Marriott Hotel’s Runaway Success in 2022

Needless to say, it’s been a hard year for TA teams, as they battle to not just grab candidates’ attention to consider roles but then persuade them to stick through the whole applicant journey.

Marriott has emerged victorious, coming in at #8 on FlexCareers’ 2022 Top 100 Jobs by Applicants list. One particular part-time role at the WHotel had a female application response of 66%, while another Mariott hotel made 8 hires in 1 month through FlexCareers.

Pattie Duma, TA and Workforce Manager, generously shares some of the secrets to the team’s  success.

“It all starts with the job ad. Candidates experience each hotel’s unique brand position very early on in the process, with the team investing time on adapting each ad to carefully bring it to life. Before we communicate with candidates, we spend the time to pull everything together that communicate our brand. Logos, imagery, wording, benefits.”

Pattie’s TA team has worked hard to develop a deep understanding of the corporate brand and its nuances, and have been able to pair this knowledge with their expertise in people to choose the assets and language they’ll feature. A strong, trusted relationship built with colleagues in their marketing team has evolved and provided autonomy where they don’t have to adhere to strong directions. 

Candidates quickly become aligned with the brand, understanding their fit, and are easily able to imagine themselves representing it in their future work. For a company built on strong reputations, candidates’ keen commitment to each brand comes ahead of skills.

This is working to attract the right people at the volumes needed, with a huge 50% coming in from outside the sector. The TA team are trained and strongly encouraged to look at the overall package, not discount an applicant if a skill or experience is missing. If their attitude is great and that elusive brand connection is there, the TA team know to foster that applicant. They can be easily supported to fill any gaps.

Patti’s favourite moments of success are when applicants show an obvious interest in key elements of a hotel’s brand story the team have worked hard to highlight. For example, when an applicant describes coming in for interview at a WHotel like they’re “on audition”, a direct reference to the glamour each hotel exudes.

Unsurprisingly, Marriott have made the most of every branding opportunity offered in their FlexCareers subscription. Our audience responded very positively to Marriott’s creative efforts at showing, not telling, what employee life is like. Recruitment events for peak hiring ‘Live Fully’ month in August were promoted by linking to a mouth-watering story of the Sydney’s Pier One hotel manager’s European summer adventure using Marriott global staff discounts.

Director of TA for Marriott Australia, Fiona Pereira, has been really. happy with the results of partnering with FlexCareers alongside the big sites.

“The experience of implementing the FlexCareers talent platform into our business was very smooth and simple. The next step for us is adding it into our ATS stack for even deeper metrics.”