The Five Colossal Mistakes Hiring Managers Make.

By Debby Carreau

In hospitality, having the right team will make or break your business. So how do you hire the right staff? Here are five common errors hiring managers make and how to avoid them.

If you can recruit employees with an innate passion for hospitality and a strong sense of team, it will improve the guest experience, reduce employee turnover, improve morale and increase the bottom line. Conversely, poor hires can hurt your business and cause good employees to leave.

Here are five mistakes, all of which I have been guilty of at some point in my career, that result in a bad hiring decision.

Mistake #1: Relying too much on experience

One of my first hires was a prep guy who had 30 years experience being a prep cook. I was so impressed I didn’t realize the potential for the candidate growing tired and bitter over time.

• Avoid: Hiring someone only because they have a huge amount of experience in the position you need filled. Remember, they might have so much experience in that job because they were never capable of doing another role. You are always better off evaluating candidates and hiring for personality and potential versus past experience.
• A better approach: Look for career growth before experience. Evaluate the candidate’s ability to learn, grow, and work with others, not just how many years of experience they have.

Mistake #2: Relying too much on education

We have all seen resumes of people with multiple advanced degrees and diplomas. Education alone is not an indicator of future success. It only demonstrates that the candidate is capable of getting an education.

• Avoid: Choosing between candidates simply because one has more education. It doesn’t mean the highly educated candidate is better than all the other candidates that don’t have all those impressive letters beside their name.
• A better approach: Get the candidates to talk about examples of what they have accomplished and how they have interacted with customers, peers and done the kind of tasks you need for the position.
• A better approach: Give the candidate scenarios of situations likely to arise in your business and ask them to give examples of how they personally would respond.

Mistake #3: Being dazzled by the “halo effect”

Sometimes we just click with a candidate and build instant rapport during an interview. Be very careful to differentiate between someone you ”like” or “admire” versus someone who is a good fit for the role.

• Avoid: Making your hiring decision based on gut feel. That halo may make you forget to focus on some basic competency areas.
• A better approach: Use a consistent template to rate all of the required skills for the position so as not to be swayed by your personal biases.

Mistake #4: Fall for someone with the gift of the gab

Especially in the hospitality business, keep in mind these candidates are experts in building rapport and selling. In the case of servers and bartenders, their livelihood depends on it.

• Avoid: Getting so enamored by a great pitch that you think the person is a star before doing your due diligence.
• A better approach: Ask for examples and evidence examples of their success. Look for proof such as awards or customer letters, and explore their ability to think on their feet through scenarios.
• A better approach: Look for humility and the ability to learn from mistakes. Ask the candidate to describe a mistake they have made or a complaint they have received. A truly great candidate will always be confident enough to share a lesson they have learned or a mistake they made. A big talker will always resist showing character flaws.

Mistake #5: Failure to do a background check

This seems so 1980, but references are critically important. I have seen so many managers get too busy, or need to move too fast to check references. Past performance almost always repeats itself, good and bad.

• Avoid: Skipping reference checks. Furthermore, know who the references are - roommates and friends do not count!!
• A better approach: Always check references and wherever possible full background checks are even better. Criminal record checks and education verification often reveal surprises references alone would not catch.

We all know the great candidates get hired quickly, but having a disciplined hiring process in place will not slow you down. It will help save you time, money and grey hair down the road. 

Don’t be dazzled by snake charmers. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to reveal the real gems.

Five innovative practices for sourcing and recruiting great frontline workers

By Debby Carreau 

Open any newspaper today and they all decree Canada is losing jobs and unemployment is through the roof. In contrast, rarely do you meet a restaurant operator or owner who isn’t hiring or looking to upgrade the quality of their staff. In an industry where over 100 per cent employee turnover is considered normal, hiring and retaining the right candidates is a critical business driver. Gone are the days of placing an ad in the local paper; today recruiters and business owners must take a much more focused and innovative approach to sourcing.

