Hire for the Floor, the Kitchen and the Front Desk Without Losing the Season
Hospitality hires all year across stewards, room attendants, cooks, captains and front-desk associates, and a guest meets each new person on the first shift. We design the requisition, screening, trade test and joining routine so each department hires the same way, and we run the search for you where you need extra hands. You make every hiring decision.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsThe starting point
Is Hiring Always Behind the Rota?
In a property, a vacancy shows up as a gap on the roster the same day. The pressure to fill it fast pushes attitude checks, verification and trade tests aside, and the person who was hired in a hurry is often the one who leaves in the first weeks.
We help you bring a steady, checked routine to hiring that has to keep moving.
You may be experiencing:
- Walk-ins, agents, institute drives and referrals all in use, with no record of which sources produce people who stay.
- Grooming, communication and temperament judged in a short chat, not tested in a trial shift.
- Cooks and bartenders appointed on a stated skill with no trade test in the actual kitchen or bar.
- Casual and event staff starting before identity and other checks are complete.
- Offers accepted but not joined, because the notice period or the staff accommodation was never discussed.
- Chef and department head vacancies handled by whoever knows someone, with no structured process.
- Requisitions raised by phone call, so nobody knows how many posts are open or for how long.
What we can help with
Our Recruitment and Talent Acquisition Services for Hospitality
Requisition and Approval Route
Set up a single route for raising a vacancy by department, with the shift, grade, budget and approver, so the HR desk and the general manager can see every open post and how long it has been open.
Role Profiles for Property Roles
Write short role profiles for the roles you hire most: front-office associate, steward, room attendant, commis, captain, bartender, banquet crew, security guard. State the shift pattern, the grooming standard and what a trial shift will cover.
Sourcing for Volume and for Scarce Roles
Plan the channels for each group: walk-in days, hotel schools and institutes, agents, referrals, former employees and online platforms for senior chefs and managers. Track which ones produce people who stay.
Screening, Trade Test and Trial Shift
Design a short screen that includes a trade test for kitchen and bar roles, a role-play for guest-facing roles and a trial shift where it is practical. Give heads of department a scorecard to use the same way each time.
Verification and Fitness Checks
Lay out the identity, reference and medical fitness checks you ask for by role, who runs them and when. Agree how a casual person is cleared quickly, and which checks must be finished before the first shift.
Senior Chef and Department Head Search
Run a focused search for executive chefs, outlet managers, executive housekeepers and similar roles, in a market where reputations are known, with discreet outreach and a structured assessment.
Season, Event and Opening Campaigns
Organise hiring in bulk for a peak season, a wedding calendar or a new outlet, with weekly progress by department and a call-up plan for people you have used well before.
Offer, Notice and Joining Follow-up
Support offer conversations, including accommodation and transport, and stay in touch through the notice period. Hand each joiner to the department head with the paperwork ready, so the first shift starts properly.
Working together
Ways to Work With Us
Process Design Only
The requisition route, scorecards, trade tests and joining checklist, set up for your team to run.
Volume Hiring Support
Extra capacity for front-line hiring ahead of a season, an event calendar or a new outlet.
Senior and Specialist Search
A focused search for chefs, department heads and other scarce roles.
Ongoing Recruitment Desk
Regular support for properties that hire every month and have no full-time recruiter.
Scope, responsibilities and commercial terms are agreed before the engagement begins.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, your engagement can include:
- A requisition and approval route with a live list of open posts.
- Role profiles for your main frontline and kitchen roles.
- A sourcing plan by role group, with source tracking.
- Trade test, role-play and trial shift formats with scorecards.
- A verification and fitness check schedule by role.
- A search brief and shortlist for senior roles, where included.
- Offer and joining follow-up, including accommodation and transport details.
- A handover note and checklist for each department head.
Step by step
How We Work
Learn How Hiring Happens Now
We look at recent hires and drop-outs by department and talk to the heads who made the decisions, to see where time and good candidates are lost.
Agree the Roles and the Standard
With each department we settle the profile, the shift pattern, the grooming and communication standard and the tests that will be used.
Source and Screen
We bring candidates through the channels you chose, run the first screen and arrange trade tests and trial shifts with your department heads.
Support Decisions and Verification
We gather scorecards, help the department make its choice, and keep the verification checks moving in step with the joining date.
Follow Through to the First Shift
We stay with candidates through offer and notice, hand them over ready to start, and report against the position we recorded at the outset.
The difference
Hire With a Routine That Survives a Busy Season
A defined hiring process helps your property:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering how long posts stay open by department, the share of accepted offers that join, and how many joiners leave in their first weeks, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- See every open post and how long it has been open.
- Judge attitude and skill on the same terms across departments.
- Learn which sources bring people who last beyond the first weeks.
- Clear casual and seasonal staff before their first shift.
- Turn more accepted offers into people on the roster.
