most difficult seasonal hiring challenges to overcome, but there are a couple of solutions to implement to reduce this issue.
Hospitality Staffing Solutions to Manage These Challenges
How can hospitality companies manage these challenges and remain competitive in discovering top talent? Let’s unravel the strategies necessary to achieve this goal.
Proactive Recruitment
Maintaining a proactive rather than reactive hiring approach is essential for future-ready recruitment solutions in hospitality. Starting recruitment months before the peak seasons builds the applicant pool to quality levels so hiring managers and recruiters can examine the best candidates when the time for seasonal onboarding comes.
Flexible Workforce Models
Hiring seasonal part-time employees or partnering with a digital platform to find gig workers are a couple of examples of flexible workforce models becoming more popular in the hospitality industry. This rising popularity is because of how these workforce models enhance professionals’ work-life balance for enhanced worker satisfaction.
Partnering with Educational Institutions
Working with hospitality colleges and universities helps hotels, restaurants, and event planning companies to procure the highest quality talent. These up-and-coming professionals are training for a hospitality career, which makes them a better fit for various vacancies, whether temporary or long-term.
Employee Referral Programs
Incentivize current staff members to recommend potential talent for the company with an employee referral program. In return, they can receive a cash bonus or other rewards for recommending candidates from their networks that can fulfill a vacancy.
Tips for Retaining Seasonal Hospitality Employees
Retention is just as important for seasonal hiring as it is for traditional recruitment of long-term employees. Here are some tips to maintain a quality staff of seasonal workers.
Offering Competitive Compensation & Perks
Seasonal workers are more likely to stay and complete the duration of their role if they are offered competitive compensation and perks. Weekly or bi-weekly pay structures are much more convenient than workers receiving pay once a month.
Unique perks such as discounts for hotel stays, free meals during breaks, and wellness program initiatives will enhance worker satisfaction and loyalty. All these perks can lead to them becoming regular temporary employees who return every season.
Foster a Positive Work Environment
A welcoming and supportive workplace culture will make seasonal hospitality employees feel like part of the team and willing to stay with the company. Recognizing exceptional performance with rewards or public acknowledgement will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Providing regular feedback on work performance and addressing pain points promptly can help them grow in their role and enhance workplace skills. Building camaraderie with team-building activities is also an effective tactic for maintaining a positive work environment. Happy and satisfied employees have a 12% higher productivity rate than the average worker.
Retention Bonuses
End-of-season bonuses or extra pay for attendance and great performance can ensure seasonal workers stay with hospitality companies the full duration of their work contract. Hiring managers can also offer more incentives for seasonal workers who return for ongoing seasons.
