Attract commercial people
By making these roles more attractive, hotels can increase their chances of recruiting and retaining the right people. Attractive commercial roles can also help hotels stay competitive and adapt to changing market conditions. This can ultimately lead to increased revenue and profitability for the hotel business. Here are a few ways to make marketing, sales, and revenue management roles more attractive.
Competitive compensation
One of the most effective ways to make commercial roles attractive is by offering competitive compensation packages. This can include a combination of base salary, performance-based bonuses, and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation time.
Competitive compensation can be a significant factor in attracting and retaining talented individuals for commercial roles. Research shows that younger generations value the compensation package more than previous generations. In addition to providing financial security and stability, it shows that the hotel loves its employees and is willing to invest in their success. This can increase employee motivation, loyalty, and engagement, leading to better business outcomes.
To ensure that compensation is competitive, hotels should conduct market research to determine what other hotels and companies in different industries offer similar roles. They can use this information to benchmark their compensation packages and ensure that they offer attractive salaries and benefits to job seekers.
Professional development opportunities
By offering opportunities for professional development, such as attending conferences, training programs, and mentorship programs, hotels can contribute to their employees to help them improve their skills, knowledge, and expertise, which will make commercial roles more attractive. This shows that the hotel values the growth and development of its employees and is willing to invest in their career advancement. Providing professional development opportunities is important because it can help employees stay engaged, motivated, and committed to their jobs while enhancing their job performance and productivity. In addition, recognizing and rewarding employees' achievements in commercial roles can boost morale and motivation. This can include awards, promotions, and public recognition.
Collaborative and inclusive work culture
A collaborative and inclusive work culture is where employees work together towards common goals, and diversity and inclusivity are valued and celebrated. In the context of commercial roles in hotels, this means breaking down silos between departments and working as a cohesive commercial team to achieve the hotel's revenue goals.
Here are four ways hotels can foster a collaborative and inclusive work culture in the commercial team.
- Set clear goals and expectations: The commercial team should clearly understand the hotel's revenue goals and each department's role in achieving those goals. This can help align everyone towards a common purpose and foster a sense of teamwork.
- Encourage open communication: Hotels should encourage open communication between the different departments within the commercial team. This can be achieved through regular meetings, dashboards, reports, or other communication channels. By fostering open communication, everyone can stay informed and aligned on the hotel's revenue strategy.
- Embrace diversity and inclusivity: Hotels already embrace diversity and inclusivity by hiring employees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives and creating a culture where everyone feels valued and respected. However, hotels need to pay attention to these principles and values when hiring roles in the commercial team. Employees who feel included and appreciated are more likely to collaborate effectively and contribute to the team's success.
- Foster a culture of teamwork: Hotels should foster a culture of collaboration within the commercial team. This can be achieved by recognizing and rewarding collaborative behavior, promoting cross-departmental projects, and creating opportunities for team-building and bonding.
By fostering a collaborative and inclusive work culture within the commercial team, hotels can improve the effectiveness and competitiveness of their revenue strategy. By breaking down silos and working together towards common goals, the commercial team can achieve more significant results and drive revenue growth for the hotel business.
Providing tools and resources
Providing tools and resources can help the commercial team be more productive, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and make the job fun and rewarding. Here are some examples of tools and resources that hotels can provide:
- Creative and innovative tools: Hotels can provide the commercial team with productivity tools such as Demand Calendar, which automatically collects and stores all critical data in one system for easy access to information for all roles in the commercial team. In addition, Demand Calendar improves communication and collaboration within the commercial team. A younger generation expects modern technology to make the job easy to grow revenue and profits. Tools like Demand Calendar help the team stay organized, communicate effectively, and manage revenue and profitability growth more efficiently.
In addition, hotels can provide the commercial team with creative and innovative resources such as access to the latest technology and digital marketing tools, training programs in emerging technologies, and opportunities to participate in hackathons or other innovation events. This can help the team stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in their field and keep the job exciting and engaging.
- Financial resources: Financial resources and budgets are also crucial for the success of commercial roles in hotels. Hotels must allocate sufficient funding to marketing, sales, and revenue management efforts to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and maximize revenue from each guest. The hotel should allocate the budget strategically, focusing on the most effective marketing channels, sales tactics, and revenue management strategies. This can involve investing in data analytics tools and digital marketing campaigns. In addition, the hotel should monitor the performance of the commercial team regularly and adjust the budget as needed. This can involve reallocating funds from underperforming areas to more promising ones or increasing the budget if revenue targets are unmet. By providing the commercial team with sufficient financial resources, hotels can help ensure that the team can achieve its revenue goals and drive the hotel's overall success. Without an adequate budget, the commercial team may be limited in acquiring new customers, retaining existing ones, and maximizing revenue from each guest, ultimately impacting the hotel's bottom line.
- Work-life balance resources: In many hotels, the commercial roles have more work than they can manage, which results in long working hours. To attract the right people to commercial roles, hotels can offer resources to help the commercial team achieve a healthy work-life balance. This can include flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options, flexible schedules, or job sharing. It can also have resources such as on-site fitness facilities, stress management programs, or counseling services.
Be more creative
Finally, hotels have several creative ways to attract commercial roles. Here are a few examples.
- Partner with local universities and schools: Hotels can partner with local universities and schools to create internship or co-op programs. This can provide students with hands-on experience in commercial roles and help hotels identify and attract promising talent.
- Use social media and digital marketing: Hotels can use social media and digital marketing to reach potential candidates for commercial roles. This can include using targeted advertising on social media platforms, creating engaging content that showcases the hotel's culture and values, and leveraging employee referrals to reach a wider pool of candidates.
- Host networking events: Hotels can host networking events to connect with professionals in the industry and build relationships with potential candidates for commercial roles. This can include hosting industry conferences, trade shows, or workshops or creating informal networking events where commercial professionals can meet and connect. A great example is events organized by HSMAI (Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International).
- Build a strong employer brand: Hotels can build a strong employer brand by creating a culture that values and supports its employees. This can involve promoting a diverse and inclusive work environment, providing opportunities for professional development, and recognizing and rewarding employee achievements.
By implementing these strategies, hotels can attract talented individuals to their commercial roles and differentiate themselves from their competitors in the industry. In addition, this can help hotels build a solid commercial team committed to driving revenue growth and profitability.