Keywords to Look for When Reviewing a Hospitality Resume

With the unemployment rate being lower than it has been since 1969, the hospitality industry is facing a shortage of workers to fill the number of openings available, similar to other industries. It’s a job seeker’s market. The low number of available workers coupled with a 74% turnover rate in the hospitality industry makes filling jobs with qualified candidates a constant challenge, especially for high-level ones.

Whether you’re looking for a restaurant manager, hotel manager, kitchen manager, or security manager, the challenge remains the same. But if you employ an effective strategy for reviewing resumes and efficiently identifying qualified candidates, you’ll spend less time recruiting and more time onboarding your next great hire.

Creating Efficiency With a Keyword Strategy

Creating a keyword strategy to help you screen and review a hospitality resume might not help you get more job seekers through the door, but it can help you create an efficient screening process. That way, you can quickly move on from resumes that aren’t a fit.

The best place to start with your keyword strategy is to incorporate keywords into your job description based on the job’s requirements. Use your list of keywords as a guide for quickly assessing whether or not a candidate meets your qualifications.

Keywords to Look for on a Hospitality Resume

Below is a list of keywords that include roles, competencies, and skills to look for when reviewing a hospitality resume for a restaurant manager, hotel manager, kitchen manager, or security manager. However, many of these keywords are transferable to other hospitality jobs, including a casino manager, director of catering, general manager, and housekeeping manager.

Restaurant Manager

• Banquet operations
• Catering
• Server
• Head server
• Customer service
• Back of house operations
• Front of house operations
• Front office operations
• Back office operations
• Hospitality management
• Front desk operations
• Human resources
• Guest retention
• Vendor management
• Hospitality management
• Food and beverage
• Revenue and projections
• Profit and loss/P&L
• Food safety
• Marketing and promotions
• Leadership or lead
• Spearheaded
   

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Hotel Manager

• Back office operations
• Front service desk
• Customer service
• Marketing
• Hospitality management
• Training and development
• Service management
• Resort manager
• Human resources
• Housekeeping
• Guest services
• Guest retention
• Guest satisfaction
• Occupancy
• Vendor management
• Travel and tourism
• Reservations
• Property management
• Revenue and projections
• Regulatory compliance
• Promotions
• Profit and loss/P&L
• Brand management
• Leadership or lead
• Increased morale
• Spearheaded
   

Kitchen Manager

• Back of house manager
• Line cook
• Menu planning
• Hospitality management
• Front of house manager
• Health and safety
• Inventory planning
• Food sanitation
• Food and beverage/F&B
• Service management
• Reduced costs
• Reduced food waste

Security Manager

• Health and safety
• Security supervisor
• Customer services
• Vendor management
• Workflow management
• Facility management
• Maintenance
• Regulatory compliance
• OSHA

With current market conditions, hiring for hospitality jobs isn’t easy, but with a solid recruiting strategy in place, it will help the process move as quickly as possible. An excellent place to start is to refer to the lists above and identify keywords that align with the skills, competencies, and experience your ideal candidate should possess. From there, it will be easier to scan a hospitality resume and send it to the “no” pile or the “possibly” pile, getting you that much closer to the perfect fit.