At the close of its international Careers Live month, Hilton HR Director Richard Todd shares the company’s vision for recruitment, training and retention.

Todd told Spice that Hilton’s vision isn’t simply to make money, it’s to make life better for people in the countries where the business operates.

“We have 4000 hotels globally and we leverage who we are in order to create hope and stability for young people,” said Todd.

This high-minded approach is a direct result of owner Conrad Hilton’s mission to, ‘Fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality’.

It’s not often that business plans align with something that could have been written by Deepak Chopra but Hilton puts its money where its mission statement is by funding in-house training, running a Hilton University and giving employment opportunities to people who have little to no education at all.

Todd said that Hilton works closely with schools and training colleges to run work experience programs. He said, “What a lot of people don’t realise is that there are 152 different job titles within the Hilton business. People think it’s just front office, chef and manager but there are so many things that customers don’t see.”

Furthermore, Hilton encourages its ‘millenial’ staff members to travel and work abroad within the company. “We know these staff members want different career opportunities and the ability to move from one business unit to another. We know they are impatient and want their manager’s job and we also know they value travel opportunities. Subsequently we have developed a robust structure within the company where we always try to fill a job locally and then go out to our international network to see who we can import or export from within the company,” said Tod.

And what does an ideal Hilton employee look like? Todd says they are comfortable interacting with people. “They make eye contact, they smile. They’re selfless and want to give service with no strings attached,” said Todd.