An evaluation of hospitality recruiters' perceptions of recruiting events [abstract]

Abstract

Traditionally, many hospitality companies have recruited college students by attending career days on campus and through interviews scheduled with hospitality career centers. The accepted model of recruiting and interviewing students was to first contact the student on campus, hold an initial interview, and invite the most qualified candidates to a company location for further interviews. However, during the 1990s, hospitality companies began reevaluating the necessity of this recruiting strategy. The apparent result of this change has been a diminished presence of companies physically coming to campus to recruit students. The purpose of this research was to obtain the perception of recruiters who regularly come to the MU campus as to their perceptions of current recruiting methods. Recruiters were specifically asked their perceptions concerning types of events they had recruited in the past, their preference as to type of event, and expected results (students hired) from these events. Results will indicate the best types of events for programs to host to attract recruiters to Hotel and Restaurant students. Results are expected to be useful for Hotel and Restaurant Management programs and for career services offices.