The document discusses the challenges in recruiting top talent for the growing global hospitality industry. It notes that the talent pool is shrinking as more hotels are built, while experienced workers are retiring or seeking better opportunities. Recruiters must work hard to attract the best candidates, as they will not actively seek out new roles. A professional executive search is needed to identify the right matches between top talent and opportunities.

2. “If you want to win the battle in the product
market, you have to win first the battle in the
talent market”
(John Sullivan, San Francisco University)
“Luxury without Hospitality is Silence”
(Qatar Airways Advertising Campaign)
Allow us to bring you our combined experience and
an overview of the global talent pool. The following
synopsis and information has been gathered
through our daily contact with hotel leaders and
corporate offices, the Who is Who of the hospitality
industry around the nation and around the world.
These two quotes describe best the situation in the
hospitality recruitment market of today:
To Our Valued Clients
Update on the top talent search and recruitment challenges of today and tomorrow.
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3. or converted to even greater luxury worldwide than
ever before. The increasing number of retirees are
looking for resorts and recreation, the increasing
number of middle class families with disposable
income in India, China and Eastern Europe are
traveling on vacation and the booming economies
of the East are fueling business travel; hence, more
hotels are needed. But who will serve and meet the
demands of these new travelers?
Industryinsidersagreethatitisan“employeesmarket”
today; the vacant positions outnumber the available
talent greatly. With the Baby-Boomers retiring and
the fact that Generation X and Y are paying more
attention to life-style and families, i.e. spouses’
careers, the hotel industry finds it increasingly
difficult to motivate the Best of the Best to change
companies, let alone locations.
Secondly, there are more hotels being built and /
The Challenge in Recruiting is that
“The best people already have jobs, they will not come to you, you have to find them”.
To Our Valued Clients
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4. companies that are planning for 60 hotels in China
over the next few years, under one brand alone.
This situation is being discussed and analyzed in
corporate offices and during human resources
conferences, but this challenge can not be the “
Problem of the Human Resources Department”
alone.
Recruiting and talent search is marketing and sales,
as much as a public relations effort. A hotel’s brand
and quality perception, as much as turn-over of
management staff, take-over threats of competitors
and a company’s share price, all play a role in
attracting or steering away top talent.
The ever shrinking talent pool is being encountered
the world over. Combined with a buoyant hotel
development market, a shortage of talent is being
created.
India has currently only 4 million foreign visitors, but
35 million domestic travelers and only really 95,000
hotel rooms to speak of. In comparison, Las Vegas
has 125,000 hotel rooms today. So India will build at
least 50 new hotels.
In Dubai, over 90 hotel projects are being realized
and many more are on the drawing board. No
one has dared to count the hotel development
opportunities in China yet, but we know of hotel
To Our Valued Clients
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5. relationship with this individual.
The hotel industry has lost many talented colleagues
to other, better paying industries over the years.
Why should a successful Sales Director selling
Revenue Management Software make twice as
much as the Hotel Sales Director who he sells to?
Hotel managers are in demand by other industries
mainly because of the management skills of large
teams which our industry teaches early, and also
because of the quality service aspect which other
industries like to implement.
Hotel companies have to “Wow” top talent; have to
pursue potential joiners like they pursue top paying
clients. Advertising and branding campaigns have to
demonstrate that “this is a great place to work” and
this “is a company that develops careers”.
Successful and qualified candidates no longer
queue up for employment interviews. The
successful and gainfully employed will not read
the job pages of the newspapers nor web sites and
they will not respond to “Help Wanted” banners,
but they do listen to the recommendations of
colleagues (My place is a great place to work), and
they do listen to career counseling by a professional
executives search consultant, who has built a
To Our Valued Clients
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6. plan each successful hotel will need.
Over the past 3 decades, Executive Search
International has successfully introduced some of
the most talented hoteliers to some of the best
hotels in the world.
We touched the careers of many of today’s industry
leaders at one stage or the other.
Executive Search International has been able to
advance the careers of many colleagues, and we
stay in touch with these executives throughout the
world.
But salary adjustments have been made, and more
attractive long-term benefits (such as stock options
and pension grants) are being upgraded to ensure
talent retention. These benefits are designed to make
it even more difficult to motivate top managers to
move from one company to the other.
To capture such talent, the search is time-
consuming and needs to be done by a
professional; the employer communication with
the potential employee has to be attractive and
inter-active.
Successfultalentattractionneedsavision,aplan,and
a well executed strategy, much like the marketing
To Our Valued Clients
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7. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial
partnership. Yours Sincerely,
Stefano P. Biscioni
President
Executive Search International
This global network of professional contacts allows
us to identify candidates and matching opportunities
quickly.
By sharing this expertise with you, we enable you
to fill a vacant position efficiently, discreetly, with
utmost integrity and 100 % focus.
We would be delighted to discuss your specific
recruitment requirements with you in order to devise
a specific recruitment plan, and to explain how an
exclusive assignment can bring the best available
talent to you.
To Our Valued Clients
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8. OUR CONTACTS
EXECUTIVE SEARCH INTERNATIONAL
Stefano P. Biscioni
President/CEO
M: +44 (0) 7941 884 794 - T: +44 (0) 20 7470 9251
www.esiglobal.com - sbiscioni@esiglobal.com
ESI London: 39, Gayville Road SW11 6JW – London
ESI Rome: P.zza del Popolo 18, 00187 – Rome
ESI Milan: Via Monte di Pietà 21, 20121 – Milan
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