How can I help hospitality during the COVID-19 quarantine?

Why should I hire someone with hospitality experience?

During the week of March 21, a record number of people filed for unemployment. The next week, the number doubled. Most of the people who filed for unemployment were for the hospitality industry.

We knew it was important to get hospitality employees back to work, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because they are exceptional, multi-talented people with a lot to offer any employer.

Those qualities are easy to see when you work with hospitality employees every day, but those qualities might not be as easy to see from the outside. That’s why we put together a list of six of the top reasons you, whether you’re a hospitality employer or not, should hire hospitality workers.

You need a ‘people person’

A career in hospitality is driven by the opportunity to make people happy. Whether they’re guest-facing and directly serving customers or operating behind the scenes, every action goes towards creating a great experience. It’s about creating consistent, high-quality experiences, which means they often need to go above and beyond to make a great guest experience.

The industry is driven not only by positive interactions with guests but with coworkers as well—it’s a relationship-driven industry. That’s why hospitality employees are friendly, vibrant, and have a high EQ. They hone that EQ by experiencing different cultures and extensive social interactions.

You want creative people who are quick on their feet

No two days in hospitality are the same. While there are policies and procedures in place to keep stability, the unpredictability of the job means employees need to be quick to adapt, think on their feet, and take initiative to try something new. Whether they’re making food, drinks, or an experience, hospitality employees are always coming up with new ways to improve the guests’ experience and maintain quality.

You want hard workers

Hospitality is a 24/7 business. That means employees are used to working nights, weekends, and every odd hour in between. Hospitality employees are on their feet for more than eight hours a day, lifting and carrying heavy trays and cooking materials.

Employees are used to not only working hard but also consistently producing a high-quality product. Research shows that a single bad experience will be shared with 20 people, minimum. That means hospitality workers are used to holding themselves to a higher standard.

You want a great communicators

Part of a great experience is making sure a customer feels like they’re being heard and their needs are being met. This means employees need to be able to listen—and often not just with their ears. Hospitality often involves serving guests who speak another language, so employees are experts in reading non-verbal cues, as well as verbal.

Studies show that transparency and clearly communicating when things will happen make someone just as happy as if it were happening immediately. Hospitality employees know this. They communicate often and clearly. Many times they’re able to do so in more than one language.

You want someone polished and cool under pressure

While everyone hopes for the best, hospitality employees know that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Part of a great guest experience means seamlessly handling problems as they come up without looking harried or stressed. This means being a master multi-tasker and calm in high-stress situations.

Often there are multiple priorities, tasks, and responsibilities happening at the same time. Hospitality workers are able to prioritize, delegate, and handle these tasks so everything is accomplished as quickly and efficiently as possible.

You need a jack of all trades

If there’s one guarantee in hospitality, it’s how completely unpredictable it is. Employees often need to handle tasks outside their job descriptions. ‘That’s not my job,” isn’t in their vocabulary. Because of that, they may have picked up skills in finance, human resources, project management, and communication-based on the opportunities and non-standard tasks they’ve been given.

How Can I Help?

Become a Partner

If you’re interested in becoming a #hirehospitality partner, please fill out our form here. We’ll reach out to you to chat about the ways you can help us get hospitality hired.

Recruit others to become Partners

Help #hirehospitality to grow by inviting people in your network to join the cause. The more people involved, the more we can affect change.

Post to social media

Use your voice to help out the cause! Please share #hirehospitality on your social media channels.

Not sure what to say? We’ve got you covered! Share a post to publicly show your support of #hirehospitality.

Donate

We’re hard at work looking for opportunities to connect workers with jobs, but in the meantime, workers need financial support to help them during these uncertain times. Please

If you know someone who is hiring, refer them

Know someone who is looking for work during the COVID-19 quarantine? Refer them to #hirehospitality! We want to give work opportunities to anyone with a hospitality background who needs it.

To get started please have any interested party sign up here.

If you know someone who is looking for work from the hospitality industry, refer them

Do you know someone who is looking for employees during the pandemic? Ask them to sign-up here. We’ll help them get vetted employees who have been interviewed and passed a background check.

We can also offer employees who are COVID-19 Hygiene Awareness Accredited, which means they are educated on how to reduce their chances of acquiring or spreading the virus.

Ready to #hirehospitality? Check out hirehospitality.org.

Not sure how hospitality can help you? Reach out to info@hirehospitality.org. We’re happy to help you figure out how your business can participate!

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