From the Frontlines: A Conversation with Sam Tuthill on Long-term Hospitality Hiring Strategies

Welcome back to From the Frontlines! In this series, Harri highlights members of our team who are up to big things and have inside insights into the hospitality industry. This week we chat with Sam Tuthill, a Sales Development Representative here at Harri. In this episode, we discuss long-term retention strategies and the hidden pitfalls of one-off financial incentives during the hiring process.

Hey Sam thanks for joining us today! Hospitality’s talent shortage is a huge hot topic right now. Are you seeing any trends there?

Thanks for having me today! Brands aren’t just competing with one another for talent, they’re competing with unemployment benefits. Candidates need better pay or robust benefits to fill gaps in what they’re currently receiving, which has led a lot of businesses to offer one-time application bonuses. But those financial incentives are not necessarily the best route to secure quality candidates that want to grow with your brand.

Interesting — can you elaborate further on that?

We’re seeing businesses offer application bonuses or 90-day retention bonuses to try and attract new applicants. All that’s doing is training people to not attend an interview unless there’s a financial incentive. It does nothing to address the problem of 30, 60, and 90-day turnover and is prone to higher interview drop-off rates which is a huge time waster. That cycle will continue to repeat itself, which is unscalable and costly in the long run.

What’s interesting is that a lot of brands are offering these application bonuses as a low-cost alternative, but in many cases it ends up costing more money! In NYC for example, a $600 retention bonus can be taxed heavily if an employee works overtime in their first 90 days. The legal specifics are complicated, but it throws a whole new compliance concern into the mix.

Great points. What can brands do to attract long-term talent? 

One way that we’re seeing success with our clients is to use technology to offer a personalized hiring experience designed to retain talent. Career development is an excellent example. The moment a candidate applies to a job, they should have a sense of how they can grow. From there, you can offer a highly personalized onboarding experience centered around their needs and wants. 

The hiring process also gives managers an opportunity to screen for bad fits and eliminate the possibility of investing in a candidate who will drop off after receiving a financial incentive. It can be something as simple as throwing a question into the application process like “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to take this job?”

Investing in the long-term is always a smart move! Any closing thoughts on this?

It always is! We recommend that our clients keep up with what their competitors are doing. Is a competitor offering pay of $1 above minimum wage? Are they offering signing bonuses? If so, how can you keep up with or offer different yet equally enticing incentives? At Harri, we’re always sure to keep our finger on the pulse so we can offer the best potential solutions to brands fighting the labor shortage.