Turnover rates for the hospitality industry are among the highest across the board. In fact, the hotel and motel industries report an employee turnover rate of nearly 74 percent, compared with 12 to 15 percent for other industries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In order to be able to hire with confidence while avoiding costly, risk-heavy hiring errors, hiring managers today would be remiss if they didn’t conduct background checks on candidates. All industries, not just the hospitality industry, benefits from employment screenings that span everything from sex offender registry searches to criminal histories.

It can be costly and time consuming to conduct background checks on every individual you consider hiring. That’s why it’s beneficial to hire a hospitality staffing firm in Austin TX to handle this and many other vetting tasks for you.

Hospitality Industry Background Check: Defined

Conducting a background check on candidates for your hotel, motel, or restaurant can provide valuable insight into their background and character. Screenings may contain one or more of the following checks:

  • Comprehensive background checks
  • Criminal histories
  • Sex offender registry searches
  • Credit reports
  • Educational background checks
  • Driving record histories

Among others, employment screenings should be performed on the following:

  • Management
  • Cashiers
  • Entertainers
  • Food service positions
  • Customer service workers
  • Administrative support personnel
  • Accountants
  • Night auditors

The Importance of Background Checks in the Hospitality Industry

Whether you manage a resort, hotel, cruise ship, or restaurant, you are well aware that your guests rely heavily on you and your staff to provide them with a positive, enriching, relaxing, and safe visit. This trust they place in you to take care of them means you have a duty to put in place all the security measures possible. That includes conducting thorough background checks on candidates not just initially, but on an ongoing basis as well.

Here are some top reasons why it’s critical to invest in background screenings for your hospitality business. Background checks:

  • Ensure you are hiring candidates with the ideal background, education, training and experience: Hiring the best talent for your hotel or restaurant is dependent on you doing your due diligence. From head chefs in five-star restaurants to front desk staff at your hotel, it’s imperative that you hire only the best talent backed by verifiable credentials.
  • Protect guests from violence and harm: Your guests have a right to feel safe and secure when they are with you. When you conduct background checks on candidates before hiring them, you’re reducing your company’s risk by weeding out employees that may have a history of violent behavior, theft, or drug use.
  • Prevent fraud and identity theft: You have to trust the people you hire not to take advantage of privileged information pertaining to guests and even your company’s sensitive data. Your guests deserve the utmost protection of their belongings and identities.
  • Protect customer service quality: Many of your hospitality workers will be expected to engage in face-to-face interactions with customers and guests on any given day. You need to ensure you’re hiring employees with not only the experience needed to provide stellar customer service, but also the people and communication skills to bring it all together. Background checks will verify the work histories of applicants and ensure they indeed possess the experience and soft skills they claim.
  • Reduce staff turnover: As said earlier, high turnover rates plague the hospitality industry in particular. This can result in costly and time consuming losses due to repetitive training sessions needed to get new hires up to speed. Background checks allow you to verify an applicant’s employment history so you can detect early on if they tend to jump from job to job frequently.
  • Ensure strong brand ambassadors: Hospitality workers, especially those on the front lines, are essentially brand ambassadors for your company. They get to know your customers and guests, and thus cater a positive experience to them every time. In addition to traditional background checks, you can also check the social media habits of potential hires to see if they speak negatively or glowingly about the companies they work for. Speaking of social media, this can be a good tool for your candidates to form long-lasting relationships with your customers and guests. For instance, a great bartender with a strong social media following will bring in a constant flow of fans and friends with their creative cocktails.

Challenges Associated With Background Checks

Tackling background checks on your own is a challenge. Without the education, training and experience to adequately perform background checks, you could be left with incomplete or inaccurate reports. On top of that, it can be very time consuming to keep up with frequently updated legal regulations.

Contact Tumi Hospitality Today

Here at Tumi Hospitality, we take care of all the details to ensure we only recommend completely vetted hospitality workers. Among other things, we conduct background checks so you don’t have to. Learn more about us when you call us at (512) 722-6000, or request staff online.