Transforming the hiring process
This scenario must be familiar to many. Whilst conducting a special projects meeting which has stretched beyond the stipulated time, someone from HR calls us to remind us that the scheduled interviews will be held in 15 minutes. Frantically, we up the pace of the meeting and bring it to a rapid close - putting off in the process, some important decisions until the next meeting. With barely another 5 minutes remaining, we dash into our office and spend the next few minutes looking for the list of short-listed applicants whilst reminding ourselves which positions we are recruiting. By now, the HR person has called a second time and we say ‘I’m on the way’. We then rush to the HR department located at the basement of the building and realise too late that the interviews are to be held at the Business Centre meeting room two floors above. Rushing in and taking our seat, we ask for a copy of the job description and whilst someone hurries away to get a copy, the first candidate is called up – 15 minutes later than the slotted time. Having put aside little or no time to prepare for the interview, we then proceed to ask the two questions almost every employer throws at candidates; ”Tell us about yourself” and “Why should we hire you?” We then breeze through the entire interview process and when that’s over, return to our office with a sigh of relief and a feeling of having accomplished one more mission.
The above postulated sequence or development of events is an oft repeated occurrence many of us face because the hospitality industry has a high turnover rate involving a perpetual cycle of hiring and training, keeping HR people continuously busy, doing what they do historically, where recruitment is a ‘push and pull’ (P&P) set of actions. In essence, a huge amount of time is spent interviewing and the question arises as to how does one invest time and money to make effective or superior hiring decisions instead of wasting those resources on processing turnover? Convert your interviews from meandering processes to meaningful experiences.
When interviewing trainees for housekeeping positions at entry level, relying on a list of boring questions may be necessary. However, questions such as ‘why do you want to work here?’ or ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years? is bound to fly over the candidate’s head – especially for someone with no idea about the industry and the numerous career opportunities it offers. Similarly, questions such as ‘are you a hard worker?’ or ‘can you handle a fast paced workload?’ are no brainers. Seriously, do you expect the candidate to say ‘no’ to either of the questions? Perhaps a more pertinent question to ask would be ‘can you handle workloads that may have you staying longer than expected?
In the case of those with experience in housekeeping why not stage a guestroom with plain-to- see cleanliness opportunities and observe how many the candidate can find. This takes the interviewing process to a whole new level - experiential interviewing. Go one step further and instruct the candidate to ‘put right the wrong’ within a prescribed period of time. This will show whether the candidate demonstrates a sense of urgency and if he or she can match the pace of cleaning 14 – to whatever number of rooms you expect staff to complete during a shift. For those who apply for Housekeeping supervisory positions include the experiential process during the recruitment stage, where their powers of observation and attention to detail are challenged / exposed.
Ask candidates for restaurant server positions how they would carry three plates at once to the dining table. For sales positions have the candidate demonstrate how he or she would make an initial call to a new client. Adopting the experiential process for other positions in other departments can easily be rule not the exception. Otherwise, merely depending on a one-to-one dialogue in an interview with theoretical questions thrown in does not reveal the true representation of what candidates can truly offer.
Ilzaf Keefahs
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