Recruiting 4.0 thanks to Recruiter 4.0:

Finding good staff is not always easy – particularly in the hospitality sector, where businesses often encounter difficulties. However, the HR department at the GCH Hotel Group has applied cross-regional networked recruiting practices to address this issue professionally and successfully – in a way that is digital, responsive, communicative and resourceful. Its strategy is to think beyond the traditional channels and combine digital recruiting with a face-to-face event: approaches like regional and cross-regional advertising, leveraging synergies, and long-term partnerships with Hotelcareer, for example, play a key role in ensuring hotels are efficiently supported.

The employment market in the Franconia region is very strong. Fürth in particular has an unemployment rate of just 4.9%, which is well below the German national average. And in the middle of it is the brand new, 4-star Superior Excelsior Hotel Nuremberg Fürth, which reopened in January 2018 following extensive refurbishment. This fabulous, modern, high-quality business hotel also offers all the comforts someone traveling for leisure could desire. Of course, a top-quality hotel also needs skilled staff, which is why a Careers Day was held at the Excelsior Hotel Nuremberg Fürth on 14 April.
The event was developed and organised by the Fürth team, comprising general manager Bilal Al-Njadat, executive assistant and F&B manager Lisa Bäcker, and administrative assistant and HR officer Katharina Lang.

Exceptional challenges require extraordinary responses

It’s a well-known fact that recruiting new, qualified hotel staff these days is no easy task, and is becoming more and more of a challenge for businesses. The hotel team in charge of the event worked with the HR department in the GCH Hotel Group’s head office in Berlin to define their target group and adapt their recruitment measures to the sophisticated expectations of today’s candidates.

Recruiting 4.0: it’s all about social media skills

Social media is a major factor in modern recruiting – various platforms offer the perfect channel for every situation to get young, motivated employees to sit up and take notice. So it’s no surprise that social media activities were at the heart of this event, too: firstly, the whole team shared information about the Careers Day on their social media channels, then a Facebook event was created in order to achieve the greatest possible reach. For further impact, a radio advert was produced and broadcast repeatedly by the local radio station in Fürth.
Candidates who had applied via the ‘Hotelcareer’ portal received a personal invitation to the event, so that they could build an impression of the hotel and its employees on site, with everyone getting to know each other in a laid-back atmosphere. All in all, it made for a hugely successful Careers Day.

Success on all sides

On the day of the event, it was all hands on deck: the entire hotel team, plus the HR team from the head office, were on hand to speak to the guests and provide them with the best possible and most realistic impression of hotel operations – both at the Excelsior Hotel Nuremberg Fürth specifically and at the GCH Hotel Group in general. The team organised tours of the hotel, gave those interested an overview of day-to-day operations, and set up meetings with the departmental head and the general manager. Ultimately, this incredible effort was rewarded and all expectations were exceeded: there were several qualified applicants for every vacant position in the hotel. The potential candidates showed significant interest in front office, service and banqueting positions, whether as permanent employees, trainees or apprentices.

 ‘The resounding success of the careers event means we can continue to provide our guests with the best possible level of service thanks to our qualified staff.’ Bilal Al-Njadat, General Manager

Looking back, the implemented measures had an amazing effect. The team has grown as a result of the event, benefiting from the regular input of new ideas and mastering exciting tasks together – after all, the next event is already being lined up.
And this success is in line with the GCH Hotel Group’s strategy, which is all about close cooperation between the hotel and the head office, a modern take on recruiting, and thinking outside the box. All of this creates unbeatable expertise that we can use to successfully overcome any challenge. We’re looking forward to the next exciting ventures!

All current vacancies at the GCH Hotel Group can be found >>here

Link to the hotel >>site

Editor: Moran Beck, Christina Hahn