Our Distinctive Approach to Talent
By the first quarter of 2021, it was clear that hotel
demand was coming back after a tough year of low occupancy due to the
pandemic. Because our executive team has
been through downturns before, we could see that getting ahead of this staffing
crunch would mean the difference between success and failure for our
hotels, our investors, and our communities.
Before the labor crisis articles and staffing shortage
memes began to make the rounds online, we developed a detailed strategic plan
to help our teams manage the return of demand, what we call the Great Travel
Revival. We wanted to put tools and
strategies in place that would allow our hotels to operate from a place of
revival versus merely survival and, in keeping with our Be Excellent
culture, we couldn't allow the guest experience and owner returns to suffer
just because it was tough out there. In
short, we knew we had to be tougher.
Chief Human Resources Officer Sue Sanders laid out our
approach in her April article, "Riding the Talent Roller
Coaster." In it, she said, "We
estimate an addition of approximately 33% to our workforce by July 2021 to meet
forecasted revenue projections. At HVMG, we have been laying the track for just
this eventuality."
- Salary and wage surveys to ensure our
hotels are competitive in their local markets
- Part-time and flexible schedules to meet
the needs of our workforce
- Equal focus on retention tactics for current associates
- New hire onboarding and training processes
to ensure a culturally-consistent
experience
- More than 200 new resources to help our
hotels source talent in their local communities
These steps were great, but by far our most ambitious --
and successful -- initiative has been creating the Talent Acquisition Center
of Excellence (TACOE). Rather than
leaving our already stretched hotel GMs and hiring managers to recruit, hire,
and train new associates, we built a team of highly-skilled and hardworking
talent acquisition specialists (TAS) to centrally source and hire staff across
our portfolio. Our TAS team posts
positions, sources and screens applicants, and delivers great candidates to the
hotels.
Michelle Davis is the Lead General Manager of HVMG's
Alabama portfolio. When she took on
leadership of our Homewood
Suites Mobile Airport, the hotel had 12 open positions.
"We had no one in housekeeping and were short at the
front desk, so we didn't have the staff to manage the business we had. As a result, the local GM was cleaning 30
rooms per day, which meant she didn't have time to do much recruiting. Without TACOE we would still be in the same
position. Just being able to free up the
GM to do her job was such a benefit for us," Michelle explains.
Michelle was herself responsible for recruiting at the SpringHill Suites
Orange Beach at The Wharf prior to TACOE.
"I spent hours going through all of the job sites and both scheduling
and conducting interviews. Centralizing this process gave me back at least an
hour each day," she says.
At the Marriott Greensboro-High
Point Airport, general manager Jim Ceh faced similar circumstances. He says, "We've filled between 15 and 17
positions using TACOE since we started participating in July. Our managers are experts in the operation and
running departments, not experts in recruiting, so our Talent Acquisition
Specialist, Maya Jones, has made a huge impact and really complimented our
success."
According to Jim, Maya's involvement in the recruiting
process has accelerated the talent onboarding timeline. "She has weeded through a lot of candidates
and is great at spotting red flags. Her
knowledge makes that part easier and more efficient," he says.
Michelle concurs, adding, "Because the candidates are
vetted and screened, our no-show rate on interviews has decreased. It's been great for us."
We are confident that the TACOE accomplishes multiple
goals:
- Frees up hotel resources to focus on guest experience and associate engagement, training and retention
- Streamlines the hiring process and leverages our
talent acquisition competency across the portfolio
- Creates a competitive advantage and
differentiates HVMG as a management company
- Sources new talent more efficiently at a lower
cost
Sue Sanders sums up the success of the program,
saying, "The Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence has taken a tremendous
amount of stress off of the individual hotel operators, given hiring managers
back valuable time in their day and has added value for our owners with increased
efficiency afforded by reducing the time it takes to hire with a better quality
applicant. By September 2021 we were
back at 80% of our pre-pandemic staffing levels. I'm really proud of our TAS team and delighted
to be a part of this industry-leading initiative."
Interested in exploring a career path in hospitality? Start your hotel career here.