The hospitality industry in India is among the fastest-growing segments in the country. Hospitality is about guest experience as much as it is about operational efficiency, from luxury hotels in metro cities to boutique resorts in unexplored destinations. Historically, hotels have emphasised skills, qualifications, and experience for hiring. However, a new dialogue has begun that shifts the emphasis away from the candidate's ability to perform the job, towards whether the candidate is the best cultural fit for the hotel. 

Enter Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is transforming the ease of not just screening resumes but also analysing personality traits, value sets and the behavioural sciences which affect a candidate's potential for high performance in a hotel. For the Indian hospitality industry, which is diverse in cultural nuances and has teaser expectations of guests from diverse parts of India, this is a revolutionary new concept.

The Significance of Culture Fit in Indian Hotels in Today's Context

It is possible to train skills, but when it comes to job longevity and guest experience, cultural fit is absolutely paramount. In a five-star hotel in New Delhi, formal attire, hierarchy, and etiquette may be extremely important aspects of the culture, whereas a beach resort in Goa may value warm and informal greetings and friendly service over formal attire, hierarchy, and etiquette. Hence, if the person selected has a different cultural outlook from an organisation, even though they may be technically able, it could potentially lead to:

• High staff turnover
• Misalignment in meeting guest expectations
• An impact on working relationships with other staff members who are engaged with the culture
• An adverse impact on the guest experience

For this reason, hospitality recruiters in India are embracing new culture-first hiring strategies. However, the difficulty lies in identifying cultural fit through traditional interview processes; thus, the opportunity for using AI and other recruitment tools becomes invaluable.

What AI Recruitment Tools Can Assess Beyond Skills

The use of AI in hospitality recruitment has evolved from evaluating resumes for criteria like "front office management” or "culinary expertise" to utilising advances in AI that assess things like soft skills, personality traits, communication styles, adaptability, and cultural disposition. 

There are ways AI can pair candidates with hotel culture, and this doesn't involve skills: 

• Personality Assessments using AI Tools

AI tools can assess how candidates respond to situational questions, email exchanges, or a video-recorded interview process. For mind, a hotel in Jaipur focuses on being traditionally welcoming to guests, which can filter for candidates who show empathy, respect for tradition, or service-oriented.

• Behavioural Data Analysis: 

AI can use a candidate’s employment and educational history, as well as their digital footprint (LinkedIn activity, endorsements), and psychometrics to predict their likelihood of fitting into a hotel company’s cultural style. 

• Matching Values to a Brand Philosophy: 

In India, hotels often have disparate philosophies. A heritage property in Rajasthan may espouse authenticity, tradition, and culture, while a contemporary boutique hotel in Bangalore may tout creativity and innovation. When used in screening, AI can be used to screen for candidates who are aligned with the basics of the hotel’s ethos for better engagement over time. 

• Removing Bias from Hiring: 

Perhaps one of the largest commonly discussed advantages of AI as a recruiting tool is the minimisation of unconscious bias from the process. Traditional hiring managers may unconsciously have preferences for hiring candidates from cities, backgrounds, or schools with which they are familiar. AI approaches the evaluation of a cultural match without preference or bias, focusing only on fit and potential.

The Indian Context: The Importance of AI in Hospitality Recruitment

The hospitality industry in India is distinct due to all the regional diversity - expectations of a guest in Mumbai will differ from expectations in Kochi, and likewise, the hotel culture will differ in a chain versus an independent property. Here are some examples:

• Luxury hotels in metropolitan areas will want polished communication and presentation, global etiquette, and multilingual staff. 
• Resorts in leisure destinations are looking for warmth, flexibility and casual engagement with guests.
• Business hotels in Tier-2 destinations will be more concerned with efficiency, professionalism and punctuality. 

It is quite challenging to assess a candidate's cultural fit across a range of varied expectations in this industry for HR teams. AI-enabled recruitment platforms help assess candidates to achieve standard and personalised recruitment, regardless of the unique culture at each property. 

Balancing skills with culture: AI provides benefits in both ways

Certainly, skills are still important. A chef needs to know how to cook, and a front-of-house executive needs to know how to use PMS (property management systems). But AI ensures that technical skills are matched with appropriate behavioural and cultural fit.

For example:

• A bartender with good skills and who thrives in a busy environment would be a better fit for a beach bar in Goa than a quiet luxury lounge in Udaipur.
• An organised and detail-oriented housekeeper could be successful in a luxury five-star hotel, while a flexible multitasker could be great in a fast-paced business hotel.
• Through the balancing of skills with culture, AI guarantees that hotels are not just hiring employees, but they are hiring the right personalities in the right environment.

Advantages of Culture-Fit Hiring via AI

Enhanced Guest Satisfaction - Staff who demonstrate the culture of the hotel create memorable guest experiences.

• Decreased Attrition - Candidates who fit the workplace culture are more likely to avoid premature quitting.
• Stronger Branding for Employers - When employee staff fit the company's philosophy, they can become ambassadors of the hotel brand.
• Improved Team Cohesiveness - Team members fitting with the culture create cohesion among teams, reducing workplace conflict.
• Increased Scalability of Hiring - Utilising AI allows for consistent cultural screening at multiple properties, which is important while expanding a hotel company in India.

Difficulties in Implementing AI for Cultural Fit

While the opportunities are great, connecting AI-driven hospitality recruiting in India is fraught with challenges:

• Over-reliance on Algorithms: Culture is complex; AI needs to be a partner, not an alternative to, human judgment. 
• Data Privacy Issues: Personality and behavioural assessments may contain data that is sensitive to the candidate and must be safeguarded.
• Customisation: Indian hotels are highly differentiated; therefore, AI platforms need to be customised to the brand identity of the hotel.
• Incidence of Bias within AI Systems: AI will replicate bias that is present within the data that it was trained on, rather than eliminating it.

As such, hotels need to leverage AI as a decision support system, along with human intuition.

The Future of AI in Hospitality Hiring in India

In future years, AI-powered recruitment platforms will be more than skill matchers. They will be culture architects. Improvements in natural language processing and behavioural analytics will give AI the ability to:

• Build personalised hiring profiles for each hotel property.
• Guide candidate training modules for well-skilled candidates to stimulate cultural alignment.
• Utilise regional data to help candidates appreciate local customs and guest expectations.

Within India’s highly competitive hospitality industry, where brand loyalty centres on delivering personalised service to guests, AI culture-fit hiring will be a game-changer.

AI as the Culture Architect of Indian Hospitality

For many years, hiring in hospitality in India has largely been focused on resumes, certifications and technical skills. However, the truth is, skills alone without culture fit will hurt guest experiences and brand reputation. As the Indian hospitality landscape becomes more competitive, hotels will need staff who can not only execute tasks but also demonstrate the ethos and personality of the property.

Searching to recruit the perfect talent for your hotel? Foodism Connect helps you find candidates who not only have skills but also fit into your hotel’s culture. Join Foodism Connect today and change the way you recruit hospitality talent in India.