- Keep a short list of senior candidates ahead of a vacancy.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Hotels and Resorts Hiring Throughout the Year
Run a steady frontline routine that does not depend on one person's contacts.
Restaurant and QSR Groups
Standardise hiring for the floor and kitchen across outlets, with the same tests everywhere.
Banquet Venues and Catering Companies
Build a known pool of event staff who can be called at short notice.
Properties Preparing for a Peak or an Opening
Add temporary recruiting capacity when the diary fills.
Travel and Tourism Businesses
Hire guides, reservation staff and operations teams ahead of the season.
How it usually shows up in hospitality
Hospitality recruitment is continuous, with high volumes at the entry level and a small, well-known market at the senior levels. Stewards, housekeepers, servers and front-desk executives are hired through walk-ins, agents, campus drives and referrals. Grooming, communication, language and attitude matter as much as skill, and are hard to assess in one conversation. Chefs and department heads move between properties, and reputations are known. Seasonal and event hiring brings casual staff who need quick clearance. Verification of identity and background is needed, and the property wants staff on the floor immediately. New hires often leave in the first weeks. The cost of a wrong hire is felt in guest comments within days.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in hospitality
Attitude is judged by feel
Grooming, warmth and communication are assessed in a short conversation. A guest meets the new person before the property has checked how they behave under pressure.
Volume pushes verification late
Casual and seasonal staff start before checks are complete.
Sources are not compared
Campus, agents and referrals are used without tracking which produce people who stay.
The senior market is small
Chefs and heads of department are poached and poach.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Assess attitude with a short exercise
A role-play of a guest scenario, scored on warmth, clarity and problem-solving. The recruitment process holds the standard.
- 02
Verify before the floor
Identity and background checks done before the first guest shift.
- 03
Compare sources by retention
Track which channels produce people who stay past three months.
- 04
Grow your own
A trainee programme for stewards and commis, so the senior market is not the only source.
What to check this week
- Look at the last front-desk hire and see how warmth and communication were assessed.
- Ask whether any seasonal hire started before verification.
- Compare retention by source for the last year.
- Ask how many heads of department were grown inside.
- Find how long a supervisor vacancy stays open.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
What this looks like in hospitality
The parts of recruitment and talent acquisition that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Frontline and Kitchen Hiring
Volume hiring with a trainee pipeline behind it.
What this coversHide
Frontline and Kitchen Hiring
Volume hiring with a trainee pipeline behind it.
What this coversHideService and front office
- Front Office Associates
- Guest Relations
- Stewards
- Waiters
- Captains
- Bartenders
- Banquet Staff
Kitchen and support
- Chefs
- Sous Chefs
- Junior Chefs
- Kitchen Stewards
- Housekeeping Attendants
- Laundry
- Maintenance
- Security
- Drivers
- Requisition by department
- Trade test and trial shift
- Hotel-school and institute pipeline
- Trainee and apprentice intake
- Document verification
- Medical fitness
- Offer and joining
- Casual staff engagement record
Questions on this, in hospitality
Use a short role-play of a realistic guest situation, a trial shift where practical and a shared scorecard that each assessor fills in separately. It gives you something to compare, and the hiring decision stays with your department head.
We help you build a pool in advance, with records of who has worked for you and how they did, so that a call-out for a function is a matter of checking a list. Casual engagement terms are for you to decide.
We can include verification in the agreed scope, or design the schedule for your own team to run. Which checks apply to which role is for you and a qualified professional to decide, and we set the process around that.
It depends on the role, location, pay and the season. Stewards and room attendants can often be found quickly, while chefs and senior managers take longer. We give a first estimate and update it as the search moves.
Yes. We can build on the relationships you have, plan the intake dates and trainee roles, and track how each batch performs, so next year's drive is planned from results.
No. You choose how much, from process design to full search on named roles. Selection decisions stay with your department heads, and we make each step orderly and recorded.
With a short role-play of a guest situation, scored on warmth, clarity and problem-solving. It shows more than a conversation about being friendly.
Because the cheapest source is the one whose hires stay. Campus drives, agents and referrals produce very different results.
Early, from a pool of past casuals who performed well, with quick verification and a short briefing. The best seasonal staff are returners.
Because the senior market is small and expensive. A structured programme grows chefs and captains who know your standards.
Stay in touch between offer and joining, confirm accommodation and the start date and make the first day welcoming. People who feel expected turn up.
Fill the Roster With People Who Stay
Tell us which roles you are hiring and when you need them on the floor. We will talk through how to keep the process quick without skipping the checks that matter.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Discuss Your Hiring Requirements
Share the roles you need to fill and the date by which they must join.
The general method — what recruitment and talent acquisition covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the workforce and recruitment process page. What is above is the part that differs for hospitality.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see recruitment management.
Other HR topics for hospitality
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.