By Kimberly Ware
Hospitality is one of the most important industries in Miami. The Miami Herald reports that more than 15 million people visited Miami in 2015 alone. This means hotels, restaurants, and resorts needs people to serve millions of guests every year. Miami-based businesses need workers, but the hiring process is often long and tedious. Business owners can bypass a lot of trouble by using specialized hospitality-focused staffing agencies.
Most people probably think of staffing agencies as sources for low-paying, temporary jobs. Specialized placement agencies strive to fight that stereotype by focusing on one industry and working to match workers to specific positions. There are specialized agencies working in legal services, health care, and hospitality to place qualified workers in exciting positions. Acting as a recruiter in one of these agencies is no easy task. Recruiters must have experience and success in their agency’s focus to accurately place candidates. They have to really care about the industry and what the businesses need to grow and become successful.
This experience is crucial for hospitality agents, since hospitality positions have a notoriously high rate of turn over and often require a specific temperament, skill set, and personality to succeed. An additional challenge hospitality professionals face is with a high rate of employee replacement comes a lot of time spent finding and training new employees. The hiring process requires time and money—two resources any business owner always needs. Placing an ad on Craigslist or Indeed (or any of a number of other job sites) often means hundreds of applications for a single position. This forces a business owner or manager to spend a lot of time sifting through a mountain of applications from people who might not be qualified for the position at all. Another headache managers face while traditional hiring methods is trying to figure out if a candidate who’s great on paper will fit into the workplace and provide good work.
Using an agency lessens these headaches for owners and managers. By using an agency, a manager has someone else filter the mass of applicants. The agency can weed out the people who aren’t qualified or who might not fit before the business ever has to deal with them. Getting someone else to filter employees also means a hire has a better chance of fitting into the position. If a business hires ill-fitting employees, the business has to start the whole hiring process over again when those employees either quit or get fired. Using an agency makes it more likely for a business to get the right employee the first time, which saves money, time, and aggravation.
With so much at stake, it’s important for a business to pick the best agency they can. Picking an agency requires trust that these professionals will work to help a business grow. Prospective employees also need to trust that an agency will put them with a great company. Everyone involved needs an agency with experienced, passionate recruiters who can make the right match the first time.
The Miami office of Patrice & Associates Hospitality Recruiting, owned by Elevate & Co LLC, is one such company. Patrice & Associates came to Miami in 2016, but they’ve been at work all over the United States since 1989. This specific office is based in Miami Beach and serves Miami, the US, and Canada. Over the years, this business has worked with all kinds of clients, from national-level restaurant chains and casinos to boutique hotels and resorts. They’ve given top-tier talents new opportunities all over the United States with new offices opening in Canada in 2017. The push into Canada is a new and exciting step. Given that many restaurant and hotel chains have locations in Miami, across the US, and Canada, Elevate and Patrice & Associates can get employees anywhere. This company also follows a web-based business model, meaning they can serve employers and prospective hires anywhere with an internet connection. Being constantly connected means that Elevate can serve clients anytime, anywhere.
Hospitality staffing agencies are crucial for restaurants and hotels, as well as other businesses. Through bypassing normal hiring headaches, hospitality-focused staffing agencies can save time and money for business owners. Potential employees also benefit from staffing agencies as they can get into lasting positions with excellent companies.
