Rooftop beehives?  Guest-generated electricity?

These are just two of the cutting-edge green initiatives being implemented by today’s most eco-friendly hotels.

While not all eco-friendly hotels are going to these extremes, hoteliers recognize that travelers are becoming more sophisticated and aware when it comes to green efforts.  To meet consumers’ expectations, many hotels are making substantial changes to protect our planet.

Looking for a few new ideas to make your hotel a little greener?  Try implementing some of these suggestions from globalstewards.org:

• Start a linen reuse program. Place placards in guest room with information about the environmental benefits of reusing towels and sheets, and ask guests to consider using linens more than once.
• Go low-flow. Install eco-friendly shower heads, sink aerators, low-flow toilets and/or tank fill diverters.
• Make lighting more energy efficient. Switch to LED light bulbs in guest rooms, lobbies and hallways.  Use sensors and/or timers for areas that are infrequently used.
• Educate your staff. Train employees to turn off lights, adjust thermostats when rooms are unoccupied and close drapes to moderate room temperatures.  Add reminders to housekeeping and managerial checklists to ensure these actions become habits.
• Recycle. To increase participation, make recycling as easy and convenient as possible for both guests and staff.  Provide recycling bins in both guestrooms and public areas (e.g., lobby, pool, fitness room).  Place additional bins in the kitchen and back office, too.
• Buy smarter. Purchase food and guest amenities in bulk; buy office supplies and guest amenity products that contain recycled material; buy organic, fair trade and cruelty-free guest amenity products whenever possible; choose non-toxic (or least toxic) cleaners, sanitizers and paints for your hotel.
• Invest in “Energy Star” appliances. As you replace appliances throughout your hotel, select energy- and water-saving models.
• Donate. Send leftover food to a local nonprofit organization and/or use a compost bin; donate used soap and shampoo to people in need through www.cleantheworld.org; donate leftover guest amenities, old furniture and appliances to local charities.
• Reward employees for participation. Create an incentive program that encourages staff to participate and improve upon your environmentally-friendly practices.
• Promote and publicize your efforts. If you devote the time and resources to make your hotel greener, turn your efforts into a PR opportunity!  Send out a release detailing your initiatives; add the information to your website; promote your green efforts on your social media; create collateral pieces to give guests upon arrival, outlining the steps they can take to help make your new green initiatives a success.

Penguin Staff – Your Hospitality Staffing Partner

If you need hospitality staff for short-term, event-based or temporary work, give Penguin Staff a call.  We can provide immediate access to thoroughly screened and trained workers who are ready to perform for you.  Contact Penguin today.

Résumés are a lot like desserts – everybody has a type that they like best.

But what is the best type of résumé for finding a hospitality job?  The answer is “it depends.”  Let’s start by taking a look at the basic types, courtesy of About.com:

• Chronological.  This type of résumé starts by listing your work history, beginning with your most recent position and working backward.  Employers prefer this type of résumé because it’s easy to see what hospitality jobs you have held and when you have worked at them.
• Functional.  This résumé type highlights your skills and experience, as opposed to your work history.
• Combination or Hybrid.  The combination résumé lists your skills and experience first, but also includes your work history, listed in reverse chronological order.  It allows you to highlight your relevant skills, but also provide the chronological work history many employers prefer.
• Targeted.  A targeted résumé is highly customized and specifically highlights your experience and skills that are relevant to the individual job for which you are applying.

Bear in mind that your résumé will not get you the job; it is simply a marketing tool to get you in the employer’s door.  Consider the following questions to decide which type of résumé will help you put your best foot forward:

• Do you have significant gaps in your work history? If so, a functional résumé may be best, because it focuses on your abilities – not the chronological timeline of your employment history.  One caveat:  many internet job boards will not accept this format.
• Are you changing direction in your career? Again, a functional résumé may be the right choice.  It allows you to present the skills and experience you possess that will transfer well into a different line of hospitality employment.
• Have you been promoted several times or taken jobs with increasing responsibility? A chronological résumé is well-suited to showcasing your growth and career advancement over time.
• Are your qualifications and experience a great match for the available position? In this case, a targeted résumé is the way to go.  While it requires significantly more work to create a new résumé specifically tailored to the available hospitality job, it’s usually well worth the effort.  The targeted résumé will highlight the ways in which you are a perfect match for the job and help you stand out from the crowd.
• Still not sure which way to go? While the majority of employers tend to prefer the chronological format (because it’s easy to read and clearly presents your job history over time) the best modern résumés are combination or hybrid.  This résumé format provides the best of both worlds – a paragraph or list that summarizes your main areas of accomplishment and experience, as well as a detailed reverse-chronology work history with information about your achievements in each position.

