Why Hospitality Schools Are Your Best Bet for Finding Talent

Finding exceptional hospitality talent is tough. With historic employee turnover and fewer skilled candidates available, it's getting harder for recruiters to keep a steady stream of talent to fill the glaring skills gap. But have you considered a campus recruitment strategy to solve your hotel/restaurant staffing needs? Hospitality schools are full of new talent from students eager to start their careers and bring fresh ideas and energy to the hotel sector. By building strong ties with these institutions, travel and tourism employers can access this pool of ready-to-work talent.

If you are looking to tap into this talent pool, this article is for you. Find out what campus recruitment entails, discover the benefits of this recruitment strategy, and learn how you can leverage Hosco’s network and recruitment platform for your talent acquisition efforts.

What Is Campus Recruitment?

Campus recruitment is a strategy for sourcing, engaging, and hiring young talent for internships and entry-level positions. This approach can range from small efforts, such as collaborating with university career centres to find potential candidates, to large-scale operations like visiting multiple colleges and attending recruiting events. Campus recruiting often involves partnering with university career services and attending career fairs to meet college students and recent graduates in person.

The primary goal of campus recruitment is to find and hire potential hospitality candidates who have the skills, knowledge, and qualifications needed by the business. Connecting with students while they are still in college or university enables you to build relationships, assess candidates' potential, and secure hospitality talent before they enter the job market.

Why a Campus Recruitment Strategy is Ideal for Your Company

Campus recruitment is a crucial talent acquisition strategy for attracting the newest generation of workers and filling high-demand roles. Hiring through universities has long been effective for sourcing entry-level candidates, but it is especially important now due to a significant skills shortage in the hotel sector. Additionally, a campus recruiting strategy is highly relevant because it helps secure Gen Z candidates, who are expected to be the most educated and diverse generation.

Hospitality schools enable the travel and leisure sector to access a dynamic and innovative pool of potential employees who possess the latest knowledge and trends in their fields. This method is also cost-effective, enabling companies to connect with multiple promising candidates in one setting. It also strengthens the link between academia and the corporate world.

Leveraging Hosco’s Platform For Campus Recruitment

Hosco’s recruitment platform offers a range of features designed to streamline the hiring process for entry-level positions and seasoned hospitality professionals. Moreover, it gives you access to over 2 million professionals, alumni, and students of 450+ hospitality schools!

Here are the features that make hiring talent on Hosco’s platform a breeze for you:

Search Directory: Use keywords in the member search directory to get quick profile matches of the candidates you seek.
Advanced Filters: Use Hosco’s unique advanced filter features, such as work permit, specific hospitality experience, or career highlights filter to further refine your candidate search.
School Search: Find hospitality institutions all over the world by entering their names and locations as keywords in our member search directory. Hint: this feature makes it easier to source talent from schools in your geographic location/area of preference.
Saved Searches: You don’t have to start from scratch every time you hire for the same position. Use the saved search feature to create a quick-access database of impressive candidates for your future hiring needs.

What Are the Main Benefits of Campus Recruitment?

Here are the key advantages of campus recruitment for your hospitality company:

Strengthens the Relationship Between Colleges and Your Company

Tapping campus talent strengthens the relationship between your company and universities. The more your company engages in campus recruiting, the stronger the relationship you build with these institutions. This relationship enhances future hiring efforts, streamlines recruitment activities, and ensures you are among the first to learn about promising candidates.

Improves Succession Planning

Hiring candidates through hospitality schools allows the hotel industry to nurture and develop hospitality talent from an early stage. By providing internships, mentorship, and training opportunities, companies can foster long-term relationships and groom future leaders within the organisation. A steady source of fresh talent enhances your company’s succession planning efforts, ensuring you have a robust pipeline of qualified candidates ready to fill vacated roles.

Enables Targeted Recruitment

Campus recruitment enables hotel and restaurant businesses to target and engage with students from specific educational institutions, courses, or disciplines that match their hiring needs. For instance, if you are looking to hire a hotel manager, the Oxford Brookes School of Hospitality Management in the UK is an excellent choice. A focused approach increases the chances of finding candidates with the right skills and qualifications.

