Social media is all the rage as a recruitment tool for many professions – but more traditional methods of scouting for talent may be most effective for entry-level roles in retail and catering/hospitality, according to HR and recruitment directors working in those sectors.

Such tried and tested methods might include posting signs and handing out fliers at their respective stores and restaurants, giving talks at local schools and pinpointing local areas where targeted recruits congregate, said speakers and panellists at a London event hosted yesterday [10 November] by niche job board Caterer.com to discuss recruitment issues in catering/hospitality.

For instance, targeting companies that are making redundancies is one such option, suggested Michelle Dawson, community manager for retail and office property developer Hammerson.

But in particular, recruiters in hospitality/catering and retail should use their own stores and restaurants as key attraction areas, said Esther O’Halloran, HR director at patisserie chain Paul UK. “Tap into business on your premises,” she urged. “Your premises should speak for themselves.”

Representatives from retailer Debenhams confirmed that they use their stores as a key attraction area. Jacqui Pemberton, business partner and talent manager, said she and her colleagues also use talent spotting cards to hand out to workers in other establishments who are providing excellent customer service to encourage them to apply for roles at Debenhams. “It’s ‘behind the scenes’ recruitment, but it works,” Pemberton said. “It’s a great way to recruit.”

At the beginning of the discussion, Caterer.com sales manager Calvern James had posed the question of how catering/hospitality operations were capitalising on the potential of the ageing workforce and bringing older workers into employment. Several attendees acknowledged that they did not know how to tap into this group of workers. “Where do you go to find them?” asked O’Halloran. “I’m quite curious to see where to target them.”

The event was aimed at sharing with catering and hospitality in-house recruiters recruitment lessons from the retail industry on attraction, retention and people development.