3 tips to attract and retain hospitality staff for summer

Summer’s coming: a time when business owners are crying out for casuals – and candidates start to think about picking up some extra holiday cash. And if you’re a hospitality or tourism employer you’re probably crunching the numbers and losing sleep over whether you’ll have enough staff to get you through the busy Christmas and holiday period.

And while it’s good to be focused on attracting the right staff, don’t forget that retaining the skilled staff you have is also important. Research tells us that recruitment can cost you between 30-50 percent of the annual salary of the position you’re trying to re-fill – so along with hiring, you also want to keep your existing staff happy and not looking elsewhere for work.

Here are our top three tips to help you attract and retain the right hospitality staff.

1. Make your job offers attractive

It’s no secret that job-hopping is rife in hospitality – and research suggests it’s so hard to retain staff because of the nature of the job: staff deal with people all day every day, and customer-centred work can be stressful (which may eventually lead to burnout).

On top of that, if your business is a small café or restaurant and there’s nowhere to go for staff chasing hospitality careers, people will move on faster. So if you do have the opportunity for promotion or career growth, make that prominent in your hiring campaigns and job ads.

And if you’re offering hospitality and tourism jobs, leverage what you can offer as perks, such as VIP experiences for staff and their families, discounts on accommodation or free meals. These are all great ways to attract and retain good staff.

2. Tap into candidates outside of traditional hours

You might think you have to stick to hiring hospitality and tourism workers only – but don’t cut yourself off from other potential candidates. There are lots of people out there, especially in the summer months, who might have the availability to work non-traditional schedules or who are looking for seasonal work or irregular weekend or night shifts.

So if you’re struggling to fill job vacancies, consider widening your search to target teachers who are on school break over summer and looking to pick up some extra cash, or university students who can fit shifts in around their schedule.

Also, don’t discount older workers with hospitality experience; many might be happy for a few shifts a week and offering solid part-time work could significantly expand your talent pool.

3. Foster a strong, positive company culture

Solid leadership is essential for both attracting and retaining hospitality staff – as workplace culture filters down from the top. And while you may not notice it immediately, just one toxic manager can have a catastrophic impact on your staff retention.

That’s why you want to train your managers to communicate effectively with their team, recognise their staff’s achievements or ideas, motivate their staff, delegate effectively and be a good listener. Managers who also respect their staff’s lives outside of work and make it easy for them to swap shifts due to family commitments can also help you retain employees.

You also want to highlight your company culture in your ads – if it’s a fun, friendly work environment or a company committed to diversity and inclusion. It all helps give potential candidates the bigger picture.

To wrap up…

While hiring the right hospitality and tourism staff can be challenging, especially before the summer months, there are ways to attract good people.

Highlighting your great company culture, offering the right perks and growth opportunities, and thinking laterally about who you could hire, even in the short term, are all effective ways to get some traction in your recruiting efforts. And don’t forget to show your appreciation to your existing workforce and thank them for the long hours they may be putting in – it all goes a long way towards keeping your staff happy at work.

We hope that helps, and if you’d like assistance in hiring and finding your people, please do get in touch with us!