Project reference · Hospitality recruitment
Three handovers on the client’s side, one supplier on ours.
A luxury hotel in the Gulf hired bar and restaurant staff from Eastern Europe and Central Asia through us from 2014 to 2016. It began with a new bar outlet that had to open fully staffed in September, and a two-day hiring event in Kyiv. Over the next two and a half years the hotel’s HR team changed three times. Each new team found the same agreement, the same terms and a pipeline that was already running: 17 people placed, 157 candidates presented, and a last brief for 47 vacancies.
2½ years on one agreement
Continuity
17 people placed
Result
18 selected after two interview days
Hiring event
47 vacancies in the last brief
Repeat business
Pipeline and handovers
The pipeline kept running through every handover
Each band is one HR team at the hotel. The columns are the candidates we presented each month, the circles the people who started work.
The brief
What the client actually needed
In spring 2014 the hotel was preparing a new bar outlet for a September opening. It needed experienced service associates, hostesses, bartenders and a bar manager for it, and waiters, captains, supervisors and other front-of-house staff for its existing restaurants: 51 positions on its first list. For the new bar it wanted to meet every candidate in person before making an offer.
We signed one recruitment agreement in May 2014: a fee of one month’s basic salary per hire, no fees to candidates, visas and flights paid by the employer. A second agreement through our licensed company in Ukraine covered the hiring event under local rules. The hotel told us we were its only agency in the country.
July 2014
Two days, one interview room
We built the line-up in four weeks: adverts on job sites, forums and social networks, more than 200 applicants screened by phone and video, a written invitation and an agenda of four candidates an hour. The hotel’s head of restaurants and bars flew in and interviewed for two days.
A week later the hotel selected 18 people for offers. We collected medical tests, police certificates and documents, and in September ten of them flew out together, in time for the opening.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A date that could not move
The new outlet opened in September, so the team had to be on board by August. Medical results alone take about ten days in Ukraine. We planned the event, the offers and the paperwork backwards from the opening date.
Advice to cancel a trip
The hotel planned a second hiring trip to a Central Asian market. After two weeks of advertising, most applicants wanted far more than the offered pay and few had the English. We said so, recommended cancelling the trip and kept presenting the good candidates one by one.
Three handovers
The HR supervisor who signed with us left four months in; new HR teams took over in 2015 and again in 2016. Each time we sent the agreement, the list of people already hired and the open candidates, so nobody had to start again.
Urgent top-ups for a flagship venue
In December 2014 the hotel needed more hostesses and waitresses for its open-air lounge: long shifts, a four-day week and a higher salary. The request came on a Wednesday; the first two CVs went out the next day.
Offers that wait for a visa
Between an offer and a flight come visas, medicals and police certificates. In late 2015 several signed offers slipped: a family loss, an exam date, a better job elsewhere. We told the hotel early and kept the next candidate ready.
Pay that does not move
The 2016 brief listed 47 vacancies at the existing pay. We showed where it sat below what the source markets expected and suggested adjustments. The hotel kept its salaries, so we widened the search to new job boards instead.
What we did
Agree, gather, refill, re-register
- May–Sep 2014 · Agreement and hiring event. One agreement, a two-day line-up, 18 selections and the first group on the plane in September.
- Oct 2014–Mar 2015 · One by one. New vacancies for the kitchen and the restaurants, an urgent team for the lounge, video interviews and steady arrivals.
- Jul 2015–Mar 2016 · The high-season brief. Service associates, hostesses, bartenders, private dining and minibar staff: 71 candidates presented in August and September 2015 alone.
- May–Dec 2016 · A new assignment and a new registration. 47 vacancies including pool and beach lifeguards, adverts in southern Europe and South Asia, and an updated agreement and supplier registration for the hotel’s procurement team.
A long supplier relationship depends on the handover notes. Ours were in the file, not in one person’s head, so each new HR team could pick up where the last one stopped.
In the client’s words
“You are our only agency right now in Ukraine, so we expect your utmost cooperation.”
The hotel’s HR supervisor, three weeks before the hiring event, 2014.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The hotel, its brand 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 front-of-house staff for a hotel abroad?
Tell us the roles, the pay and the opening date. We will tell you honestly what the market will give, and keep the file in order when your team changes.