Job fair gives Kensington larger pool of candidates

Kensington Hotel Saipan provided free water and snacks to all applicants who attended their two-day job fair at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multipurpose Center in Susupe. (Jon Perez)

Kensington Hotel Saipan Human Resources manager Vivian Deleon Guerrero said holding a two-day job fair at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multipurpose Center helped officials of the E-Land Group-owned facility to have a larger pool of candidates.

Kensington is one of E-Land’s hotel chains that would open its Saipan branch within the year and that’s why Deleon Guerrero said they need more than 300 employees that would fill the culinary, food and beverage operations, sales and marketing, front office, recreations, finance, human resources, housekeeping, and engineering departments.

“We have 203 applicants [Wednesday] and we’re reaching close to 200 [Thursday] with still a few more hours left. We met our target of getting more than 300 applicants so turnout was really good,” said Deleon Guerrero.

She added that a lot of the applicants qualified for a second interview, the next step of the process of getting hired, and it was a huge plus in their job pool search.

“Meeting the applicants and getting the chance to talk to them face to face helped us in assessing their personality and desire to work in the hospitality industry. It showed how prepared they are and it’s good to know how they react to our questions,” Deleon Guerrero said.

She said that most of the applicants are fresh graduates from Latte Training Academy, Inc., which sent qualified residents who finished being certified in the hotel and hospitality industry.

“Overall it was a mixed turnout. It was a good group of people and some stood out. Now we have to see if they meet the requirements in the job that they are applying. We will also do background checks with the references they submitted,” said Deleon Guerrero.

Deleon Guerrero added that background checks would determine if the contents of the applicant’s resume are true. “Once hired they would undergo drug testing, which is standard policy. And we’ll also require them to submit a police report to see their background.”

She said all interviews were at the department manager-level. “It was the department managers who conducted the interviews and they’ve asked a lot of questions. Many are consistent with their answers that fit the jobs that we are looking for.”

E-Land Group Human Resources and Customer Service director Ginger Choi helped Kensington officials in conducting the interviews.

E-Land Group aims to expand further its business where they plan to have more than 150 hotels and resorts with 18,000 rooms around the world operational by 2020 to become of the world’s top 10 hotels.