The travel and accommodation sector is one of the largest in the world economy, employing millions of people each year. After years of remarkable industry growth, the Covid-19 pandemic introduced numerous challenges, which are currently being addressed to allow the hospitality industry to rise again. Thus, high levels of retention, empowerment, and employee satisfaction are crucial to hotel businesses’ prosperity. Hotel Carrick and Hotel Black Rock in Scotland currently have different recruitment and selection strategies, and the ones adopted by the latter seem to be more effective and practical than the methods used by Hotel Carrick.
To begin with, although Hotel Carrick and Hotel Black Rock position themselves as establishments of relatively high level, four or five stars, they are very different in recruiting policy and business philosophy. The Carrick is more old-fashioned prim and proper, and the Black Rock is promisingly modern, focusing more on guest convenience than a strict code of conduct and allowing employees to be creative and participate in decision-making. The modernity of the Black Rock Hotel is expressed in the absence of restrictions on the staff appearance, except for uniforms. In contrast, Carrick sets mandatory standards of appearance and patterns of behavior to which employees must unconditionally comply. Thus, it is possible to suggest that the strategy selected by the Black Rock Hotel allows it to have more loyal and satisfied workers (Acikgoz, 2019). Employees want to identify themselves with the company’s values and help the hotel to achieve its goals; thus, talent retention is achieved.
What is more, the two hotels’ recruiting approaches are also completely different. At Carrick, HR publishes a job list without specifying exact tasks to find a faceless employee, which is not the best idea when seeking concrete and professional workers (Ingold & Valizade, 2017). Formalizing the requirements for candidates is a prerequisite, as stated by Cappelli (2019). As a result, even all competencies are not checked in detail, leading to customer dissatisfaction. Brown (2018) states that if recruitment “starts with false assumptions, hunches and bias it will inevitably shape results for the worse” (para. 2). The hotel also rarely conducts second interviews with candidates, hiring them after the first one, which may lead to increased workplace errors due to hiring unprofessional people.
At Black Rock, the approach to each job seeker is more individualized, getting to know the potential employee and their capabilities better. In addition to the second interview, the potential employee is checked into Black Rock for free during the training period and is treated as a guest. Interviews are informal because the company’s leaders want to truly get acquainted with the candidates and assess their ‘genuine’ personalities, which is a positive and effective method that allows avoiding hiring unethical or unprofessional persons (Acikgoz, 2019). Therefore, one may state that the way Hotel Carrick manages recruitment and selection processes is a failing and a rather unsuccessful strategy that decreases employee satisfaction and does not lead to strengthening their loyalty. At the same time, all methods selected by Hotel Black Rock are aimed at enhancing the workers’ experiences, which is the best way to retain them.
An essential element of recruitment is the ability of management to assess the capabilities of new employees properly and to choose candidates who are focused on their tasks. When selecting staff, it is necessary to consider the candidate’s interest in the vacancy and competence (Ingold & Valizade, 2017). The selection of employees takes into account professional knowledge, personal characteristics, and the similarity of interests and biography with the immediate supervisor and the team of other employees. Based on the studied information, with all the differences in styles and working methods between the hotels, the strategy of the staff selection and recruitment at the Black Rock Hotel is much more effective than at Carrick. Given the industry’s high turnover rate and poor wages, the former’s approach ensures the employees are satisfied, freer, allowed to be creative, and loyal.
References
Acikgoz, Y. (2019). Employee recruitment and job search: Towards a multi-level integration. Human Resource Management Review, 29(1), 1-13. Web.
Brown, P. (2018). It’s time to put data at the heart of the recruitment process. People Management. Web.
Cappelli, P. (2019). Your approach to hiring is all wrong. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Ingold, J., & Valizade, D. (2017). Employers’ recruitment of disadvantaged groups: Exploring the effect of active labour market programme agencies as labour market intermediaries. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(4). 530-547. Web.