MARKETING MATTERS – Angie Petkovic

Q: Excuse the off-topic question, but I need your help with recruitment; or more specifically filling my vacancies. At the moment, I have quite a high staff turnover; largely within the first three months of employment and often because they don’t make the grade. Feedback from my longstanding employees is positive, so I am beginning to wonder whether I am advertising in the wrong place?

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A: Unfortunately, hospitality does not have the best reputation in the UK, and is often a ‘poor relation’ to other more aspirational professions. This means more people choosing it as a stop-gap job and not as a long-term career, which inevitably means a higher staff turnover than other professions. Indeed, at the TMRW Project’s Industry Talk in November, a panel of experts discussed whether there is a ‘branding’ issue for the industry, and how we can address the change from within to make it a more covetable career.

Having spoken with you at length (and for the benefit of my readers), you are a good employer; flexible working patterns around childcare and family commitments, above average holiday allowance, a Living Wage employer, complimentary use of the gym and facilities etc.; so in terms of delivering for your staff, you’re right up there. Instead, I think your problems are coming from external sources, but what you are doing is not helping. First, I think you are attracting the wrong calibre of staff; this means that they are not ever going to be cut-out to achieve the standards you expect, pushing your staff turnover up as you have to let them go. Second, I think you are too modest, and aren’t telling your staff enough. Third, I think you are victim of the wider industry issue, and you have to commit to at least some systemic staff turnover which will continue for years to come. Here’s what you can do to improve:

Work on your employer branding

Employer branding means approaching your staff as if they a dedicated target audience for your business, and putting as much effort into catering for them as you would into catering for your guests. Off paper, you are already doing this, by setting yourself up as an exemplary employer and offering many of the benefits that people crave from their career. What you are not doing is communicating this, and this is your employer branding.

Reading some of your recent adverts, your adverts come across as ‘just a job’; turn up, do these tasks, have these skills and leave. I am not inspired to work with you, and yet when I speak to you on the phone, all I want to do is visit. You need to pour some of that passion, and your obvious commitment to training, career development and guest standards into your advertisements. Phrases like “Are you the next XXX?” or “Would you like a career which works around your family?” change the tone of your adverts from functional to aspirational. Add into this some of the less common, more flexible working practices such as your above average holiday allowance, and you should start to attract people who want to work with you specifically as an employer, and aren’t just looking for a job.

From here, you also need to build on their progression once they join you. Naturally as a species, we start to take things for granted, and then the negatives start to overwhelm the positives and we become disgruntled. I know from my own time in the industry, there came a point when the 10% of customers who were difficult outshone the 90% of customers who were brilliant, and really skewed my thinking. The same is true for what you do; remind your staff to use their benefits, encourage them to take their holiday, extend a family and friends discount to the gym etc. Remind them how good it feels to work for you and not someone else.

Don’t forget to start using your marketing channels and local and trade media as a positive recruitment channel too. Recruitment happens even when you don’t have a vacancy, and you should be telling good news stories about staff that have won awards, training you are doing, quirky initiatives you are running, successes as a business; basically anything that will make your employment look attractive.

Think outside the box

While it is not your responsibility to fix the industry single-handedly, you can make a difference locally. Look at some of the systemic problems within your area e.g. not viewed as a respectable career, concern over wages, and then think about how you can publically address this. Running taster days where school students can try their hand at all the jobs, from pastry-chef to team leader can whet the appetite of the career. Similarly, forming a training partnership with some of your other local hospitality providers can help to raise standards across the board and improve employability.

Good luck!