Ritz Carlton Hotel Case Study

Introduction

Employers and job seekers are brought together for potential matches through their recruitment and job search activities. Employers may post help wanted signs, run newspaper advertisements, or seek referrals from private employment agencies. Job seekers may speak with friends and relatives, solicit the aid of the state employment agency, or simply walk in and apply. These recruitment and search activities help both parties acquire information about each other, and the more information they obtain prior to entering an employment agreement the higher the likelihood of a good employment match.

In this case study we explain why a strategic approach to recruiting was crucial at the Ritz-Carlton as well as why were the conventional recruiting approaches less important than the creative methods in generating a large number of applicants at one time in Ritz-Carlton hotel. The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is famous for its excellent service and for providing customers with the experience of a lifetime. We will also describe techniques used by Ritz-Carlton to train employees with its special service philosophy. New employees are chosen for their particular qualities-including a willingness to serve others, drive and enthusiasm, and an optimistic attitude. Each employee always carries a fold-out card, covering the company's Gold Standards - an array of service principles. Training sets about bringing these principles to life and giving them meaning and the 7 day countdown procedure use to train new employees.

The selection process at The Ritz-Carlton is called "Commitment to Talent" because they are committed to hiring the top 1% of hospitality professionals around the world. In developing its selection process, Ritz-Carlton uses its own expertise as well as consultants. The Ritz-Carlton does not "hire" employees, as other organizations do, the hotel "selects" new members for the Ritz-Carlton team.

"We believe that to create pride and joy in the workplace, you must involve the employees. And you create that pride and joy by making employees feel like they are a part of Ritz-Carlton family. We're here to provide service, but we're not servants. We're professionals in our field. Everything happens because the employees are so committed."

Company Profile

Products and Services: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. develops and operates luxury hotels for others. The hotels are designed and identified to appeal to and suit the requirements of its principal customers who consist of (1) Meeting Event Planners and (2) Independent Business and Leisure Travelers.

President and COO: Horst Schulze.

Headquarters: 3414 Peachtree Road, N.E., Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30326

Operations: 1 Central Reservations Office

7 International Sales Offices (ISO's)

24 Hotels and Resorts in North America

2 Hotels in Europe

8 Hotels and Resorts in Asia

2 Hotels in Australia

30 Hotels under Development

Customer Base: Over 800000 Customers World-wide

Revenue: $1.5 Billion. A 40% increase over the previous five years.

Employees: 17000 World-wide, known as The Ladies and Gentlemen of the ritz-Carlton.

Case Summary

From the Americas to Asia and the Middle East to Europe, The Ritz-Carlton hotel services are esteemed by every traveler. At first in 1927 The Ritz-Carlton, Boston was opened and other hotels followed in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City and Boca Raton.

The case is about the Recruiting of employees when a new Ritz-Carlton hotel was about to open In Washington D.C. The Ritz-Carlton is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. So, while recruiting for their new hotel Ritz-Carlton used both conventional recruiting approach and creative recruiting approach to generate several thousand applicants.

A conventional Recruiting approach is something which follows thorough procedures of recruitment to achieve the optimum choice for the client. Starting with a clear definition of the job profile, the required specifications and candidate competencies.

Ritz-Carlton placed news paper ads as their conventional recruiting approach, when the opening of the hotel in Washington D.C. got closer. But, Ritz-Carlton did not use Internet or Radio Ads.

A creative recruiting approach is used when the labor market is tight and the industry has a significant shortage of qualified applicants.

As a part of this approach, Ritz-Carlton's managers and employees handed out business cards and "service Praise" cards to employees at other restaurants and hotels. Those individuals were encouraged to apply at Ritz-Carlton.

A job fair was also held by Ritz-Carlton as a part of creative recruiting approach which was the major source for their recruiting. For this fair Ritz-Carlton's recruiters handed out job fair invitation cards at subway stations in the mornings of the job fair. As a result, they became successful to generate 2300 applicants from that job fair in two days. From those 2300 applicants all were asked to complete a blank application and then they were asked several preliminary screening interview questions. Obviously all did not pass the screening interview. Those who passed, were scheduled for more in-depth interview, consisting of 55 questions which took about 1 ½ hours. 150 in-depth interviews were conducted instantly at the job fair and 300 in-depth interviews were scheduled when the applicants' schedules allowed them.

Regardless of the methods used, the goal of Ritz-Carlton was to generate a pool of qualified applicants so that the jobs in the organization are filled in a timely manner. And they reached their goal successfully. The efforts that

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