Member Article

North East digital firm e-enables major UK hotel chain

A Newcastle-based web design and digital marketing firm is helping to e-enable a major luxury hotel chain as it embarks on a recruitment drive including 250 new apprenticeships.

Q Hotels, which operates 26 unique four-star hotels across the UK, has been working with Retox Digital to develop a range of interactive HR and marketing tools, designed to help transform the way it recruits and trains staff while also providing a platform for communicating key messages across the group.

Working closely with Q Hotels’ HR resourcing management team, Retox Digital has implemented a full-service e-recruitment system which has reduced administration, time-to-hire and overall costs by replacing the organisation’s existing third-party system with a bespoke solution for the group.

As a result of the Government’s Apprenticeship Levy, in 2017, Q Hotels will recruit the team of apprentices as well as a range of staff for various hospitality roles across its hotels. The award winning 2016 apprenticeship campaign designed by Retox was a tremendous success and the 2017 campaign has got off to an amazing start.

The e-recruitment system handles around 50,000 candidate applications each year and integrates Q Hotels’ recruitment, brand and marketing activities to provide each candidate with a seamless user experience.

Nicola Roskell, HR director at Q Hotels, said:

“Q Hotels is a very unique hotel group. The people we employ are looking for a working environment that encourages them to succeed, learn new skills and provide them with opportunities to excel in all areas of hospitality. The recruitment campaigns, online activity and technology we use all reflect this in order to attract the right people.

“The group has won a number of awards and accolades for our recruitment process during the past 12 months and it’s great to receive such positive feedback from candidates as well as industry professionals.”

Lilian Hughes, managing director at Retox Digital, said:

“Strong communication within a business is essential to the recruitment and retention of staff, which is why we wanted to create one unified system for Q Hotels which would help to integrate the group’s marketing and brand values alongside its recruitment processes.

“Q Hotels is an extremely forward-thinking organisation that welcomes new ideas and really embraces the concept of digital recruitment which makes our job so much more rewarding.”

In addition to the development of the e-recruitment system, Retox Digital has helped Q Hotels to deploy more traditional creative marketing communications and developed employer branding, advertising, company brochures as well as a number of different strategies to engage and interact with Q Hotels’ staff in a digital space, including a fully responsive intranet system.

Through the intranet system, staff can access the information they need from any device from a PC to a mobile phone so no matter what their role is within the group, they always have easy access to company information, policies, career and training material as well social events and awards and rewards schemes.

The intranet has its own comprehensive content management system (CMS) which can be used by all of the different departments and hotels within the group to upload content and share news. The site is supported by a suite of highly creative marketing and exhibition materials which focuses on Q Hotels’ employees and the huge contribution they make individually to the overall success of the group.

“We work across all media channels with Q Hotels from developing websites and technology to producing brand concepts, campaigns, photography and film,” Lilian said.

“It’s great to see the work that we do behind the scenes helping to make a difference to Q Hotels business and we look forward to doing more work with them in the future.”

ENDS

Photo caption (L to R): Managing director at Retox Digital, Lilian Hughes, with creative director, Will Johnston.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fusion PR .