Overcoming Talent Blindness and Living as a Recruiter - Szilvia Olah

Could talent blindness be holding you and your hospitality business back? Stick around to learn what this is and how to avoid it. Szilvia Olah is the founder of the strengths company and a former learning and talent Accor and at companies such as group. In today's episode, you'll learn about talent blindness and how you can live like a recruiter. I was at a jobs career fair here in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, and I went up to people all different types of industries and just asked them, would you consider a job in hospitality. And very few did because they didn't understand. They thought it was okay, I'm working at the front desk or, you know, it's a role like this, and they didn't understand you could work in IT. You could work in software development. You could work in marketing and all these different roles. And it it felt like there was people just didn't understand kind of what a job in hospitality could include?

Oh, absolutely. We don't know. And also, we don't know what are the other opportunities of their hospitality because we have so many stakeholders, right? And we work with so many suppliers. And this is still directly related to us. So there is a lot of lots of opportunity. But I only think also what what I would say. So for recruitment is definitely the strategy. And also, how we what kind of people we are looking for? Because we became so picky, but at the same time, we don't we are talent blind. And I keep saying that. We have talent blindness. We don't see talent. And it's so funny because I'm a hotelier. I I only know hotelier. And the hotel industry keeps saying we need talent, and I keep talking to people who are qualified very good professionals. And they say, I can't find a job. So where is the disconnect? Everybody wants each other, but somehow we don't find each other. And

What causes that talent disconnect or that talent blindness?

I think it's the way we're looking at people is the CB. Is the CV. And I tell you something, which I was just talking to one of my friends the other day. So he is being on operations manager number doing the hotel, etcetera, etcetera. And he's been trying to find a job. And he said, before he left, one of these large companies, not my company, Another one, he left a couple of years ago. Probably, he said, I can't deal with them because the VP said it in his face straight You need to go into five. Sorry for the word. Crappy hotels in the countryside. Before I take you back to the city. And he left. So not everybody is mobile that you were moved to the village. You know, that was in the UK. So this is how you approach talent. And of course, everybody is going to run away. The second one that we can't keep them. Because and even when we see talent, we don't know what to do with them. Neither are you an example. I was interviewed for a number two role in the whole side. Okay? And it was so funny because I was like, Look, I've done operation. I can run operation. I understand Biena. I understand hotel finances. I can do that. I teach leadership. I teach leaders how to manage people. I I'm good in HR. I've done in HR. Done talent management, talent. I can't then the whole thing. The only thing I can't do is marketing and sales and and engineering. And then the person says, you are overqualified for that role. And I'm like, would I be qualified for the the role? Because that was the GM. Right? And he goes, No. I'm like, okay. So where do I go from here? Where do I go from here? And even if I'm overqualified, let's say, which I'm not probably that for that role. I'm like, when you find the talent, you need you want to retain that person. You want to get the person into the inner because everybody is thinking the silo. My hotel, I'm going to lose her in six months in one year because she will get bored. But that's not what we should be doing. What we should be doing. I found a talent. Here it is. Let's keep her team, whatever there is. And you know what, come in, join us, and we will figure it out. We can agree that, you know, you am you might be overqualified for this drug. Stay with me for six months. In the meantime, we are looking for something, but then I'm thinking overall the company or the industry. One talent came back. Or one talent being retained, but we don't think that way. We are thinking very isolated working in a silo. Everybody is serving their own property And that's why we are not going anywhere within the industry. So that's a massive disconnect here.

Does there need to be structural change in how recruiting and hiring happens for maybe brands or groups of hotels? Is there do do you feel like that is part of the cause if these decisions are made on a very local level?

I think we have process problem, especially large companies. Everything becomes a process. And then you don't have human interaction in there, it's really it's just the system is is selecting. So we lose out on a lot of talent for that. But I think what the industry needs to do is actively scouting for talent and is not Korean fare, okay, let's do that too. Right? But when I go and I find a person in McDonald's who is fantastic. I guarantee you that if you go around here in Dubai, you find fantastic waitresses in local restaurants. Why don't we have somebody? Going around and scouting for these talents and bringing them into the industry. Now, I know it's going back to basic that what we were doing in nineteen fifty Probably. I don't know. And I know that we want to use AI, and I'm not saying not to use them. But at the moment, it's not working because I already know very qualified people, highly qualified people, that they are out of the industry. And, you know, some of them are very bitter don't wanna come back, but some of them would love to come back, but there is no way in. And yeah, the industry is crying. We don't have people. And I always say, do you you don't have people and let me bring you. Because I know ten people who is looking for a job. Are you open for that? All of a sudden, they will have all sorts of excuses. Oh, why there is this gap in the CV? That person didn't do that. We don't see talent. We don't see potential. And what we can make out of one person's experiences.

Yeah. And I guess for for those that are listening to this, would maybe an action item or a thing that they can take away is to always sort of have their radar up or just be conscious of people they interact with outside of the hotel and look for that talent. And maybe if there's somebody who's an exceptional service provider, maybe at a restaurant, maybe at some other type of business, but maybe have a conversation with them and leave a business card and say, hey, if, you know, I think you could kind of succeed in the hotel world. So you're almost acting as a recruiter even if your job title, isn't that if you're a manager of some sort within a hotel just to always be aware of this?

In my company, in my GM, it used to say that and I really agreed with him that all of our such salespeople, all of us are housekeepers, and all of us are security people. Because these are the areas that we all have to do. But we always should that all of us are recruiters bring that talent everywhere you go, you know, if it's not your hotel, we need to serve the industry. We don't need to serve other one part good department or role. And I keep referring people on left right center. Like, feel the industry. You have fantastic people around. We just we just ignore them.