Catalyst | On Topic
citizenM: hiring for chMistry
How do you attract high-quality candidates to a
hotel chain they’ve never even heard of? Employee
experience is key.
This challenge was faced by Netherlands-based
hotel chain citizenM when launching its first hotel
in Copenhagen in early 2019. The labour market was
tight, and the business needed to hire 24 hospitality
staff (‘ambassadors’) to make the launch a success.
While citizenM is growing fast, as a relative
newcomer on the global scene, it has low market
visibility . This hotel was its first foray into Denmark.
Most employers want to hire for values, but
citizenM set the culture-fit bar very high. It is a
disruptor brand: a ‘hybrid hotel’ for people who
appreciate smart technology, comfort and style. The
hotel was looking for candidates who were creative,
adventurous and a little unconventional.
The solution was chMistry, a provocative
campaign devised in conjunction with Alexander
Mann Solutions that celebrated CitizenM’s quirky
culture and asked the audience, “do you have the
right chemistry for citizenM?”. The aim here was not
only to get the right people to notice the brand, but
to intrigue them and encourage them to see citizenM
as a ‘destination employer’ where they would have an
employee experience unlike any other.
The campaign focused on personality, and
social posts outlined fun and interesting scenarios
employees might encounter while working at the
hotel. Successful candidates were invited to attend
an assessment day that focused on exploring their
personality as much as their skills. To ensure the
messages were on point, profiles of the kind of
candidates they were looking for were created.
At citizenM, a certain type of person thrives.
Many of its successful ambassadors are also artists,
actors and musicians. Lots of their best people are
university educated and have experience in the gig
economy. The hotel’s unique employee experience
is what drove its campaign to attract talent that was
just right.
“This was our most successful recruitment
campaign with 99% turnout at the casting day and
great quality of talent with the right personality
fit. For us, it’s essential that we protect our unique
culture and maintain a consistent employee
experience as we expand the business globally,” said
Matthew Bell, hotel operations director, Europe.
O
that have focused on creating great customer
experiences. Household names such as Nike, Airbnb
and Adobe have either created chief employee
experience officer roles or merged employee and
customer experience teams wholesale.
As Professor Naschberger says: “For them, it
seems to be natural not only to provide experiences
to external customers but also internal customers.
Mostly, these are tech companies. They have
thought of how new technologies and digitisation
will impact employee experience in a positive way,
which is also in line with the younger generations.”
And in line with its precursor, customer
experience, EX is all about the bottom line.
Companies with a great EX outperform the
Standard & Poor’s 500 by 122%, according to
a report by Accenture. The same report notes
that companies with a highly engaged workforce
are 21% more profitable than those with less
satisfied employees.
EX strategy is also about retaining the new
generation of employees entering the workforce:
graduates are three times more likely to stay with
their first employer for five or more years if they feel
their skills are fully utilised through challenging,
meaningful work. Learning and development (L&D)
plans as part of a well-designed EX strategy are
especially important for generation Z workers and
can be the difference between retaining and losing
digital talent, according to a Gen Z Rising report
Issue 3 - 2019
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