The past two years have been anything but easy for the Alpine hotel industry: closing, reopening, full occupancy, and back to square one – a huge challenge not only for personnel management. As of December 12th, hotels and guesthouses in Austria are now allowed to reopen their doors – hopefully permanently.
If the guests’ origin markets permit, the demand for a winter vacation experience seems unbroken. The much larger problem for a functioning business is the blatant staff shortage: seasonal employees have partly left or are no longer coming, and many former employees have changed industries.
However, complaining alone doesn’t help. Even if circumstances are anything but easy, much lies within the entrepreneurial sphere of influence. Top businesses have prepared well for this situation with an Employer Branding strategy and can now quickly fill open positions.
Among the showcase companies in Employer Branding are the EXPLORER Hotels – a group of trendy design-budget hotels in top Alpine regions. The relaxed atmosphere, modern design, and active, sporty guests in the 9 hotels, each with approximately 100 rooms, promise a vacation feeling for explorers.
Given the upcoming winter season with high planning uncertainty, it was a major concern for the two managing directors, Katja Leveringhaus and Jürnjakob Reisigl, in autumn 2021 to sharpen the employer brand, define company-wide standards for internal corporate values, and strengthen internal and external personnel marketing.
An internal employee survey after an intensive summer season brought initial valuable results to light. In several workshops, involving hotel managers, support functions, and management, the core content of the EXPLORER Spirit, the employer value proposition, and the EXPLORER Package were developed. Numerous fields of action opened up further potential to regionally expand the good reputation of EXPLORER Hotels as an attractive employer in the industry.
In personnel marketing, the aim is to encourage more active applications by increasing presence in digital and analog channels with sharpened messages. By optimizing the recruiting and onboarding process, better and faster integration of new employees should be achieved. Last but not least, strengthening ongoing internal communication should increase loyalty and reduce the traditionally high fluctuation rate in tourism.
Employer Branding is declared an absolute top priority for all executives and hotel team managers. Additional human resources and systems will ensure implementation in daily operations. This prepares EXPLORER Hotels to find and retain sufficient and, most importantly, the right employees even under difficult environmental conditions, thus looking forward to a successful winter season.
The IMARK Strategy Advisors wish the EXPLORER Hotels and the entire tourism industry great success!