If you’re looking for a hospitality job and could use some advice on preparing your résumé, give Penguin Staffing a call.  Whether you’re searching for temporary employment, a permanent position or some extra money on the weekend, Penguin has the hospitality career opportunities you need!

Online recruiting is changing.

These days, if you post a hospitality job opening on boards like Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com, you are likely to get spammed with hundreds of résumés.  To find potential employees, you must take the time to sift through countless unqualified applicants to find a handful who may be right for the job.

How effective is that?

While job boards should remain part of your recruiting mix, social networking sites like LinkedIn and other emerging media are proving to be even more promising for recruiters.

Here are a few tips for using cutting-edge media to engage, attract and recruit superior hospitality employees.

Use LinkedIn to:

• develop and expand your personal network of professionals.  When you have a job opening, send a referral request to your network.  These contacts can recommend highly qualified candidates, including passive job seekers.
• stay in touch with former valued colleagues for potential future employment.  Because they know you and your business, old contacts could be your best future employees – or put you in touch with the right candidates.
• conduct keyword searches for candidates.  LinkedIn allows you to zero-in on promising candidates by searching member profiles, based on the key skills and experience you require.

Use Twitter to:

• search for relevant hashtags that qualified candidates might be using.  Tools like Search.Twitter.com, Twubs and Tagalus can help you identify hashtags your intended candidates may be using – and integrate them into your tweets.
• shout out new job listings.  Services like jobshouts.com and jobamatic.com allow you to automatically feed new job listings to your Twitter account.  You can even add custom prefixes and hashtags to make the content more user-friendly and searchable.

Use online video technology to:

• influence and engage potential candidates.  Digital video enables you to get your company’s message across like no social media tool can, because it allows candidates to literally see and hear what the true employee experience is like.
• enrich your online job postings.  Add video clips of your restaurant, hotel or club.  Interview current employees about what it’s like working for your organization.  Demonstrate ways you take care of your employees, work for the greater good and/or stay on the cutting-edge of your industry.

Changes in the way recruiting is done can be intimidating; however, hospitality organizations need to embrace emerging media to compete.

Penguin Staffing can help you win the war for talent.  When you need high-quality, well-trained employees – right now – you need PenguinStaff. Our comprehensive hospitality training and staffing services ensure you receive only the most highly-qualified and trained professionals for your hospitality positions.  Contact us today!

These days, it seems everyone is a critic.

In addition to professionals reviews published in newspapers and magazines, sites like Urbanspoon, Zagat and Tripadvisor make it easy for customers to critique your restaurant, hotel, club or facility.

Given that virtually anyone can write a review about your business – at virtually anytime – it’s up to you to ensure that you’re always review-ready.  Use these tips to ensure that every evaluation is a great one:

Think like a critic. Conduct a self-inspection of your location, examining every aspect of a customer’s experience.  Pay close attention to the criteria most commonly rated by critics, such as: first impression, cleanliness, service (including special requests), quality of food/drink, etc.

Control first impressions. Right or wrong, critics form opinions the minute they walk into your establishment.  Increase the likelihood of receiving great reviews by controlling customers’ first impressions.  Critically evaluate the first things a guest will see, smell, hear, touch and taste when he enters your location.  Look for opportunities to win customers over from the outset, so you don’t have to make up ground later.

Treat everyone like a critic. You never know when your next review is coming, so train your staff to greet and treat every customer like a potential critic.  If your staff approaches every customer encounter as one that may be reviewed, you’ll deliver better service across the board – and increase your chances of getting rave reviews.

Pay attention to the details. You may think that the quality of a restaurant’s food or the comfort of a hotel room is what really matters to critics.  This is certainly true, but sometimes the smallest thing – a speck of food on a wineglass, a hair on a pillowcase – can make or break a review.

As a manager, it’s difficult to stay on top of little, yet critical details.  So why not enlist your customers’ help?  Ask them regularly for feedback, encouraging them to point out service or quality issues – no matter how small.  This will provide opportunities for you to correct problems you may not have known about otherwise.

Conduct a mock review. Ask a trusted associate to come in unannounced (and undercover) to review your business.  Provide a list of evaluation criteria, to make sure all aspects of your facility are properly assessed.  Once the review is complete, debrief your staff and identify opportunities for improvement.

Penguin Staff have the skills and experience to deliver an outstanding experience for your customers.  Contact Penguin Staffing today – we can help ensure your next review is a great one!