Boosts Multiple HR Metrics

Campus recruiting allows your hotel or restaurant to hit several important HR milestones at a go. Firstly, it reduces the time to hire. Because sourcing builds relationships with talent well before a role needs to be filled, it ensures a pipeline of warm, vetted candidates ready to be contacted when a position opens. Also, campus recruiting can help the hospitality industry easily access a diverse talent pool, thereby enhancing its diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Reduces the Cost of Recruitment

Conducting recruitment activities on college campuses is often more cost-effective than other methods. Typically, universities have established career services and job fairs that companies can participate in at a lower cost compared to extensive advertising campaigns. These events provide direct access to a large pool of candidates, reducing the need for robust and costly marketing efforts.

Looking to improve your hotel’s HR metrics? Learn how to leverage Hosco’s platform to improve the time to hire and the quality of candidates in your talent pipeline.

Factors to Consider in Campus Recruiting

When looking for a hospitality school to launch your campus recruitment efforts, consider the following factors:

Relevance of curriculum: Look for schools that offer strong programs in the disciplines and fields relevant to your niche. For example, if you are in luxury hospitality, consider schools such as École Hôtelière de Genève in Switzerland that offer bespoke luxury hospitality training.
School reputation and standards: Consider the school's overall reputation and accreditation status. Accredited institutions often have rigorous academic standards and produce high-quality graduates. A school such as Escuela Superior de Hostelería de Sevilla in Spain has been voted several times as the best European school of the year and can help you land top talent.
Alumni success: Research the success of the school's alumni, such as alumni employment rates. 95% of graduates at the International Academy of Tourism and Hospitality in Lake Como, Italy, get hired after their two years of study, indicating a strong program and career preparation.
Career guidance and support: Assess the strength and responsiveness of the school's career services office. A proactive career services team can facilitate your recruiting efforts by organising events, promoting your company, and helping coordinate interviews.
Geographic location: Consider the school's location relative to your hotel's location or major markets. For instance, if you are operating a hotel in France, you can consider Ecole Ducasse, Le Cordon Bleu, or the Vatel Bordeaux hospitality schools. Proximity can reduce travel costs and make maintaining ongoing relationships with the institution easier.
Recruitment infrastructure: Evaluate the school's infrastructure for hosting recruitment events, such as job fairs, information sessions, and on-campus interviews. Efficient facilities and support can enhance the effectiveness of your recruiting efforts.
Partnership opportunities: Look for schools open to establishing long-term partnerships. This can include collaborative research projects, internship programs, and guest lectures, which can deepen your relationship with the institution and provide ongoing access to top talent.

Need a Hand? Hosco Helps Your School or Company With:

Assisted Search: We find you employees and interns by posting your job vacancies, sourcing and pre-screening candidates, and scheduling interviews.
Career Days and Hiring Events: Let us organise tailored career days, so you can meet emerging talent from hospitality schools, build a relationship with them, and start building your talent pipeline on the spot. If you’re looking to connect with top talent at large hospitality fairs alongside other employers, sign up for Hosco’s Hospitality Connection events in a city near you!
Networking and Industry Events: Want to build your professional network and glean insights from hospitality experts? The Hosco Summit brings together companies and schools for networking, sharing industry insights, and expert talks.
Targeted Email Campaigns for Companies: Looking for a tailored email campaign that brings your jobs and internships to the attention of 2 million hospitality students and professionals? We can write and send out between 2-3 emails to our global database to help you!
Targeted Email Campaigns for Schools: Let us advertise your masterclasses, short courses, and degree programs to our database with the help of targeted email campaigns. These are excellent for lead generation and branding!
Branded Landing Pages for Schools: Want your students and alumni to swiftly land jobs and internships at companies around the globe? Our customised career pages help your school list all job offers in one place, giving your students and alumni exclusive access to them. What’s more: any company that lands on these career pages can post one job for FREE. Hint: Career pages are a great way for companies to target a particular school or location.