How 5 Brands Find Hospitality Talent With Social Media Recruiting

The hiring process has evolved in recent years, with employers turning to social media recruiting to find new employees. Recent studies show that 84% of recruiters are using social media to not only advertise open positions, but also target and evaluate talent.

This is a significant shift from just a few years ago, where businesses were mostly using social media to portray themselves and their brands in the best possible light.

In this article, you will learn what social media recruiting is and why it's gaining popularity. Then, we dive into how 5 hospitality chains are using this strategy to find talent, including best practices you can adapt to your hotel business.

What Is Social Media Recruiting?

Social media recruiting is a method of attracting prospective employees through social media platforms. Using social media for employer branding and hiring might involve posting job vacancies and social media posts. A benefit of social media recruiting is that jobseekers can discuss possible open positions using the online social networks you advertise on.

You can also have a look at social media accounts of prospective candidates to have a feel of who they are and what they're looking for. This way, you can use social media to identify, engage, attract, and possibly hire active candidates. Having an attractive brand for your hospitality business is critical in order to attract prospects in love with your brand.

Social media hiring is distinct from other recruitment strategies, as it enables you to connect with passive candidates. These are candidates in the workforce who are not actively looking for work. Targeting passive candidates is a great strategy for your hotel/restaurant business because passive candidates are more stable compared to active jobseekers and will adjust to a new role much easier. [1]

Why Is Social Recruiting Becoming a Hiring Method of Choice?

Because of social media's increasing ubiquity, hospitality recruiters and HR departments are crafting comprehensive social media recruiting strategies, which are then incorporated into their people management strategy. According to research findings by Nisbet, social media hiring is the second most efficient strategy for filling hospitality jobs. There are several reasons for this development.

Millennials and Gen Z, eager to find a footing in their careers, are using social media to connect and also find work. A study by Aberdeen Group reports that 73% of millennials found their jobs through social media. It makes sense that finding talent using social media should be a top priority for your hospitality business.

Additionally, social hiring is on the rise because of its convenience and cost efficiency. Given the high employee turnover in the hospitality industry, social recruiting allows your hotel to fill open positions fast, while incurring minimal cost relative to conventional hiring. [2]

As a hotel and restaurant sector manager or recruiter, you can take advantage of social media hiring to engage a bigger pool of prospects than you'd ever imagine with traditional recruiting methods. For instance, Facebook and Instagram allow you to target candidates based on languages spoken and location, making it easier to create personalised or localised job ads and social media posts. The social platforms you use determine your access to a sizeable candidate pool.

How 5 Hospitality Brands Are Using Social Media Recruiting

If you’re planning to plunge into social hiring, we recommend having a look at what 5 leading hospitality companies are doing to attract talent via social media. Their strategies might give you some brilliant ideas to start right away!

Brand number 1: Marriott

Marriot's career page on Facebook has over 1.3 million followers. At least twice a day, the company shares interesting content about individual employees' successes, what it's like to work at Marriott, and what's going on across the Marriott network. Marriott's distinct value proposition is its personal touch, which they emphasise by having named staff respond to questions on the company's profiles.

Prospective employees can also participate in career chats to seek guidance on how to apply for and get into various roles at the company. Reacting quickly to queries from jobseekers can help your company achieve social hiring success by enhancing consumer perceptions, and making the hiring process easier for you.

On Instagram, Marriott has 85,000 followers and portrays photos and stories of their staff working and having fun while at it.[3] Using photos and videos is a fantastic way to keep your audience engaged rather than using plain text.

Pro Tip: As a hospitality employer, you can connect your social media channels to your company page on Hosco’s platform. This allows you to directly repost content from your social media accounts to your company page on Hosco. Our platform also has social media integrated: it allows you to share posts, pictures, articles, and other updates you create on our platform directly to your company Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. This saves you time and effort for making social media posts to build your brand.

Brand number 2: Hilton

Hilton was among the early hotel chains to recognise the power of social media recruiting by portraying itself as an employer of choice. Today, Hilton maintains several social media platforms for careers, with their Facebook and Instagram pages being the most prominent.

Hilton’s Facebook career page has over 65,000 followers. Their Facebook posts cover various employee stories, such as outstanding employees and recipients of various awards such as the CEO Light & Warmth award. They also share career advice and interview tips to make it easy for prospects to prepare for the recruitment process. This is not only a great way to connect with applicants, but also shows you care about their application at your hotel.

