98 CHAPTER 3 RECRUITMENT 4. Do you think that Marriott’s approach may prove more successful for some positions rather than others and/or in attracting certain kinds of candidates? 5. Are there any other approaches to recruitment that our organisation could potentially use to alleviate the recruitment issues? Explain why these could work. 6. Are there any particular factors (such as those related to our organisation and/or the national context) that may hinder any of the approaches that you have suggested to improve recruitment? 7. What role can we reasonably expect universities with hospitality and tourism degree programmes to play in improving the image of the sector? 8. Given the external environment, is it possible for us (or any Chinese hotel employer) to improve the reputation of the sector? Another issue to consider … Given graduate employment issues in China, how reasonable do you think it is that the Chinese Government has urged graduates to lower their employment expectations? CASE STUDY 3.2 OUTSOURCING RECRUITMENT AT BLUEBERRY SCOTT HURRELL AND DORA SCHOLARIOS This case highlights the issues of recruitment outsourcing and methods used to recruit for scarce skills. Blueberry is a subsidiary of a multinational IT company based in the US, Globalchip, and provides Globalchip’s European technical helpdesk. Currently, the helpdesk employs 40 staff, and recruits new employees directly. New recruits need to be fluent in a European language other than English and have technical competence (computer skills, some product knowledge) and customer service skills. Finding individuals with this skills mix has been very difficult. Currently, the Customer Service Unit includes fluent speakers of Spanish, French, Italian, Finnish, Dutch, German and Greek. The majority are non-UK nationals. There is a very tight budget for salaries. In the US, Globalchip operates a similar help desk for Asia. When this Help Desk was established the strategy adopted, after much discussion and deliberation, was to outsource recruitment to an agency (Succuro). The HR Director of Globalchip asked the HR partner responsible for liaising with the European Help Desk, Liz McDonald, to identify whether she could put a similar outsourced recruitment process in place. She was also asked to collaborate with her US colleague to determine the difficulties that Succoro currently face in recruiting suitable individuals. Liz’s enquiries have shown that Globalchip has a three-year contract with Succuro, which is due for renewal soon. A ‘service-level agreement’ was produced by the company, which clearly indicated what level of performance was expected of the agency, for instance time to fill vacancies. Succoro is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit suitable people within the budget constraints. However, it is an important contract which it wants to retain. The agency has been performing well and exceeding the service-level agreement in some indicators. Succoro uses an online application form, and then screens applicants in a telephone interview. Globalchip managers are involved in the final selection decision. Liz is a member of a local network of HR practitioners from a number of organisations. One of the other members, Jim Gray, works for an agency that runs a similar recruitment process for a mobile phone company elsewhere in the UK. Jim shared his experience of recruiting those with language and technical skills: The main difficulty is trying to attract applicants to jobs that pay a little below the average. Our agency cannot afford to use some of the more CASE STUDY 3.3 popular websites because they are expensive. We need to use other ways of targeting people who might be willing to live and work in the UK – almost to sell the experience. We try to use networks like websites for those who want to travel and work abroad as well as advertising on our agency’s overseas websites. We target social networking sites like Facebook and Gumtree. We are having real difficulties getting speakers of, for 99 example, Dutch and Finnish to come to work in the UK. It takes about eight weeks to fill a vacancy, though for some of the more common languages there is sometimes a pool of applicants in our skills bank. Liz is still investigating the implications of outsourcing for Blueberry. Questions 1 How would outsourcing change the role of HR in the recruitment process? 2 What is a service-level agreement? 3 Which methods would you use to attract applicants to the international call centre in the UK? 4 To what extent is Jim’s experience an example of ‘viral’ recruitment? What are the potential advantages and drawbacks of such an approach? CASE STUDY 3.3 RECRUITMENT AND SKILLS GAPS IN FONTAINEBLEAU AND OXYGEN SCOTT HURRELL AND DORA SCHOLARIOS Fontainebleau and Oxygen are two leading multinational hotel chains with a strong focus on customer service. Two of their UK outlets, however, reveal contrasting fortunes in terms of workers’ customer service skills. The exact nature of the hotels’ service brands differs considerably. Oxygen staff described the hotel as ‘young’, ‘fresh’ and ‘stylish’. The building itself had won design awards and had a minimalist interior complemented by modern art prints. There was an emphasis on informality when serving customers with employees allowed discretion over service encounters and their appearance at work, to supplement their designer uniform. Oxygen employees were required to be ‘funky’ ‘friendly’ and ‘individual’. Fontainebleau’s service brand was much more formal, and characterised as ‘traditional’ and ‘professional’. The hotel had opulent décor, with antique-style furniture complemented by classical art prints. Employees had to adhere to rigid brand standards, reinforced through regular training. Employees were expected to interact with customers in a highly formal manner and be ‘polite’, ‘clean’ and ‘tidy’. Fontainebleau provided an industry-standard uniform and had strict staff appearance guidelines. Managers in one branch of Fontainebleau reported that a number of current staff were not fully proficient in customer service skills (known as skills gaps). Managers reported such gaps in approximately 25 per cent to 30 per cent of front-line service staff; rising to 60 per cent on the reception desk (although many receptionists were new). In Oxygen, no customer service skills gaps were reported. Fontainebleau had a staff turnover rate of 75 per cent in the previous year and Oxygen 42 per cent. Both hotels used a variety of recruitment methods. Oxygen, however, relied more heavily on recruiting from university campuses and was also slightly more reliant on recommendations from current employees.
