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How can you position your organization for success when it comes to bringing in the best talent? Consider these three ideas, discussed in the HSMAI Curate Presents: Commercial Talent Recruitment & Retention During Recovery on-demand video series, when developing your strategy to attract and retain team members.
1. Rethink your onboarding.
In her presentation, “Distant and Distracted: Recruiting and Retaining Talent in an Uncertain, Hybrid World,” Debra Jasper, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Mindset Digital, discusses various ways to attract and retain better job candidates. One method she encouraged is to gamify your onboarding process where you can. As she explained, “It’s not just about creating awareness — it’s about creating new habits.” People have to actually learn from the training provided through onboarding, so it must be engaging. She advised raising the production value of your training, and then to reward and reinforce throughout the onboarding process.
2. Know that a strong corporate culture is a competitive advantage.
During the “Trends in Engaging Commercial Talent in Hospitality” presentation with panelists Mike Gamble of Searchwide Global and Ken Greger of August Leadership, the importance of a good culture was emphasized. As Gamble stated, people want to work for a company they believe in, that has values that align with theirs, and an environment where their voice will be heard — and they want it to be authentic or else they will see right through it. He said, “Your culture is only as good as your weakest link, so any leaders who don’t embody the culture you’re trying to put forth need to go away.”
Greger agreed, adding, “Sure, we may have great earnings per share, but earnings per share happen because of people and we’re not going to have great earnings per share if we don’t have the right culture and can attract the right people.” He also stressed that leaders need to be courageous in making necessary changes to move their companies forward in the right way and that they should always be exemplifying the company’s values.
3. Find meaningful ways to recognize your team and always show compassion to encourage employee longevity and loyalty.
Leaders of HSMAI’s advisory boards offered a number of tips about and shared stories on professional development within their companies during the presentation, “Development, Upskilling, and Reskilling for a More Resilient Team.” Linda Gulrajani, HSMAI Revenue Management Advisory Board past chair; Theo Holloway, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board chair; and Eric Kreins, HSMAI Sales Advisory Board chair, summed up their discussion with an emphasis on the importance of focusing on the people on your team at a human level: listening to them, being transparent, letting them know you care about them.
“Having compassion for people can go a long way,” Holloway said. “Taking a genuine interest in not just their professional growth but their personal lives as well and encouraging them to pursue [interests] outside of work can certainly pay dividends. At the end of the day, it’s about having compassion for the individual and doing what you can to advocate for them in ways they find meaningful.”
Don’t forget — HSMAI members have access to a resource hub, presented in conjunction with Mindset Digital, that offers various videos, handouts, and more on communicating in a digital environment. To log in, use password: HSMAI2022.
Save the date! HSMAI Curate will be in-person Oct. 19 in Frisco, Texas.