MHG Hotels is a hotel development and management company which strives to create a safe environment where hotel guests feel welcome and receive exceptional and personal service. To achieve this goal, they need to identify candidates they can trust to deliver great service, while also maintaining high standards for safety and mitigating risk on their properties. They knew adding employment screening to their recruitment process across all 16 hotels in multiple states was the necessary ingredient to help them attain their goal. 

GoodHire’s background check solutions help MHG Hotels hire better quality talent more efficiently in a high growth, high turnover business, while improving guest experiences, increasing safety, and mitigating liability risks.

For MHG Hotels, creating a safe environment where hotel guests feel welcomed and respected, and providing exceptional and personal service to each guest, are top priorities. But without background checks or drug screening processes in place, the team felt their ability to find and hire high quality employees compromised their mission.

Since many hotel employees have access to guest rooms and belongings, hiring trustworthy candidates is critical. MHG Hotels knew they wanted to implement a background check process to improve their quality of hire, discourage illegal activity, and mitigate liability risks. It was important to find a provider that offered background checks and drug screening in a single platform, which could also be implemented across all of their properties. They were particularly interested in an employment screening partner that offered access to Quest Diagnostics, a network of drug testing sites, because they wanted to use a single, nationwide drug screening company as they continue to develop new properties in different areas.

To achieve this goal, Camille Kauffeld, Corporate Director of Human Resources at MHG Hotels, made it her first priority to identify an employment screening partner and roll out background checks companywide. When she found GoodHire, she was pleased that the end-to-end solution offers:

Camille says, “It was going to be a six-week long process for another solution to be implemented, which was not acceptable. So, the speed from deciding on GoodHire to getting up and running was fantastic.”

MHG Hotels is constantly hiring, with 350 employees and well over 200% turnover at some properties before implementing GoodHire. They are also growing, with two new hotels opening this year. Recruiting can be a challenge for many positions because they’re in a 24/7 industry, the work is hard, the industry wage scale is low, and the unemployment rate is low.

Given their challenges in recruitment and retention, MHG Hotels needed to streamline and optimize their recruitment process to ensure a consistent quality of hire across all properties. Recruiting is done at each location, and by partnering with an easy-to-use solution like GoodHire, each property can start a background check quickly by entering the candidate’s name and email address into the system. Hotel managers are busy, so the simplicity of starting a background check ensures that it gets done for 100% of candidates.

The remainder of the background check process is handled by the central HR function so that users at the properties don’t create assumptions or biases about people based on their background check results.

MHG Hotels processes nearly 800 background checks per year, and appreciates the simplicity of billing across properties. Camille shares, “With billing codes, it’s easy to understand how many checks each property is running, manage and verify activity, and allocate costs to keep our accounting accurate.”

Overall, the fast turnaround times—results are sometimes returned within 30 hours—have allowed MHG Hotels to create an efficient, streamlined recruitment process that improves their quality of hire. Hiring and onboarding quickly helps keep their staffing levels up, which creates a more welcoming and satisfactory experience for their guests, and enhances the reputation of their brand and hotel properties.

Since implementing GoodHire, MHG Hotels has seen a noticeable difference in their quality of hire. Camille says, “I would say our quality of hire is 100% better, and continues to improve.”

MHG Hotels wants to hire employees who are driven to succeed, and will work hard to exceed guests’ expectations for quality service. Camille says, “We want candidates who show us they can execute by submitting their background check information and completing their drug screens quickly. These are the types of associates that are going to be successful, advance in their careers, and be aligned with our goals and mission to go above and beyond.”

Having a background check process in place gives property managers peace of mind, too. Camille adds, “There have been fewer negative incidences on our properties since implementing GoodHire. Background screening has certainly improved the quality of our workforce.”

MHG Hotels takes the candidate’s role into account when reviewing background check results, which also helps expand their candidate pool. The type of offense, when it occurred, and information provided by the candidate to support rehabilitation is all considered with regard to the position they’re seeking.

During the review process, sometimes it’s necessary to deny employment based on results in a candidate’s background check. MHG Hotels strives to maintain compliance with FCRA and ban-the-box laws when it comes to running background checks, and, with 16 properties across multiple jurisdictions, when adverse action is needed, MHG Hotels appreciates that GoodHire’s localized, built-in adverse action workflow helps them follow the steps necessary based on federal, state, and local laws. 

With fierce competition in the hospitality industry for high quality workers, low employment, and high turnover, MHG Hotels is meeting these challenges head-on by building a stronger recruitment process, incorporating better background checks and drug tests with GoodHire, and improving their quality of hires. With these important processes in place, MHG Hotels is delivering on their mission to provide exceptional service for their guests.