Hilton’s Instagram page, with over 33,000 followers, shares photos of staff with smiles on their faces, certainly matching the page’s bio, “Our Team Members make us one of the World’s Best Workplaces” [4]. Similar actions can portray your hospitality business as a great place to work, and can help you win the fierce competition for talent that characterises the hospitality sector.

Brand number 3: Hyatt

Hyatt’s career socials are on Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts’ Career page has 138,000 followers and roughly an equal number of likes. The page posts information on open vacancies and provides a link where candidates can easily click and apply.

Hyatt's Instagram page is equally welcoming, with photos of its employees busy at work and participating in team building activities. There is also a display of Hyatt’s diversity pledge, with photos portraying LGBT colours. Using your hotel's social media pages to highlight employees’ workday and ethos such as diversity and inclusion can help you tap into critical talent.

Brand number 4: IHG

IHG has a well-updated careers page on Facebook and Instagram. Their Instagram page has close to 40,000 followers [5]. Its bio reads, #LetsGoFurtherTogether, a catchy phrase emphasising the company’s employer brand. IHG’s Instagram posts feature quotes from employees speaking about topics such as diversity, career development, and opportunities for women. The caption ‘we are experience makers’ running across most photos reinforces IHG’s employer brand.

On IHG’s Facebook Careers page, you will find posts of various staff sharing what it is like to work there. From great employee benefits, a positive workplace culture, and career growth opportunities, these stories lend credence to IHG’s commitment to offering the best place to work.

Brand number 5: Accor

Accor’s socials invite job prospects to ‘Be Limitless’ and ‘Do what you love’. The group has a Facebook page with over a quarter million followers. In their bio section, Accor considers every one of their employees a hospitality expert with the statement “We are over 260,000 hospitality experts…” creating a rush of positivity in the minds of active and passive job candidates.

Accor’s Facebook posts cover topics such as diversity, guests’ experiences, and open positions. The group is also running a campaign called Heartists, inviting their employees to share what they like about their hotel jobs. This provides an opportunity for top management to get valuable feedback and also amplify their positive employer brand to active and passive job candidates.

Social Media Recruiting Best Practices for the Hotel Industry

We’ve summarised the key takeaways from the aforementioned hospitality brands below, so you can target prospective candidates and quickly find talent!

Leverage employee goodwill: Make use of your existing employees’ networks and goodwill to spread the word about vacancies at your hotel or restaurant. Encourage existing staff to take part in the recruitment drive by asking them to share your hiring adverts and job posts on social media.
Use testimonials: Posts that highlight “a day in the life of…” tend to do really well. Basically, any content that highlights the employee experience by illustrating how employees work and what they appreciate are worthy of sharing. This could be a short video or an interview with hotel/restaurant staff speaking about how a typical day at the hotel looks like. Or even a hiring manager who is willing to share what makes a good candidate for their department.
Join relevant conversations and engage in dialogue: Find a way of integrating topical discussions into your social media posts. For instance, Marriott Group celebrates diversity by participating in Pride Month discussions and recommitting itself to diversity. What a great way to show you care, right?
Be transparent about applications: It’s not just about advertising a job post via social media accounts. You can keep job applicants informed about vacancies, application requirements, and deadlines too. Keep candidates informed about the progress of the recruitment process, and see how talent finds its way towards you.
Incorporate jobseeker feedback: Whenever you post on social media, be sure to respond to queries in a timely and professional way. Some users may enquire about a specific detail in the job ad or ask a general question about the hiring process. Not only do you improve your candidate's experience by doing so but you also get important insights and feedback to incorporate into your recruitment process.
Engage with your audience daily: Don't just post and step away. Being engaged in the hospitality industry's important conversations is a terrific strategy to get your brand discovered by your target demographic. Empower your social media managers to go out of their way to find interesting conversations and trending topics. Participate in those discussions and add value to the participants and the industry.
Use the right hashtags: Be creative with the hashtag you use, as this allows you to connect with the people you want to target. A good hashtag can also move traffic to your hotel social media platforms even after the topic is no longer trending [6]. This will help job applicants to remember your brand and demonstrate that you're connected to your online community.
Start competitions or giveaways: Organise competitions or contests to find the best talent for a department or specific role, for example: “send us a video of your best recipe and how you make it to be shortlisted for this sous chef job”. Not only will this engage candidates, but it will also allow you to find talent with less cost and in an entertaining manner. A win-win for both sides!
Leverage humour: Don’t just highlight what’s perfect: Show that your work culture appreciates learning from failure by sharing a humorous moment at work.