Dear HR Managers,
This is what you should look for in a staffing firm and a new employee…
Hiring is one of the most important decisions you will make as an HR Manager, so why is it that we do not hold staffing agencies to the same standards as hiring a direct hire employee? I’ve meet with thousands of HR/recruiters with the responsibility of hiring that have had no formal training or a consistent, effective method for making their hiring decisions. Yet, somehow, we put staffing companies in the position to hire and recruit our workforce when they themselves have not been interviewed and had a thorough background check.
Many businesses place reliance in a firm and trust they are professionals, but there are some key questions you need to ask. Does the staffing firm you work with really understand the finer details of hospitality? Or are they more of a generalist? Has your staffing company been vetted? Do they have the correct insurance certificates to cover both themselves and the client?
Long gone are the days of hiring based on behavior and skill interviewing methods alone. The best organizations in the world do not hire the best people by accident—they are looking for passion, attitude, and skill. Skill is trainable, while passion and attitude are not. With this in mind, experience tells us that the only way to hire anybody (a company or an employee) should be heavily based on Hospitality Motivation Interviewing (HMI).
Unfortunately, most applicants have learned to go online to learn the answers to the typical behavior-based interview questions that you are likely to ask. However, what recruiters and interviewers should really be looking for are three qualities in a candidate:
- Skills/Experience
- Motivation
- Their ability to fit the cultural work environment
The Three Qualities You Should Look for
The first of these qualities is easy enough to discern from the resume received as well as through thorough questioning.
However, the motivation and personality-fit pieces are a bit more difficult to determine. Smart interviewers, who utilize the correct skills, get to the core of a candidate’s attitude and passion for the job because they are asking questions that applicants cannot give fake answers to. The main objective that a skilled interviewer uses to determine if a person is a high achiever or simply an average worker is by asking a series of questions that are designed to see how a person handles obstacles. Does that person have an “I can do this” attitude or do they have an “I can’t do this” mentality?
Most notably, experience and research indicate that:
- Skill, knowledge, and IQ combined predict the successful hire approximately 7 percent of the time, while attitude accounts for the remaining 93 percent.
- Hiring mistakes can set you back, not only due to the cost of the hire, but the time that is lost.
- As an interviewer, we want to be able to identify the high performers despite their interviewing skills.
- Many companies look at the cost-per-fire and average days to fill a role. These metrics can lead to fast/cheap hires and, as a result, we miss out on the quality of the hire.
- If you have a “quality-of-hire” problem, you end up retaining low performers and create a culture problem.
- I believe that attitude is 80 percent developed by age 5. The person who has the attitude must change it, not the employer.
So, with this in mind, many employers ask “what should the hiring processes of a good candidate look like?” Well, there are a few criteria that can help employers and hiring firms identify the right fit:
- Quick and efficient application process
– Technology driven (Web and Mobile Application) - Three-part interviewing process
– Stage 1: Review the basic application process, look for skills, qualification, and job history based on past employment behaviors and employment gaps.
– Stage 2: A phone or in-person interview to dive deeper into their skills and qualifications to best match the candidate with the correct duties and responsibilities.
– Stage 3: In-person Hospitality Motivational Interview technique questions. Specifically, this interview serves to determine attitude, passion, and career fit. - Some staffing agencies may go the extra mile through skills testing programs (such as via Regis Academy) to evaluate:
– Speed
– Direction
– Control
– Efficiency
– Focus
“Full Service” Staffing Firm
If you’re relying on the right staffing firm, their job shouldn’t stop when they refer the applicant. For example, once the candidate completes the hiring onboarding documents they should have a “pre-first day” phone meeting with their Staffing Manager. This phone meeting is to make sure the candidate has transportation to work the next day and to prepare them for any last-minute notes.
A good Staffing Manager will meet candidates at the work location 20–30 minutes before their shift for preparation. This is where the staffing manager will walk the candidate inside the hotel (or location) and introduce them to their supervisor and or other employees. A staffing firm should focus on taking the candidate as far as possible into the integration process, not dropping them on a manger as another task.
For the best staffing agencies, the last step will ensure that the candidate is right. In some cases, that means the Staffing Manager will follow up with the Hotel Manager (or Client) to find out how the performance and attitude of the candidate was. In addition, the Regis Manager will follow up with the candidate to see how their first day was. This last step is crucial in order to ensure the longevity of the position.
Regis Staffing Group understands the standard that the hospitality industry holds itself to. Regis prides themselves on Passion, Attitude, and Skill and ONLY service the hospitality industry. Regis has dedicated the time to research and identify the right personnel to fit seamlessly into hospitality organizations.