1. Find the candidates where they are.

Understand your talent pool and where they spend their time. As a recruiter, make it a point to know your best staff and their habits. This will give you key insights into where to find candidates like them. If they take transit to work, you can look at advertising at bus stops, bulletin boards or coffee stops enroute. If they are students at the local college, the career centres can be a great resource as can local community or recreation centre bulletin boards.

2. Engage your customers and vendors

Most businesses already have brand ambassadors in their customers and vendors. Let them know you are hiring. You will be pleasantly surprised how many didn’t know working with you is an option and would love the opportunity. Customers can make great employees because they already know your brand, and they are also a great source of referrals. Promote your positions through signage in your restaurant, website, e-newsletter, on-hold messages or takeout packaging. Encourage your staff to get the word out to your delivery drivers and other vendors.

3. Employee referrals

Employee referrals are still one of the best sources of hiring great candidates. Take your referral program up a notch. Ask employees to “like” your Facebook page or send out a message you are hiring through Twitter or Facebook to all of their friends. Workers today are sharing their opinions and criticisms to an average of almost 600 Facebook friends and untold numbers of Twitter followers. Not taking advantage of this free word of mouth is a lost opportunity.

4. PR

Dollar for dollar, PR can be a much more cost effective way to promote your organization as a great place to work, and it can really give prospective employees a glimpse into the culture of the organization. Find a newsworthy story about one of your staff or a great initiative your organization is undertaking and send out a press release or call a local reporter. If your organization is sponsoring a community run or giving employees unique incentives such as trips to Mexico or other incentives, these things make great news stories.

5. Social media and online job boards

Online job boards can be effective for recruiting, but they cast a wide net, so statistically you will need to review many more resumes to find great candidates. In the age of digital overload, the key to effective online job boards is to post frequently so your positions stay at the top of the category. Research demonstrates the most effective ads are the ads right below the paid and featured advertisements. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to doing this; your ads must be reposted frequently. Furthermore you will need to distinguish yourself from the competition with a unique employee value proposition. Do you offer apprentice programs, tuition reimbursement or RRSP matching? Be sure to mention it in your postings.  

The hospitality industry is hardly unique in terms of needing many employees. Other industries such as construction and healthcare face similar challenges. Search the Internet for best practices from these industries and adapt the best unique ideas for your organization. If you’re still finding it difficult to recruit workers, hiring foreign workers or using human resources firms to support sourcing may be an effective option. Many hospitality companies use these firms with great success because they can leverage volume to place effective advertisements, purchase sophisticated technology, navigate legislation and reach more candidates.

Miller: Questions about a firing should be handled honestly

By Lee Miller/The Star-Ledger 

A few years ago, Andrea Guthier was fired from a call center position because of “chronic lateness.”

When she was hired, she was told the hours for the job were 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. She did not, however, understand that 9 a.m. meant that she was expected “to be at her desk, signed in and ready to start precisely at 9 a.m.” As a result of that misunderstanding, she was placed on warning. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter she experienced battery problems with her car and was late two days in a row, resulting in her being fired.

After trying many different ways to explain what happened in job interviews, she found that what worked was “just pure honesty along with explaining how she learned to clarify work hours ahead of time and, when in doubt, to show up early.” By dealing with the issue forthrightly Guthier not only was able to find a job, but found a position that allowed her to advance her career.

More than 12 million Americans are currently out of work. When they apply for a new job, one of the questions they will inevitably be asked is to explain why they left their last position. The answer to that question may determine whether they are hired. 
How should you answer that question? All of the experts I spoke with agreed on one thing: You need to be truthful. “How you tell them,” according to recruiter David Perry of Perry-Martel International, “is the important point.” He suggests using truthful, positive information to put what happened in as favorable a light as possible and explain what you’ve learned from the experience.

