Navigating Successfully through Challenging Economic Times
By Michelle Thomas, Senior Manager, Diversity Recruitment, Sodexo

This past July, the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE) held its annual conference, bringing together educators, students, thought leaders and industry partners in the field of hospitality. A major theme at the conference was the impact of the downturn in the economy on the hospitality industry.

Sodexo has long been a huge supporter of ICHRIE and its mission. We were so pleased that Kerwin Higashi, a Vice President in Sodexo’s Education Market, was invited to participate in a panel discussion with executives from the Darden Group, Ecolab and Marriott on some of the ways their companies have navigated the economic storm.

Key take-aways from the panel discussion include:

• Maintain your focus on your current customers and employees. This is the time to reinforce your business relationships and also to ensure your top employees remain engaged.
• Invest in expanding your business relationships and continue to attract top talent to your company so that when the economy turns around, you will be in a strong, competitive position.
• Leverage innovations in technology to expand outreach, increase impact and drive efficiencies that will help the bottom line. With innovations in communications, especially with social media, it is possible to reach a wide audience, build and manage business and talent networks, and communicate your company brand.

The panelists also had a similar message to those in this tough job market: networking is key. Take advantage of every opportunity to expand your network, learn more about top companies and position yourself for opportunities. Technical innovations make networking and job searching so much easier. Sodexo has turned to such popular outlets as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to market its jobs as well as what the company is doing around the world. Even the "executive suite" of many companies has taken to social media, as evidenced by the many CEOs who are regular contributors to their company blogs. For a glimpse into Sodexo’s CEO, George Chavell, take a look at his recent blog post.

For businesses and for job seekers alike, changing times requires maintaining focus on what is important, but being open to new and different approaches that will help produce better results. In these challenging economic times, our industry leaders continue to adapt the way they do business to maintain their competitiveness in the market.