In the hospitality sector, when your team is at full stretch, every new hire counts. Seasonal and temporary workers are expected to hit the ground running, but without proper onboarding, many struggle. Good Human Resources onboarding software ensures temporary staff have the tools to succeed, and to stay.
In this blog we’ll explore how modern employee onboarding software, particularly Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can deliver a streamlined, repeatable onboarding process for seasonal workers. We’ll explore several key aspects including:
Jump forward to:
- The challenge of onboarding for seasonal hospitality hiring
- Using ATS templates for repeat seasonal hires
- Mobile first onboarding for a fast-paced industry
- Automating compliance in the hospitality sector
- Integrating onboarding with recruitment for end-to-end visibility
- Supporting collaboration across teams and locations
For Hospitality HR teams, short lead times and high churn are part of the job. The industry has the highest turnover of any sector in the UK, driven by long and/or unsociable hours, limited career progression, low wages and poor work/life balance. Many candidates work multiple jobs or view hospitality as a stopgap while transitioning to another career, making it harder to attract and retain reliable staff.
While hospitality vacancies haven’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, they are beginning to decline1. But filling vacancies is one thing. Retaining staff, particularly for temporary or seasonal work is another.
Comprehensive onboarding is one of the best ways to retain employees, but speed often takes priority over process with the pressure to get staff working quickly.
So how can recruitment and onboarding software improve retention of seasonal hospitality staff?
Using an Applicant Tracking System for templated onboarding significantly boosts retention by streamlining the hiring process, reducing admin, lowering costs, and speeding up time to hire. Consistent, automated workflows with personalised communications keep candidates engaged, reducing drop-off, whilst structured onboarding ensures new hires are ready to work and aware of their responsibilities, fostering confidence and early integration.
Using ATS templates for repeat seasonal hires
Most repeat and temporary hires are for recurrent roles. HR teams already use the same job ads and descriptions to source candidates, because it’s efficient. The same can be done with onboarding too.
A good-quality ATS will provide templated onboarding workflows that you can adjust to fit. This might include:
- Pre-populated offer letters & contracts – ready for automated signing and e-signatures.
- Response management – personalised communications to keep candidates informed of their progress.
- Compliance – streamlined reference collection and integrated pre-employment checks.
- Secure document hub – storage for all your sensitive candidate and new hire documentation.
- Pre-boarding and welcome – deliver essential training, send welcome videos and ensure new hires are aware of company policies and procedures before their first day.
- Payroll integration – directly and securely send new hire data to your payroll system, removing the potential for manual data input errors.
- Internal task management – task alerts trigger internal team actions (uniform, security passes, training, buddy systems and other relevant tasks.)
An ATS personalises the candidate experience whilst ensuring consistency for every hire. It significantly reduces onboarding times for internal teams and helps lower attrition. New hires have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and feel connected and ready to contribute from day one.
Mobile-first onboarding for a fast-paced industry
In the hospitality industry, speed and flexibility are everything when it comes to hiring temporary and seasonal staff. Many candidates apply and onboard while on the go, and not all have access to laptops or desktops, so a mobile-first approach is crucial.
Mobile-optimised software and features like digital document signing tools (like DocuSign), online forms and easy uploads for documents and certificates remove obstacles that could lead to early drop-off.
Training modules and welcome videos should be easy to access on a mobile too. With personalised candidate hubs that support social logins, new hires can check on their progress without the hassle of yet another password, keeping the experience smooth and simple from the start.
Automating compliance in the hospitality sector
Using an ATS streamlines compliance by building it directly into your onboarding workflows. An efficient ATS will integrate seamlessly with pre-employment checking tools and make it easy to upload and store essential certifications; from pre-employment checks such as DBS and Right to Work, to sector-specific requirements such as food safety documentation and health and safety checks.
Worried about things slipping through the cracks? Nothing gets overlooked with an ATS. Templated onboarding workflows automatically track all your compliance milestones for you, alerting hiring teams to any issues or gaps, and providing a robust audit trail of all interactions and checks for complete peace of mind.
Integrating onboarding with recruitment for end-to-end visibility
The real beauty of using an ATS for onboarding new hires is consistency. With everything managed in one system, key information is delivered from the first touchpoint, the application, to day one. This provides a smooth and engaging candidate experience, reducing the risk of drop-off and helping prepare new hires so they really are ready to hit the ground running.
Internally, this joined-up approach pays dividends too. A central dashboard provides oversight of all live hires, facilitates bulk actions for high-volume hiring and allows teams to template workflows from application, through shortlisting and interview to offer and onboarding. Secure document uploads and storage protect sensitive candidate data and advanced data reporting empowers hiring teams to further refine and optimise their onboarding process.
Supporting collaboration across teams and locations
For hospitality businesses that work across multiple venues and locations, delivering a consistent onboarding experience across all outlets is essential. Recruitment and onboarding software makes it easier to manage new starters across all locations, ensuring everyone receives the same high-quality welcome – no matter where they’re based.
Modern onboarding HR software provides standardised workflows which are structured and compliant, while still allowing space for local teams to tailor elements of the provision where needed.
Distinct hiring manager portals within ATS systems also empower your hiring managers. They provide autonomy to manage interview schedules and candidate feedback, whilst also sending alerts for tasks and actions that require completion to maintain momentum. It’s the best of both worlds: centralised control and oversight, with on-the-ground flexibility!
Why is seamless onboarding critical to delivering a great guest experience in hospitality?
In hospitality, your people are your brand. When you’re hiring seasonal or temporary staff, it’s vital they quickly grasp your service standards, customer expectations and brand personality. A high-churn environment and pressure to get staff working quickly can lead to teams offering minimal onboarding or bypassing onboarding completely, leading to unintegrated team members and higher attrition rates.
A structured and consistent onboarding process – powered by an ATS – helps new hires understand your values and what’s expected of them, so they can deliver a great guest experience from day one.
Reach ATS helps hospitality businesses deliver great onboarding experiences to new hires across multiple venues and locations. Our smart system supports regulatory compliance and enhances the candidate experience, while speeding up time to hire and reducing drop-off.
Reach ATS is bespoke software, built to your specific requirements. It’s intuitive and simple to access, with numerous options to customise onboarding workflows. Our central dashboard gives you clear visibility of the progress of all candidates through the system and our AI-powered features offer in-depth data insights to optimise and enhance your onboarding.
If you’d like to find out more about how our customisable ATS can help you onboard smarter and faster, then Reach out for a demo today.
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