Meet the people who deliver service that truly sets the bar higher.

Who we are

As Canada’s leading hospitality recruiters, we’re a proven team of professionals working from offices across the country, committed to helping great brands hire exceptional leaders.

We use our specialized knowledge of the industries we serve – hospitality – to help hotels, restaurants, travel & tourism, seniors living and other hospitality organizations find strong leaders who are motivated to be long-term contributors. Whether a search is for front or back-of-house management, key support or executive roles, our team has the network, the experience and the desire to find the best hospitality professional for each opportunity.

What sets our team apart?

The common motivational thread for our hospitality recruiters is the strong personal satisfaction they get from positively impacting people’s lives. There is no feeling in the world like helping candidates find the right positions and helping clients find the right candidates.

Recruiting has always been a people-driven industry. But now, in this time of COVID-19, we’ve found the personal relationships and networks we cultivate to be particularly powerful. In that vein, we thought you might want to learn more about the people who are working hard to find exceptional hospitality professionals like you for hotels, restaurants, seniors living and other hospitality organizations across the country.

So we came up with a lightning round of questions to get them talking.

Meet the Hospitality team in Central & Eastern Canada:

Jackie Ross, Lead Recruiter, Vancouver
For Jackie’s full profile, click here.

With over 18 years of experience as co-founder of Canada’s leading recruiting agency focused on the service sector industries, Jackie is an invaluable advisor and resource for our clients and our team.

Her success comes from focusing on customer service, her deep industry knowledge, her entrepreneurial spirit and her ability to train and lead teams across Canada. As a Regional Manager in the apparel sector, Jackie was a natural networker. Her start as a recruiter came when she was asked to join Dumont and Associates and support the build-out of an apparel division for the agency. It seemed like it would be an incredible natural fit, and it was. Jackie was enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with a broad range of leading brands to help them acquire the key managerial talent so they could grow and succeed, and she’s never looked back.

What motivates and inspires you?

Working with Canada's, and the world's, leading brands. Helping them find the best managerial talent in the Canadian marketplace while helping inspiring leaders find meaningful employment that positively affects them and the lives of their families.

I’m inspired by the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of the leaders in our industries – merchants who curate assortments, marketers who craft brand stories, chefs who take the culinary experience to a whole new level, and hoteliers who provide exceptional guest experiences. Every day I'm motivated to connect with more people, to learn more about what's driving our consumer facing industry forward, and to learn what their needs are for the future.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

I’m proud of building an agency with a tenured team of recruiters who are committed to the industries we serve, and who have the ability to work consultatively with our clients.

We’re a team of industry professionals who have collectively built strong networks and who place a high degree of value on those relationships. We’ve been able to assist both national and global brands expand their business in Canada. We’ve collectively worked together to help thousands of people find meaningful employment and to help great companies hire fantastic leaders. All of those results have come from the great relationships we built with our community and through our networks, through supporting our associations and through other partnerships.

What are some of the biggest obstacles the industry is currently facing in terms of staffing?

In a very short period of time we’ve gone from historically low unemployment rates and acute labour shortages, to an abundant supply of talent. At no point in history has such a sudden switch from a candidate-driven market to an employer-driven market occurred. We believe this will be the situation for the short to mid term, but this will not be the long term status quo.

Even now, it’s more difficult to entice those currently employed to consider making a move in these economic circumstances. Yet overall, there’s still an opportunity at this point for organizations to hire the best possible teams, to position themselves for future growth. Ultimately, we’re going to see a lot of talent exchange happening as hospitality professionals seek out roles with organizations they perceive as having the strongest potential to survive - and who have handled themselves with integrity and transparency, living up to their brand promises throughout this crisis. When the pandemic passes, that will prove to be very advantageous for those firms.

What’s the best advice you have for job seekers?

• Get clear on what you want and research your target companies
• Tailor your resume and application to each job
• Create your online brand
• Build, cultivate, and utilize your network of contacts

What's proven to be the most effective method today for sourcing top talent?

Networking. Building and maintaining a network that will provide you with qualified referrals is the most effective way to source top talent. Great people want to work with great people. If you spend the time to connect with key leaders in the industry, they'll refer you to the best people in the market when you have positions available. If you want to be a great recruiter, you have to be a fantastic networker.

If you can give hiring managers some advice, what would it be?

With smaller teams dealing with a huge rise in applicants, it’s more important than ever to drive efficiencies and effectiveness in the hiring process. But it’s also about maintaining a great candidate experience. Candidates are often customers too, and how an organization conducts itself during the hiring process contributes to how people feel not just about its employer brand, but its commercial brand too. The tricky part of recruiting when there is an oversupply of available candidates is managing candidate volume and the candidate experience simultaneously. If you can keep the candidate volume down to a level that is manageable, then you can ensure their experience moving through your process is a positive one. One of the ways to do that is to hyper-target only the most suitable candidates. This actually isn’t advice exclusive to a mid-pandemic world, it’s actually the same advice I’d give pre-pandemic: targeted recruiting makes sense in any economic climate.

What was your best hotel stay ever and why?

When I need to get away, I want to go to the Wickaninnish Inn, in Tofino on the very western tip of Vancouver Island. It’s situated in an incredibly beautiful setting on Chesterman Beach. It’s a luxurious Relais & Chateau property but it also feels unpretentious. It's family-owned and operated and you can just see the care and attention paid to every detail, including the best levels of personalized service. I always feel very grounded when I’m connected to the ocean and hike in the old growth forests.

What’s the advice you would give your younger self if you could go back in time?