Management consultant Laurence J. Stybel of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire points out that, like most aspects of the interview, the best thing a job-seeker can do is to “be prepared for the question. Make sure you explain your firing situation clearly and concisely. Give all the details which are relevant for your prospective employer’s understanding. Do not, however, go overboard. One of the worst things a candidate can do is spend countless minutes explaining their firing. Even worse is when candidates defend themselves by bad-mouthing their former employer.”

Amanda Augustine, a job search expert for the career website TheLadders.com, summarizes the essentials for explaining a termination:

• Be truthful. If an interviewer directly asks you why you were let go from an organization, be honest. You don’t want to get caught in a lie during a background check. If you were laid off, say that.

• Be positive. No matter why you and your former employer parted ways, be tactful when discussing the situation. Never bad-mouth the organization to the interviewer. No one wants to hire an employee with a negative attitude. If things did not end well, you can say that you and the organization had differing opinions about the department’s direction, or something to that effect.

• Be forward-thinking. After you’ve discussed your reason for leaving your last position, bring the conversation back to your core skill set and how you can provide value to the prospective employer. “I was recently laid off from my previous role at Company XYZ, but I am most interested in learning more about the director position, as it seems that my extensive program management experience within the telecom industry would be valuable to your client.”

Lynne Sarikas, executive director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University, suggests that you also “think about who you could use as a reference from that company who would have something good to say about you and your work. Try to identify positives from the situation and focus on those.”

Rob Hellmann, author of “Your Social Media Job Search,” points out that the best time to deal with the issue is when you are terminated. He suggests that you negotiate with your soon-to-be former employer what they will say about the termination.

Being fired from a job is no longer unusual, even for very talented individuals. While obviously not a positive, if handled properly it should not stand in the way of your being hired. As Debby Carreau, president of Inspired HR, states: “Over the years, I have chosen to hire or pass over many candidates based on how they handled the communication about a previous termination. The way it is handled can demonstrate maturity, resilience and the ability to learn from mistakes, but it can also cost you a new position if the communication around your termination is not handled with the utmost care.” A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is a career coach and the author of “UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective — The Art of Getting What You Want.” Mail questions to Lee@employability-expert.com

Hiring Top Candidates: The New Interview Rules

Hiring Top Candidates: The New Interview Rules

 

Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 02:45PM

 

 

“Selecting top talent that will perform well and stay with your organization”

Early in my Human Resources career, I attended many hiring workshops that all offered similar advice and conventional wisdom for interviewing and effectively assessing candidates:

“If the candidate does not bring a pen to the interview to fill out an application, do not hire them because they are not organized and prepared”

“If the candidate has not thoroughly researched your business they did not want the job badly enough so don’t hire them”

“If the candidate comes to the interview casually dressed do not hire them because they will be sloppy at work”

“If the candidate has visible tattoos or body piercing do not hire them because you will offend your customers”

“If the candidate is late, don’t even give them an interview”

Once a candidate passed the initial barriers, they were then subjected to numerous behavioural questions that usually started with the phrase “tell me about a time you…..” or the typical questions such as “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” These questions may have been effective in the past, but todays workers know to expect those questions and come to the interview prepared to answer them. In fact, research demonstrates that ( gasp….) many candidates just make up scenarios to present themselves in a positive light because they are expecting the questions.

Hiring managers who follow conventional wisdom will seriously limit the likelihood of attracting and hiring the best talent. Today, better interviews with top candidates are interactive, candidates are interviewing you are much as you are interviewing them.

The fitness industry tends to attract young workers commonly referred to as millennials where entitlement and informality are the catch phrases that best describe them. Standard questions are likely to screen out the very candidates who you would like to attract.

