Efficient hiring is increasingly an essential pillar of an effective hospitality recruitment strategy. In a jobs market moving more quickly than ever, speed is the name of the game to hire the best candidates or, in some cases, anyone at all.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development described the current recruitment picture as the “highest level of labour mismatch in history” with “hospitality at a critical point”. But if you operate in the sector, you already know that only too well.

Go slow, miss out

Up to 20% of job seekers reject a job offer. Candidates for hospitality jobs are likely to have applied for more than one and often several positions. There is almost a golden rule among employment advisers that those seeking a new role should aim to complete 10-15 applications a week.

That means if you don’t conclude the recruitment process quickly, the best person for the job may well have already indicated their intent to take up a different role. As a result, employers often find themselves investing time and resources for nothing if they’re taking too long to hire.

How quickly should we complete steps in the hospitality recruitment process?

Even if you know that speed is critical when hiring, you might be surprised at the timescales recommended to move through the process.

As best practice, acknowledging that HR resources vary enormously in the hospitality industry, you should aim to:

Acknowledge that applications have been received within two hours and then send shortlisting

‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses on the same or next day as a minimum.

Interview shortlisted candidates in 24 to 48 hours after that. Remember that people are more likely to be available for remote interviews than in-person ones if that’s in line with your preferred policy.

Once a preferred applicant is identified, there’s usually little reason not to make a telephone call indicating the intent to make a conditional job offer and gauge the candidate’s likelihood of acceptance.

Much depends on the size of your organisation, but for hospitality businesses that employ a number of people and have an average to high turnover of staff, it may well be necessary to dedicate one to two hours a day to recruitment.

If that seems onerous, then you will only continue to run the risk of missing out on potentially excellent employees to work in your segment of the hospitality industry.

An alternative is to engage the services of specialist hospitality recruitment consultants. With a network of existing candidates and operating in hotels, restaurants and contract catering to attract new talent, JWR can do the hard work outlined above for you with fast results and positions filled quickly. Get in touch to find out more.