Hospitality Hiring Insider – Exclusive insights from The NoMad hotel

As a relatively new hospitality brand, what’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in attracting talent?

The market’s becoming increasingly competitive with more five-star properties opening up. So, the challenge is to understand what the candidates are looking for at the moment and tell them about the benefits of joining our team.

“I think a challenge is finding candidates as passionate about hospitality as we are. As an industry we have to showcase opportunities and how different and exciting working in hospitality can be. To see a job in hospitality as a profession and a long-term career option, rather than a stopgap.

Another challenge is managing expectations. Some candidates are returning to the industry post Covid/Brexit and applying for roles that ultimately, they aren’t ready for yet.

A real positive in our recruitment is word of mouth – it’s such a powerful and effective tool. You can’t get any better than somebody who already knows your brand and understands how the business works recommending somebody that they trust, and that means we can trust in them as well.

How do you retain your people and why do they stay?

In terms of retention, one of the things we’ve seen recently is our people believing in the industry and where it can take them. It goes back to how we recruit and share our brand ethos. As a result, we’re currently seeing a real focus on career progression.

We ensure that an individual’s career development is aligned with their expectations and we’re putting together a training plan to support them in getting to where they want to be.

Our retention is really strong, and we believe in transparency, making sure our team members expectations are in tune with where the business is going, communicating, and keeping the information flowing. As a result, we’ve had around 40 internal promotions this year, and we’re only halfway through.

As a business, we love seeing internal promotions, growing the brand from within and so we look internally to see who we might be able to progress and develop.

Apart from career progression, what other benefits are candidates and employees looking for?

Flexibility – people want to prioritise their work-life balance and well-being. We all have a life outside work and employers who recognise and adapt to meet this need will benefit from a happier and more engaged workforce.

Community – within NoMad we’ve seen a strong uptake on our health benefits with team members going to the gym together after work. It builds a sense of physical well-being and friendship.

Fun – people want to enjoy what they do and where they do it and part of our ethos is to have fun. Our team briefings are loud, fun, and informative but we never lose sight of the collaboration between our team members and our management. We get the best out of them, and they get the best out of us.

What tips would you offer other businesses in the industry?

• Recruitment is all about understanding what your brand stands for, communicating that effectively and setting out your expectations from the outset. Whenever we speak to a candidate, we ask them what their expectations are of an employer, because if it doesn’t align with our brand, we don’t want to promise them something we can’t deliver and see them leave within the first 3 months. It’s not fair on anybody. It’s all about transparency.
• Utilise all the recruitment channels available. It makes sense to use as many ways as possible to find your ideal candidate.
• Job platforms, like caterer.com, can reach candidates who otherwise might have no idea you’re recruiting. They also know the best way to promote your business and a database of active candidates to select from.
• Align the candidate experience with your brand – find out what they want from you as an employer and share what you expect from them. Talk often about progress, achievements, developments and how these impact everyone involved. Celebrate all the wins.

Find out more about The NoMad hotel

To access more exclusive insights from leading hospitality employers, read our latest Caterer.com Hospitality Hiring Insider H1 2024