Radisson Red’s ‘Hotel Superstars’ recruitment campaign in Glasgow saw them win the ‘Launch Campaign’ award at Caterer.com People Awards 2018

In a crowded and competitive market, a well-executed launch campaign is crucial to the success of any new opening.

Radisson RED walked away with the Launch Campaign award at our 2018 Caterer.com People Awards with an outstanding entry that demonstrated exactly how to utilise the tools at your disposal to deliver an incredible job.

Glasgow is a competitive marketplace with a wealth of choice of employers in the hospitality industry,” said Lisa Wade, Area Director Human Resources UK, Ireland and Western Europe at Radisson RED.

The candidate pool we were sourcing from could also be very successful in other industries such as retail, it is very much a candidate’s market for front line positions.

Watch the winning moment

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Radisson RED is slightly outside the city centre where transport links aren’t as strong.

It is also the first Radisson RED in the UK, and only the fifth in the world, so it’s a new brand and the local market had little or no knowledge about what to expect from it,” Lisa explained.

In line with the hotel opening we were required to launch the recruitment campaign in December. As you can appreciate that’s a really difficult time to attract talent in the hospitality industry as many of them are working flat out in the lead up to Christmas and some are staying where they are waiting on their bonuses.

Glasgow is heavily influenced by student movement. They were busy making plans for Christmas and New Year so the Radisson team were unsure if they’d seen some of the marketing activity that was being produced across the city.

Attraction talent that reflects your brand

We created a targeted recruitment campaign to attract talents whose personality and values closely reflected that of the brand.

We referred to them as ‘Hotel Superstars. We were looking for people who were edgy, tech-connected, expressive and social urbanites.

They would be innovative, creative, engaging and self-motivated as well as demonstrating a positive mindset and love a challenge.  Passionate about music, art and fashion.

Developing employer brand engagement

Within the Glasgow market Radisson RED’s employer brand is very well positioned.

Our adverts continue to attract a high following of applicants, receiving as many as 400 applications over a weekend. Some candidates aren’t even waiting for an advert to be posted, they are reaching out to us through current team members asking if they can work with us.

The very best talent, who may be working for our competitors, are actively seeking out opportunities to work with us because our reputation is so strong.

Radisson RED casting day

When reviewing the applications, the team at Radisson focused on personality, then experience.

To gain an understanding of their personality we asked for applicants to submit videos, selfies and links to their social media accounts.

When the final shortlist was agreed we embarked on a ‘Casting Day’ to select the very best talent.

The day was held in a unique venue, The Lighthouse, which is a local art gallery. It was a great fit for the brand and featured engaging workshops designed to measure social interaction and brand culture fit. There was a DJ playing live music, quality food and drink and enthusiastic assessors. Again all giving a taste of what Radisson RED represents as a brand. The brand tagline is ‘Enjoy It!’.

Joined up approach to recruitment

Radisson leveraged on the recruitment campaign to compliment the marketing of the hotel and was used as a teaser campaign. Being so closely linked to the brand values, it gave consumers a taste of what to expect from the brand before the full marketing campaign launched.

The response to the campaign was overwhelming, receiving over 2000 applicants in six weeks. Feedback from our Casting Day was incredible and everyone who attended left with a strong desire to work with the brand, sharing positive messages across social media.

Radisson successfully filled all their positions on time and offered by sending personalised videos filmed from the hotels building site showcasing its amazing views of the River Clyde.

Although we offered roles with a start date of up to 10 weeks later, the recruitment campaign connected with the candidates so strongly that they were willing to wait up to 10 weeks to start the role. Everyone started as planned in time for the hotel opening.

Amazing results

It is well known that the hospitality industry can be sometimes seen as a ’revolving door’ for talent with high turnover rates but the strong launch campaign has built loyalty within Radisson RED.

The team feel like extended family who have all been through the same rigorous, but fun, application process. So far the turnover rate is very low with the majority of leavers leaving because their personal circumstances had changed.

The Radisson RED team were over the moon to win the Launch Campaign award.

We were hugely excited and proud to take home the award. It was great recognition of all of the hard work and effort that went into the launch to make it so successful. The team are massively proud to work for RED. They live the brand and its values, and have an exciting year ahead and hopefully many more awards to come.