In order to interview effectively, you need to understand some common characteristics about workers today:

• They are informal. They don't like dress codes
• They don’t like strict or bureaucratic rules, especially if they are rules for the sake of rules
• They don't like stuff - they pretty much don't like anything to do with formality.
• They mean no disrespect, but don't be caught off guard by the flip flops or running shoes or the fact that they are on their iPhone while waiting for you at reception.
• Don't take offense when they admit they haven't a clue about what your company does or that you are one of many companies they've applied to. You may have to refresh their memory. In fact, never ever start an interview off with "tell me why you'd like to work for us". Tell them about your company and why it is great place to work for the right person. Although unemployment is still relatively high, talented workers are always in demand.
• Gone are the days of seniority or "putting in your time", workers want to know if they perform well, they will be rewarded today.

Knowledge about the workforce today coupled with research that many workers will have a dozen jobs before they are thirty requires a more intuitive hiring process.

So how do you interview effectively to attract top talent that will stay with you?

Be prepared and allow enough time for each interview. Set aside enough time to prepare for the interview, conduct the interview and allow questions from the candidate. Ensure you will have no disruptions. This behaviour will demonstrate you value their time and interest in working with you.

Prepare standard questions for all candidates. Use a combination of traditional open ended questions to assess their experience and training. Use situational questions to help envision how they will react to situations in the work environment. Whenever possible, allow on the job previews. This is one of the most effective ways of ensuring organizational fit and has a strong correlation to employee retention.

Talk about the mission and vision: Be sure to tell the candidate, in detail, how they can make a difference, and why this job is important to the company. A pay check isn’t the primary motivator for young workers; they want to know their efforts mean something.

Set clear expectations: Make no assumptions. Discuss the expectations of the role. For example, these multi-taskers, who easily text while working, don’t necessarily know to turn off their cellphones during meetings. Similarly, they may not agree with your body piercing or social media policies. If these expectations are clear at the onset, it prevents challenges down the road and establishes a positive work environment where everyone knows the rules of engagement.

Assess “can do” versus “will do” factors. There is an important difference between what people are qualified for and have the capacity to do versus what they are willing to do. This can be one of the trickiest things to assess. Intangibles such as work ethic, motivation and drive are often unknown until the candidate starts in your organization. This is an important consideration so here are a few ways to address the topic.

Ask the candidate to describe a typical day in their last role and how they felt about the expectations and duties.

How did they feel when they were asked to do things that they did not consider to be part of the job description?

Talk to people who have worked with them in the past.

Solicit input: They want to be heard. Let the candidates know about outlets for sharing their ideas. The best managers listen to their younger employees’ opinions, and let them have input in company decisions. Remember that they should be doing most of the talking

Workers today are opinionated and feel they know what they are worth. For these reasons, speaking their mind in an interview is not seen as improper. The employer is being interviewed as much as the candidate. As a result of high expectations millennials interview as if they have multiple offers on the table already and are selling their services to you.

Appreciate their confidence, but be firm. Let them know exactly what the competition is like for your position and provide a realistic job preview should they get the job. Don’t oversell your organization or you will be back to hiring again before their mom or dad calls you to ask “why their son or daughter haven’t received a raise yet”.

Remember any contact with candidates — phone interviews, in-person meetings, emails — counts as an employment marketing opportunity. If you don’t hire them today, you may in the near future or they may be talking about their experience in the online community with potential staff or members. A few years ago they would tell a few close friends or family, today they can tell thousands of people with a click of a mouse.

Treat everyone you interview as a potential customer or member. Use an interview to give a candidate a positive perception of the organization as an employer and as a business. Young workers today want a defined career path. They know where they want to be in one, three and five years from now. They want details about the career track to take them there. It’s all about the next step and how they are contributing. “What position could I be promoted into next year?” and “ How will I be contributing to the organization and society?”

In summary, todays hiring process needs to gel with the values and expectations of today’s hires. This requires an interactive, free flowing approach to interviewing that enables you to obtain the information you need without the formality.

Hiring Tips. Yesterday I posted hiring mistakes so today I thought we'd look at tips for sucessful hires!

http://www.businessbewareshow.com/2012/01/13/tips-hiring-employees/