Project reference · Hospitality
Hiring hotel staff on a pay band that would not move.
A mid-market hotel group in the Gulf, part of a large regional retail and hospitality group, wanted English-speaking front-office staff, hostesses and restaurant associates from Ukraine. Many of its guests spoke Russian. Its pay bands were set group-wide and were not going to change for one source country. Over two years we ran the programme under our Ukrainian work-abroad licence, and widened the search from Ukraine to Central Asia and Central Europe when the pay band demanded it.
20 hires in the first order
Brief
Three guest-facing job families
Scope
Job portals in four countries
Reach
No fees to candidates
Licensed
The real constraint
The pay band against the market
Every decision in this project came back to one chart. The group’s bands were fixed. Candidates with the experience and English the hotels wanted expected more, and the gap only showed at the moment of the offer unless we put it on the table first.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The first request came in spring 2013, after a meeting at the group’s head office: twenty to thirty guest-facing people, quickly, with good English. By September it was a firm order for twenty, ten front-office associates and ten hostesses, later extended to waiters and waitresses. Shared staff accommodation, duty meals, medical insurance and a ticket home every two years came with the job.
Recruiting for work abroad from Ukraine is regulated. Each employer needs a registered order with a licensed agency, its draft employment contract, a declaration on trade unions and its registration documents, signed and couriered before the first interview. We set this up once, in a framework agreement with the group, and added the hotels by annex.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A salary that could not stretch
The bands applied across the whole group. Before the first interview round we told the client in writing what experienced, English-speaking candidates would expect, then worked inside the band it could offer.
Paperwork before candidates
No interview could be scheduled until the order annex, the employer’s contract draft, the trade-union declaration and the registration papers were signed, stamped and back in Kyiv. That alone took two months.
Interviews across two time zones
Candidates were interviewed from our office by the group’s HR team and the hotels’ managers over video, two hours apart. Each slot had to be confirmed with the candidate the day before, and screening interviews were recorded for the client.
The offer is where people drop out
The first offers were declined once the full package was on paper. From then on the package went to the candidate before the interview, and we settled allowances, working hours and medical requirements with the employer before anyone signed.
Recruiting through a crisis
2014 brought political upheaval and war to Ukraine. Candidates’ plans changed from week to week, and the hotels still needed people at the start of the season.
Widening the net
When Ukraine alone could not fill the band, we advertised in Kazakhstan, Hungary and Croatia as well, and put forward candidates from four former Soviet countries, in weekly numbered submissions.
What we did
Set up, interview, reset, keep sourcing
- 2013 · Set up. An offer with three interview formats, a framework agreement with the group with a fixed fee per hire and a replacement guarantee, an order annex for the hotels, and job descriptions for three roles.
- 2013 · First rounds. Video interviews with the HR manager and two hotel managers, and the first offers. They taught us that acceptance was decided by the pay band, not by the interview.
- 2014 · Reset. Wider search, the package shared up front, a clarification call with the employer and photos of the staff housing for candidates. Offers signed in March and April, visas, medical checks and flights in April, first arrivals at the hotels in May.
- 2014–15 · Keep sourcing. Job advertisements in English, Russian and Ukrainian on portals in four countries, and numbered CV submissions for front-office, hostess and restaurant roles until the client paused hiring in early 2015.
The lesson we have taken into every Gulf hospitality brief since: agree the pay band with the candidate before the interview, not after the offer.
From our side of the table
“Lower salaries will not attract the right number of candidates at short notice.”
Our written proposal to the client, September 2013, before the first interview round.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its group 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 hotel staff from Eastern Europe?
Tell us the roles and the pay band. We will tell you honestly what the market will give you for it, before anyone books a flight.
