Local talent pool likely to fill Park Plaza vacancies
The Park Plaza hotel in London
The Park Plaza Westminster Bridge’s location is proving a boon to its recruitment plans in more ways than one.
The new London hotel, which has been built from the ground up and opens early next year, boasts a stunning view of St Stephen’s Tower and the Houses of Parliament but the hotel’s location has had added benefits as it has afforded direct access to a diverse talent pool right on its doorstep.
“We have a real unusual opportunity that most hotels don’t have…an awful lot of people live locally to the hotel,” general manager Andrew Swindells told Recruiter. Swindells adds that the hotel does not face the same recruitment challenges as West End hotels as its local residents, unlike the Lambeth population who live close to the Park Plaza, would be far more reluctant to work in a hotel.
The challenge for HR director Sarah Hegarty is that by its grand opening, the site will require up to 800 staff. Park Plaza ran a jobs fair with the Waterloo Jobs Shop, a partnership between South Bank Employers’ Group and Lambeth Council, in the Lilian Baylis community centre in Lambeth. Held in October, it attracted 649 people and these candidates were then invited to recruitment open days.
HR director Sarah Hegarty
The new hotel has attracted 4,500 applications through its own careers site where all vacancies are advertised. Hegarty adds that there is competition for talent in the Park Plaza group, and calls for a commitment to a partnerships between all the group’s HR managers to both share candidates and support backfilling of candidates.
Hegarty is also building her own fully-trained casual labour talent pool, made up of students as well as local residents, to cater for big events. She adds that regular contact will be maintained with these workers by line managers and an HR newsletter.
Hegarty says: “There are a lot of people out of work at the moment and it is important that we have a real core base of people from the local community for our key positions. At breakfast, you need people ready for 5.30 in the morning who can get to work in all kinds of weather.”
