With the crisis linked to covid-19, our companies in the #hospitality-industry and #tourism sector are experiencing an unprecedented and integral human revolution. The sector has difficulty recruiting or can no longer find candidates. Here are some ideas and recommendations so that our companies take up this challenge and turn all their efforts towards their employees as they have been able to do with their customers.
Candidates and more generally our employees must be considered as clients. As such, the company must personalize its approach, its messages and know their needs in order to respond to them as precisely as possible.
This approach is no longer an option !
Some market data to know
- 89% of applicants do research online before responding to an ad or applying for a job ;
- 50% of applicants give up after negative information found about the company online ;
- 78% of applicants applied following positive information found online ;
- 74% of applicants do not receive a response when applying.
Needs and priorities to be identified
In an article by #Tourmag.com, Brice Duthion, Manager of the tourism sector, Campus Sud des Métiers, CCI Nice Côte d’Azur proposed to a group of young professionals, whose average age is around thirty , to share the main reasons for this disaffection but also to propose solutions that would make it possible to make jobs attractive again and to attract and retain in the Hospitality industry.
4 priorities stand out :
1.The salary issue is undoubtedly the first priority. It is obvious that paying young people, often over-educated, with a slingshot with salaries to start at the minimum wage despite the mastery of many languages is not sustainable, especially when career progression and income is hardly guaranteed, which explains the high volatility of the youngest employees.
This salary issue is essential, of course, but is not to be distinguished hierarchically from the other three priorities.
2.The balance between professional and personal life (« work life balance ») has become an essential part of a career choice. This is the second axis. Observations are drawn up, unavoidable and precise, relating to schedules (too many hours, cuts, etc.), inequity (constant pressure, lack of esteem of employees, etc.), non-recognition, sacrifices (no motivation, salary level, difficult married life, etc.), lack of team spirit (no culture of dialogue, etc.).
It is a question of inventing a new model of tourism business which would place the employee at the heart of his concerns by taking into account in a concrete way the surrounding social and cultural developments, the decompartmentalization of services, by refusing silos and seeking the multidisciplinary teams. This new type of establishment can only exist by redefining management, less vertical and rigid, more horizontal and participatory and by genuinely valuing the teams, recognizing their multiple skills and supporting them towards a career path with training. dedicated and useful.
3.The place and role of the company, with the question of the pride of belonging of employees. The values of the company are at the center of the reflection. Many
companies have neglected or forgotten them. What values to transmit to the teams? What place should be reserved for “human” value, which is nevertheless the necessary cement of any organization ? It’s time to write a new story, share it and look to the future. This collective, objective and impartial narrative should help develop the feeling and pride of belonging to a company, which requires a strategy, a vision, a course, a leadership, clearly explained to all employees. It must offer the development of a collective culture and common projects, but also a real commitment to employees, by integrating them into this new history and the raison d’être of the organization.
We must give a common sense !
4.The conditions of employment of employees finally constitute the last axis. Dysfunctions are denounced both in terms of organization (rigidity of a compartmentalized system, anachronistic verticality, etc.) and generational confrontations (the youngest do not identify with verticality, they want
give meaning to their commitment, passion versus profit).
The changing world seems to have been left behind for many tourism businesses.
Before the customer, we must now focus on the employee and support him, creating the conditions for them to feel important and desired. It must begin, even for seasonal workers, with a personalized welcome and presentation.
But this commitment can only be understood over the long term, with new forms of working time, support for the career of each employee with real and concrete development prospects, and financial enhancement, with higher salaries, but also possible profit-sharing and an improvement in material conditions (housing, mobility, bonuses, etc.).
So how to do ?
The candidate expects proximity, connection and personalization.
Work on your #employer-brand….
The employer brand is everything that makes candidates want to come and work with you and stay there.
10 essential points about my company, my employer brand :
- Take the time to define my goals and targets ;
- Develop my content by target and by network ;
- Be authentic and consistent ;
- Illustrate what you say and give evidence using video for example on your website and the careers or recruitment page ;
- Humanize relationships by giving your teams a voice ;
- Measure your results and adapt your communication. You have to distinguish what the company says about it, what the employees say about the company and what the public says about the company ;
- Develop digital skills and digital culture. What is important is not what you say about your business but what Google says about it ;
- Mobilize managers on the subject of the Employer Brand ;
- Offer human adventures to live, unique and memorable experiences ;
- Establish a lasting relationship by repeating simple and targeted messages.
How to build your brand ?
- Make requests to evaluate my positioning on search engines. “Googlize your brand” by entering your company name and checking the results then typing the keyword of my activity.
- Optimize its basic tool, its website and its Careers / Recruitment page or tab. This must be easily accessible and above all visible to potential candidates. Check its use and simplicity with videos, testimonials from current employees. The site must be searchable on smartphone for candidates.
- Update and verify your Google MyBusiness file, your company’s showcase on Google. Attach photos and a presentation of the work environment.
- Enrich the natural referencing of all its pages of the offers present by keywords such as Recruitment / Seasonal / Home / Employment. Remember that a photo = 1000 words and that the key message must appear within the first 90 seconds.
E notoriety = visibility of the brand on the internet
E reputation = how the brand is seen by Internet users
- Set up a watch to follow E reputation. In relation to the name of the company but also to the name of the President, the name of a product or service.
Google Alerts (free tool on Google) – Social Mention – Netvibes – Hootsuite – Monibrand – Mention.net – https://fr.alerti.com/ – Owler
Glassdoor – Happyindex Candidates by choose mycompany – Viadeo – Indeed
How to publish a differentiating offer? The 5 major points of attractiveness :
- 1. Show the candidate that they are expected ;
- 2. Communicate about the proposed work environment ;
- 3. Communicate on the business ecosystem ;
- 4. Focus on short recruitment processes ;
- 5. Communicate on the interest of the proposed assignment. Conduct internal perception surveys (use google-form). Give meaning to the proposed mission – what are the challenges, the proposed objectives.
Recruitment tips
Give attractiveness to the proposed offer, the challenge, the package;
Human dimension of management;
Respond to questions asked, comments;
Duration of recruitment = 1 month maximum ideal;
2 interviews maximum for the process.
Tools available to use
- Website & careers tab ;
- A company page on Jobboards (Public or private) ;
- A business page on a social network (LinkedIn = Executive. Facebook = Non Executive. Profiles 25-35 years old = Instagram. Profiles 18-20 years old = TikTok?) ;
- Website with a section on the willingness to host specific candidate profiles ;
- Responsive website on smartphone: Talk regularly – Update employer information – Choose simple and specific levers of attractiveness (not too much 2 to 3 levers) – Communicate regularly and provide content – Measure actions to adjust – Qualify messages and avoid generic sentences with business-oriented and personalized content.
Failing to change the world, many employees decide to change their world. Starting with their professional world, from which they want to break free and free themselves from what seems to have become a straitjacket.
The place of employees in the company has changed profoundly in recent semesters and it is everyone’s responsibility to question themselves and rethink their approaches. It is time to change our collective vision of the subject. We no longer have the right to look at our tourism employees through the same prism as before and we must, more than ever, provide concrete answers that meet their expectations.
