Mr. Boles

Human Resources, Recruitment & Training

Taking Recruiting to the Next Level: Choosing Your Team

By Jesse Boles, Executive Director of Operations, FreemanGroup

Any good chef will tell you that if you put garbage in, you’ll put garbage out. Just as it is best for chefs to know what dish they are preparing before they go out in search of the best ingredients to make it, hotel professionals are better off when they know what they are looking for in staff members before they hire and train them.

When an organization hires just one person for the wrong job, the effects can be damaging to the entire enterprise. When an organization makes bad hiring choices a habit, the results can be disastrous. At best, bad hiring choices result in poor service; at worst, they cause safety and health risks and perpetually high turnover. Unfortunately, despite the negative consequences of poor hiring choices, many organizations still put little thought and planning into recruiting and interviewing.

Who Do You Want?

Without a clear objective in our heads, most of us will simply go into the market and pick out whatever looks best without really taking into consideration how the items will combine when they are thrown into one pot. We can fool ourselves into thinking that this approach is a good one by saying things like, “We are going to hire experienced people with the right skills, so we won’t need to do much with them once we get them,” but the truth is that if we don’t have a clear recipe for hiring the right employees for the right jobs from the very beginning, we are probably going to wind up with an inarticulate culture made up of people who are each doing their job in a different way.

If you want to recruit and hire effectively, you must be able to articulate exactly what you need and expect a candidate to bring to the table prior to training. You should also be able to articulate what you will be able to provide to candidates during training. Being confident in your training program frees you to focus on building the right culture during hiring instead of merely assessing candidates’ technical skills.

One oft overlooked benefit of having a good training program is that it allows you to present potential hires with fewer boxes to check on their applications in order to qualify for a particular job. Allowing more people to qualify for a job expands your pool of qualified applicants and enables you to base your final selections on the more desirable characteristics you will be able to uncover during the interview process.

Wading Through the Resumes

Yours, like most organizations today, can probably expect to receive a good number of resumes. You need a consistent means of qualifying them. The good news is that if you have drawn up a clear set of criteria for candidates and created accurate job postings, qualifying resumes should be pretty easy.

In addition to determining skill levels by reviewing the boxes candidates have checked on their applications, look for clarity of communication and thought on both applications and resumes, and asses the professionalism of their presented materials in general. Whether you’re hiring a bellman or an accountant, intellect matters. Don’t afraid of interviewing somebody who is “too smart” for the job. As you’ve probably heard said, the only thing worse than training your staff and losing them is not training them and keeping them. I would also suggest that the only thing worse than hiring smart people and losing them is hiring idiots and keeping them.

After you have selected the candidates to interview, stop focusing on their resumes. After all, you’re hiring people—not resumes, and if you’re not comfortable with their resumes, you probably shouldn’t be interviewing them. As you prepare for interviews, also keep in mind that it can be easy to make yourself seem impressive on paper, but that in most cases, hotel employees will not be writing official correspondence to guests, but speaking to them. An effective interview will inform you as to whether or not a candidate can communicate effectively.

Create the Interview

Little else is as painful as watching an unprepared interviewer ask someone to simply expand on the points outlined in their resume. An interview should be a discovery process upon which selection can be based rather than a recitation that provides you with little or no pertinent information. It should be a small test of the skill, knowledge, and attitude that you expect a future employee to demonstrate.

To organizations’ detriments, most managers aren’t trained to interview, and therefore aren’t able to see the value in the process. They are forced to base their decisions mostly on the quality of the resume. Having an established interview process in place and the resources to help managers prepare for interviews will empower your hiring staff to improve their interviewing skills and hire the best candidate for the position.

Questions are the simplest and most often used tools during the interview process, sometimes presented in the form of an actual test. Paper or electronic tests can be effective for assessing knowledge, provided the questions are properly designed. The key to designing a good question is making sure that it requires a specific answer that will demonstrate understanding of a key concept or piece of information. Throw questions like, “What is your biggest weakness?” out of the window and never ask them again. Instead, if you want to know if an applicant is capable of using Excel, ask what functions they would use to carry out a specific calculation. If you want to know if they are knowledgeable about a food product in your restaurant, ask about that ingredient or product. Base the questions on your knowledge requirements and create a standard form for interviewing for each position.

Asking questions is a good thing to do, but it’s not the most effective way to assess skills. You could quiz a candidate on all of the processes required for the job, but all you would really find out is how good they are at taking a test on the processes required to do the job. You won’t really know how well they can execute actual functions. Use practical demonstrations and role plays to find out this information. By designing guest relations scenarios that will allow the applicant to demonstrate the skills and behaviors they will likely bring to the job, you will get a clearer idea of their capabilities. Have them greet a guest, handle a complaint, or make an espresso. Completing guest relations scenarios takes surprisingly little time and can provide you with valuable insights.

Conduct the Interview

The first thing you should do in an interview is make the subject comfortable. You won’t get an accurate picture of a person if they are nervous and stressed. You want to see how they behave when they feel welcomed and at ease, as this should be the type of atmosphere you want to create in the workplace. Smile, say hello, and ask them about their drive or offer them a beverage to put them at ease. Then, explain the interview process. Let them know you will be asking questions, inform them of any role plays that may take place, and let them know that they are free to ask questions at any time.

Next, follow your script. Ask your questions and take copious notes. (If you wish to record interviews, do so, but take into consideration that recording can be cumbersome). Conduct your role plays and gauge how closely candidates’ ideas of service match your organizations’ ideas of service. Don’t out-think yourself, and try to conduct each interview consistently so that you don’t bias the process.

It is important to remember that the applicant isn’t the only person being interviewed. You will need to put your best foot forward if you want to attract the best people. Remember, too, that while we all have a tendency to paint a rosy picture of our organizations to make sure we get the shiniest apples in the basket, during the interview process, this is often misguided or overdone. You’ll want to play up the advantages of the job being offered, of course, but if there are aspects of the job that are challenging or unpleasant, you should disclose those aspects frankly.

Finally, set a clear plan of action with all applicants. Give a timeline for the next interview or hiring decision. Tell the individual immediately if you have no intention of hiring them and save yourself a phone call.

Make the Call

Once the interviews are done, review your notes and make decisions. If the interviews were a team effort, make final decisions together so that everyone is comfortable when the new hires arrive. Do not ask someone who wasn’t in the interviews to choose between to resumes. Lastly, when in doubt, trust your gut. Don’t be afraid to select a diamond in the rough. If you see two runners finish a race in about the same time, one with perfect form and the other with terrible form, ask the one with terrible form to join your team if you feel they are the better fit. You can teach a runner how to run, but you can’t teach speed.

Jesse Boles joined FreemanGroup in 2007, and assumed the role of Executive Director of Operations in November 2008. He is currently responsible for FreemanGroup’s training and measurement divisions, heading projects in conjunction with some of the hospitality industry’s leading service providers. Mr. Boles has worked with leadership teams to develop brand service cultures at both existing and new properties for Las Vegas casinos and luxury hotels. He has been integral in the set up and execution of brand-specific measurement programs for Wyndham Hotel Group, Hard Rock International, Delaware North Companies, and MGM Resorts International. Mr. Boles can be contacted at 972-479-1345 or jboles@freemangroup.org Extended Bio...

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