Be bold. Be brave. Take calculated risks and really step up to the challenge.


Bobbi Miner-Neal, Recruiter, Toronto
For Bobbi’s full profile, click here.

Bobbi was doing hospitality consulting when she initially applied to JRoss. She had grown a bit tired of traveling and being away from home and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. She’s a natural networker and connector, and she also considers herself “a bit nosey”, so it’s been a great fit. She says she’s curious about people and wants to hear about their life. She considers being a JRoss Hospitality recruiter one of the best jobs and experiences she’s ever had.

What motivates and inspires you?

Helping and talking with others. Having conversations with people - and being able to advise them. I never had that when I was growing a business. I didn’t have a mentor or confidante to have conversations with. Sometimes people just need to be told they’re doing the right things.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

I owned a small, local cafe - more to understand the market, the region and to get to know what was going on in the area. I wanted it to be a social place and a community hub. We hung local artwork and a local high school art class painted the chairs, which we would auction off each year to raise money for the local chapter of Women in Crisis. After 3 years, I sold it. This experience helped me to understand the challenges of running a business more clearly, more so than when I was a General Manager. I have more empathy for companies and can have genuine conversations with owner/operators.

What are some of the biggest obstacles the industry is currently facing in terms of staffing?

The interest in hospitality has gone down quite a bit over the years. The hours are tough and long, and not always conducive to family life, which can be a deterrent. It used to be more of a challenge to find the right people because of staff shortages, now there isn’t enough work due to COVID-19 and sadly, some people are having to take a pay cut to get employment in order to cover their expenses. With a larger than normal pool of highly qualified candidates, the challenge now is more matching just the right candidate to the right position for the long term. These days you often have hard, emotional conversations to help people get through this difficult time.

What’s the best advice you have for job seekers?

Do your homework. Look outside the box and know your value, and where you can add value. Be honest about what’s best for you and your career. I think there are people who take on a job and then a few months later decide it’s not for them. It’s important to do your due diligence to make sure the move is the right one.

What's proven to be the most effective method today for sourcing top talent?

Building relationships and trust with candidates. I feel our team is highly ethical and the standard is very high with building trust. It’s important to understand people - we’re people first. That’s been my advantage: building relationships with people and having real conversations, finding out what makes them tick and stand out from the crowd.

If you can give a hiring manager some advice, what would it be?

Have patience - on both sides. Understand the needs of the business - for both clients and candidates.

What was your best restaurant meal ever and why?

My most recent best meal was with the Elora Mill. It was absolutely incredible. From start to finish - the service, the food - every detail was spot on. It blew me away.

What’s the advice you would give your younger self if you could go back in time?

Don’t be so serious and hard on yourself. Enjoy the ride.


Grace Alaimo, Recruiter, Toronto
For Grace’s full profile, click here.

Grace had been in the senior living industry for about 15 years when Ian Milford, a Principal at JRoss, reached out to her with a JRoss opportunity. Although she had never thought about recruiting as a career, she was excited about the challenge of talking to people in different industry sectors and at different levels every day. She thought it would be a great change and a chance to elevate her own career and personal growth.

What motivates and inspires you?

Thinking "what’s going to happen today?" Once a sales person, always a sales person. I’m more motivated by making the sale than anything - even the paycheck. My team inspires me when I think about how far we’ve come. I also find the candidates inspiring - hearing their stories and their growth.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

When I was still in seniors’ living, it was my job to go into approximately 12 communities that were facing obstacles in overall traffic and occupancy levels. I was to go in and do a review of these challenges and come up with a plan to overcome them. Being able to increase revenue in every single instance is something I’m very proud of.

What are some of the biggest obstacles the industry is currently facing in terms of staffing?

With COVID-19, one of the challenges I face every day is the reluctance of candidates who have had a great tenure, to leave a company. They are hesitant to make a move because of the uncertainty in the industry. Those who aren’t currently employed might not have the skillset the clients are looking for. Also, going to a family-run business is even more concerning for people, even if they’ve been in business for decades.

What’s the best advice you have for job seekers?

• Stay positive
• Network
• Let people know you’re looking
• Speak to recruiters
• Stay up-to-date on trends. That’s key. You need to be able to have educated conversations about what’s going on in the industry

What's proven to be the most effective method today for sourcing top talent?

What’s worked for me are referrals through LinkedIn. Some clients use Indeed but most use LinkedIn. Also reaching out to senior level management when looking at a lower management level.

If you can give hiring managers some advice what would it be?

Always reply. There’s nothing worse than someone reaching out and they don’t get a reply. Connect. Pick up the phone, reply to their LinkedIn. If you don’t do it now, you won’t get their support later when you need it.

What was your best restaurant meal ever and why?

Marmalade in Puerto Rico - everything was outstanding. From the delicious food to the chef coming to the table to chat. Our waiter was knowledgeable about wine and paired our meal well. After 3 years, it still stays in my mind as a wonderful experience.

What’s the advice you would give your younger self if you could go back in time?

Take your time - stay in school. Learn as much as you possibly can before you jump into life.


At JRoss, we’re as excited today as we've ever been about the opportunities in the hospitality industry. We continue to watch the transitions that are happening now and those still coming. Whether it be service innovation or digital transformation, we look forward to new and different ways hospitality organizations engage with guests. Those things continue to ignite our desire to help great brands find the best leaders they can – leaders like you - to make their organizations successful.

To meet our full team you can check out their profiles at our website.

To learn more on this and other hospitality trends and insights you can check out our blog.

Written by Patricia Viscount and Rob Fisher