EMPLOYER BRAND BUILDING IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY: THE ROLE OF PR ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The article examines the concept, meaning, and mechanism of building an employer brand for enterprises in the hospitality industry, as well as the importance of PR activities in this process, which is the purpose of the publication. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of competent management and recruitment in the hotel industry, and one of the ways to develop loyalty to the company as an employer is to build its brand. The goals of the publication were achieved through the use of general scientific (analysis, monitoring, synthesis) and sociological methods (focus group survey). Within the framework of this study, a scheme for building an employer's brand is proposed, in particular, taking into account the specifics of the hotel business. The target audience of this process is potential, current, and former employees of the institution. The employer brand is formed due to external and internal activities and communications. Given the specifics of the tasks, the responsibility for building the employer's brand is divided between personnel management and the company's communication department. The lion's share of communications genetically belongs to the PR methodology. The main methods of forming the institution's image as a good employer include 1) organization of corporate events; 2) development of social projects; 3) work with internal media; 4) distribution of products in the corporate style; 5) provision of feedback 6) organization of corporate management and corporate training events 7) publication in mass media; 8) organization of external corporate events; 9) creation of PR publications in social networks and on the website. Part of the techniques aimed at working with the company's employees is internal PR. The loyalty of the company's employees creates prospects for promoting the hotel in the consumer market. However, this aspect has certain difficulties due to the very specifics of the hotel industry. The interpretations put forward in the article are confirmed by a survey of a specialized focus group. The materials of this article have prospects to be used in the preparation of educational materials for specialists in the hotel and restaurant business. Also, the developed schemes and conclusions are relevant for hotel business enterprises' organizational management and communication departments.