Project reference · Hospitality
Staffing a beach club in a country candidates had never considered.
A resort developer in the Middle East runs its own beach club: pools, a private beach, restaurants and bars. It needed waitresses first, then an F&B manager, bartenders, hosts and waiters, all willing to sign for two years. The difficulty was not finding CVs. It was that most candidates had never thought of working there, and each hire had to reach the resort on a visa process that runs from a tourist entry to a work permit.
4 separate briefs in fifteen months, from waitresses to an F&B manager
Briefs
5,000+ CVs screened in nine reported weeks alone
Sourcing
43 profiles presented, 11 offers made by the client
Selection
7 hires who travelled, one of them later running the client’s F&B hiring
Result
How each hire travelled
From signed offer to first shift
The brief
What the client actually needed
The first request was one line: a resort was looking for waitresses and asked whether we provided that service. Within a month there was a signed agreement and an order for five, with a two-year contract, shared accommodation, meals, and visa and flights paid by the employer. Candidates could be new to the job, but they had to speak English and be ready to move.
The brief then grew. First came a food-and-beverage manager to lead a team of eighteen, with budgeting and costing experience from five-star resorts. Then bartenders, a waiter and hosts for the club’s towel desk, and later more waiters and a receptionist. All interviews with the client were on Skype, and every offer came from the client’s own HR.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A destination nobody had on their list
Candidates were interested in the job but cautious about the country, and the base salary was below what many expected for a move abroad. We wrote a candidate information letter about the country, the region and the resort: climate, language, what there is to see and do. Then we ran the campaign again on job boards, social media and our own database.
Terms settled before anyone signs
An early offer letter said the employee would pay for the visa and flights, which was not what had been agreed. It was corrected the same day. We also asked the employer, in writing, what happens if a contract ends early, so that candidates knew the answer before they signed.
An entry route with a safety net
New staff arrived on a tourist visa, with a hotel booked and someone to meet them at the airport. The work visa was then arranged in the country. We asked for, and got, a written promise that anyone whose visa was refused would fly home at the employer’s cost.
Candidates from a country at war
Some candidates lived close to the front line in eastern Ukraine. For one of them, travel insurance was only available after a permit from the security service, which takes two weeks with no guarantee. We changed her route to the work-visa process instead.
Keeping a distant client in the loop
Feedback came slowly, around holidays and approval chains, and whole batches came back rejected. Every week the client received a report: CVs screened, calls, interviews, and the status of each person presented. Nobody was left waiting without an answer.
What we did
Agree, search, hire, repeat
- Spring 2016 · Agreement and first brief. A fee per hire who actually arrives, with a replacement guarantee. Market check on pay expectations, advertising in two languages, and the first profiles within three weeks.
- Summer 2016 · Search at volume. Around five hundred CVs screened a week, phone and Skype screening by our recruiters, then Skype interviews with the client. The first hire travelled in August.
- Autumn 2016 · Management and bar staff. Two F&B managers offered and hired within a month, an arrival protocol agreed in writing, then bartenders, hosts and waiters for the winter.
- 2017 · Repeat briefs. More waiters and a receptionist, arranged with the F&B manager we had placed, who now ran recruitment on the client’s side.
In the client’s words
“We worked before and we still have most of the team here.”
The resort’s senior manager, asking us for staff again three years later.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its resort and its people are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Hiring hospitality staff from abroad?
Whether it is five waiters or one manager, thirty minutes is usually enough to tell you what the market will accept and how long the visas will take.
