Marriott Uses its Own Staff to Recruit Employees in New Campaign

Every hotel wants to attract the best and brightest talent, and Marriott’s new strategy to recruit employees is spearheaded by people who know the hotel best: its own staff.

The #PictureYourselfHere campaign, launched this week, shares photos of Marriott employees performing daily tasks while working to convince job applicants the chain is a good fit for them. Many of the photos highlight a humorous side of employees while others show a more professional depiction of staff in management positions, for example.

“We believe that everyone at Marriott should be and is involved in attracting talent to the company,” said Kristy Godbold, a spokesperson for Marriott’s human resources department.  “Employee referrals have always been and continue to be primary sources of external hires.”

Viewing the photos requires visiting Marriott’s career website and searching for a job opening at a specific property. Once search results appear, job applicants click on the desired property and can see photos of employees performing that job along with a job description.

The campaign is a result of Marriott-commissioned research in 15 markets, including the U.S., U.K., Brazil and China, to determine how job applicants think and interact with the hotel’s careers website.  The study found 79% of visitors to Marriott’s desktop careers site clicked directly into the search and application process rather than navigating to other parts of the website.

“Overwhelmingly, we found that it was the job description itself, not information about our benefits, company history or other aspects of working at Marriott that informed job seekers’ decisions on whether to apply to the opening,” said Godbold.

At a time when social media demonstrates photos sometimes speak louder than words, the hotel devised a recruitment strategy all generations can relate to, and particularly millennials who look for unique experiences.

“We’re aware that the thought of joining an organization and working in a sterile, traditional, cubicle-like environment is not a career path that greatly appeals to millennials,” said Godbold. “And we know our global presence and nontraditional workplace environments offer the kind of path they’re looking for. But this also extends to many generations.”

So far, the campaign received more than 17,000 voluntarily submitted photos from employees about their behind the scenes work life at Marriott, Godbold said.

The campaign’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram promotions will roll out in the coming weeks. Marriott will also promote the campaign on China’s Weibo and WeChat networks, Godbold added.

ITA Software is another example of a travel brand’s creative employee recruitment campaign to lure top talent with its QR code advertising on Boston’s subway system.

Here are some photos from Marriott’s campaign:

Source: Marriott