The Demand for Hospitality & Leisure professionals in China has never been this strong.
Hospitality & Leisure companies are pulling out all the stops to hire and retain staff to serve demanding consumers in a buoyant market. China’s travel and tourism industry has recorded staggering growth in the past two decades, and the industry is now worth more than US$100 billion a year to the Chinese economy. Inbound arrivals topped 132 million in 2007. The sector also accounts for some 90 million jobs, directly and indirectly.
Poised to become the world’s most popular tourist destination within a decade, mainland China stands to benefit not only from international tourist arrivals but also a massive increase in domestic tourism as the country’s economy booms.
Due to the phenomenal business growth, the need to find suitable employees to fill the thousands of jobs becomes more demanding. However, the demand for qualified candidates far outstrips the supply of trained employees, especially in the critical roles of public relations and marketing in International and local Hospitality & Leisure companies.
Why is there a lack of talents in the Hospitality & Leisure industry?
Among the various reasons for the situation, two stand out: first, the majority of hotel employees on all levels lack exposure to different countries and cultures, and they have slim chance to see, observe and learn from what hotels in other countries; second, the training system for Hospitality & leisure sector in China is below international standard level.
All firms, even big international chains, are facing problems recruiting and retaining talent. The fast opening rates in recent years and the enormous development planned by both local and international chains for the coming years will make recruitment of excellent professionals who combine international skills with local knowledge even harder.
This is where Antal International plays a significant role in their recruitment strategy. We are specialized in matching people and their skills to meet our clients’ executive recruitment needs.
Which are the Most In-Demand Positions in the China market?
In the Hospitality field:
· Executive Chefs (The demand for both Local and International Chefs is buoyant).
· Director of Rooms (Local candidates with enough experience are rare).
· Director of Sales & Marketing (Solid leadership in Sales & Marketing is still rare).
· Hotel General Managers (Experienced professionals are in high demand ).
In Tourism & Leisure Companies:
· Directors of Development (Profiles taking over responsibilities for planning expansion).
· Spa Managers (The combination of Sales and Operations skills are hard to find).
· Public Relations / Event Managers (There is a serious shortage of highly skilled Mandarin-speaking PR talent in general).
The interesting element to most of the placements of Antal International’s Hospitality & Leisure division is what often highlights a ‘great’ candidate over a ‘good’ candidate: the importance of attitude, communication skills, and a mindset which combines both short and long-term goals. Clearly a Hospitality & Leisure role requires a positive ‘can-do’ attitude towards excellence in service but also the ability to train the local staff to perform under the highest quality and service standards. One of the essential elements of our interview and screening process with our candidates is to assess how aware a candidate is of their own strengths and weaknesses.
It is common for properties to run for months without key professionals or maintaining low performance professionals in place because of the lack of suitable replacements. This results in an obvious downturn in the quality of the service delivered and customer satisfaction. That is why more and more properties are contacting Antal International to provide them excellent professionals to replace current employees, or simply to enhance the present team.
That is exactly what happened with one of our clients. The GM of the property contacted me after receiving an excellent profile for an executive chef position. Since the GM was appointed he wasn’t happy with the performance of the kitchen and was asking the corporate office to provide some candidates for the position. The quality of the candidates provided by the corporate office was not better than the current chef. After contacting us, the GM was able to interview 4 excellent profiles within one week and hired an excellent European executive chef with 5 years China experience after 10 days of the first contact. Now the property is receiving all kind of awards for the excellence of its food and beverage outlets.
Antal International is a mid to senior level executive search & selection business: We have been in mainland China for over 10 years, and currently employ over 120 specialist professional recruitment consultants in Beijing and Shanghai. Our Hospitality & Leisure division has 10 consultants recruiting excellent Hospitality & Leisure professionals which we consider to be the top 15% of the market. Our consultants are ex-Hospitality & Leisure professionals themselves, and have been thoroughly trained in best-practice recruitment, selection and assessment.
For further information, please contact ms@antal.com.cn