Stuart O’Connor, Director at Career Vision Recruiters, on thinking outside the box and why quality over quantity is best

When was Career Vision Recruiters set up?
Career Vision Recruiters was set up in summer 2019 with a vision to open multiple offices nationwide. Our first office opened in Naas and our second office was due to open in March 2020, but the pandemic put a hold on that. We did eventually open our second office in Limerick in March of this year. We have a head count of eight staff between our two offices and we’re currently looking for a location in Dublin city to expand the team.

What does your service consist of?
Our services consist of a fully adaptable website that works on all mobile devices. We arrange site visits so we are fully aware of the property and know what we are presenting to candidates. When posting job roles, we use a European candidate sourcing platform that posts to multiply job boards. Our website is updated daily with vacancies and our newsfeed gets updated twice a month. The Career Vision Recruiters website is getting a makeover behind the scenes too where CV templates, interview advice and many more important tools are being added. Our current website address is still live and can be found at  www.careervisionrecruiters.ie. We also have a strong presence on social media.

How easy is it for both clients and candidates to use your service?
Extremely easy! We allocate a recruiter to look after your property depending on which area of the country you’re in. They will become your go-to person in the company and will look after your account. This allows for a relationship to be built between client and recruiter. It’s the same for the candidate process. All you have to do is to reach out to any of the team and we would be happy to run through the process.

We’ve heard reports for several months that the hospitality industry is struggling to source and retain staff. Is that still the case?
I think it’s common knowledge that the hospitality industry is struggling to source top quality staff. It’s a major issue across the country, in all areas.

What kind of staff are your clients looking for?
Our clients are looking to recruit general managers and deputy general managers, executive chefs, financial controllers, deputy general managers, food & beverage Managers, rooms division managers, revenue managers, reservation managers, duty managers, chefs all grades and so on. Basically, all roles.

From a government/tourism agency perspective, what could be done to alleviate staff shortages in the industry?
Allow a minimum number of non-critical skilled workers into the country that want a career in hospitality. Speed up the process for working Visa’s and maybe give recruitment agencies direct access to this government department so communication can be reverted to clients in a timely fashion. Allow all graduates that have completed their third level education in Ireland a Stamp 4 immediately. We need to encourage students into the industry and this needs to happen at a secondary level before students decide on the career paths.

Are hospitality businesses offering enough incentives to would-be employees? Is a good wage enough these days?
It really depends on the property. Everyone is trying to do the best for themselves. In recent years, many of our clients have been thinking outside the box and are offering a clear footpath with career growth etc; they are educating their employees further with courses. The larger companies can offer more as they have the resources and have the technology for this. Salaries have increased dramatically in the past 36 months and are at a very reasonable level, but this is changing weekly due to high inflation rates. All that candidates want is a full team in place, do an honest week’s work and not be stressed about trying to fill a roster – this is what we’re hearing and if I was still in hospitality, that’s all I would want.

What steps has Career Vision Recruiters taken to try and ease pressures on clients?
We have had to think outside the box ourselves and are constantly evolving to be ahead of all trends. Our clients buy into us as they’re aware from the start that all our recruiters come from a senior hospitality background and between the whole team, we have over 90 years’ experience dealing with people. Straight away, this eases their minds. As previous senior managers, the team know what to ask and what to look for in a candidate. This allows them to know they are in good hands. We have an intense screening process where we listen to the client’s needs and only present suitable candidates based on information regarding the positions. We liaise with candidate and client all the way up until they start and check in with both candidate and client to ensure everything is going smoothly, ensuring reference checks are completed etc. Our ethos is always quality over quantity. I suppose we’re all under pressure and we understand the challenges and have experienced this first hand.

What advice would you give a hospitality business that’s struggling to find staff?
Trust the process and don’t panic. The right candidate will turn up. We are happy to meet any client for a sit down chat and discuss any recruitment needs.

Email [email protected], call 01 4438906 or go to www.careervisionrecruiters.ie