Hotels have been through the wringer since the start of the pandemic. 

The leisure and hospitality industry lost 8 million jobs in the first two months of the pandemic—more than any other industry. While hotels have seen a steady hiring recovery in recent years, hospitality employment remains below February 2020 levels. Employers in the sector are creating new talent pipelines for recruiting and retaining workers in the high-turnover industry.

Hotel company Hyatt, which employs more than 189,000 workers across 70-plus countries, is relying on a program first established in 2018 that hires youth for entry-level roles. The initiative, called RiseHY, recruits “opportunity youth,” young adults ages 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor working, through community-based organizations.

“When we started to experience real challenges with staffing, we were really happy that we started the work of figuring out how [to] access these folks, introduce our industry, and bring them on board,” says Malaika Myers, Hyatt’s chief human resources officer. 

So far, she’s hired more than 5,300 people through the program and aims to hit 10,000 hires through the program by the end of 2025.

The program boasts a strong retention rate for the industry, with more than 40% of RiseHy hires still with the company. For comparison, the hospitality industry saw an 82% turnover rate in 2022, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“The retention rate for these hires is higher, certainly, than the norm. And some of that, I think, is because of the support system that we put around them,” says Myers. 

Before being hired, RiseHy candidates can get a glimpse of a day in the life at the company through a virtual reality presentation. Many of the hires likely haven’t stepped foot in a hotel before, Myers says, and the VR demonstration helps them understand various roles and their responsibilities. 

Hyatt also created a buddy system for program hires, as well as training for managers on how to best support these workers. Other support programs include providing ride services to RiseHy employees in their first month of work if they can’t immediately afford a car or other means of transportation to get to work.

In addition to lower attrition, Myers says that talent sourced through the program has shown great potential for development, and more than 900 RiseHy hires have since been promoted or moved laterally and transferred to other Hyatt properties.“That proves the point that…you can come in an entry-level job in this industry and work your way up,” Myers says. It’s far more about what you bring to it, how you bring our purpose to life, how you care for our guests, and skills that you can be trained on than what degree you’ve got.”

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

Correction, November 17, 2023: A previous version of this article misstated the number of total Hyatt employees.

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Office international. Fair pay and a healthy work-life balance are some of the most popular qualities of the 25 workplaces included in this year’s Fortune World’s Best Workplaces list. Doing meaningful work and having a fair, engaged manager were also very popular. —Ted Kitterman, Great Place to Work

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