Behind the Scenes: A Look into the Best Practices for Conducting Hotel Employee Interviews |Ep. #338

Conducting hotel employee interviews is a critical step in the hiring process.

In this episode, I’ll explore best practices for conducting interviews to help streamline the process and identify the best candidates.

For many, hiring season will soon be here and if you’re lucky, you have a pool of people you know to draw from to work at your property. If not, you may need to interview.

Guidelines you need to follow

Prepare a list of questions

Preparing a list of questions before the interview is essential to ensure that all necessary information is covered. The questions should be tailored to the specific job and should focus on both technical and soft skills. Additionally, it is essential to ask open-ended questions that allow candidates to provide detailed responses.

Continue reading, watching, or listening, and I’ll continue with guidelines you need to follow when hiring employees…

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Conducting hotel employee interviews is a criticalstep in the hiring process. In this
episode, I'll explore the best practicesfor conducting interviews to help streamline the process
and identify the best candidates. Welcometo another edition of Hospitality Property School.

(00:25):
I am your instructor, Jerry McPherson. For many hiring season will soon be
here, and if you're lucky,you will have a pool of people you
know to draw from to work atyour property. If not, you may
need to interview. Here are someguidelines you need to follow. Prepare a
list of questions. Preparing a listof questions before the interview is essential to

(00:51):
ensure that all necessary information is covered. The question should be tailored to the
specific job and should focus on bothtechnical and soft skills. Additionally, it
is essential to ask open ended questionsthat allow candidates to provide detailed responses.
Continue reading, watching, or listening, and I'll continue with the guidelines you

(01:15):
need to follow when hiring employees.Right afterword from our sponsor, how do
I open a hotel resort in bedand Breakfast or vacation rental? Or how
do I grow my hotel resort inbed and Breakfast or vacation rental business?
Or what changes do I have tomake at my property post COVID nineteen.

(01:40):
If you have ever asked yourself anyof these questions, I'll be happy to
answer, But before I do,let me ask you a couple of questions.
Does the idea of being your ownboss in the hospitality property industry sound
appealing? Is the thought of sharingyour corner of the world with guests intriguing?
Have you ever thought of opening orgrowing a hotel, resort, in

(02:02):
bed and breakfast or vacation rental butare not sure where to start? Are
you worried about whether guests will returnand keep returning to your property after COVID?
If you've answered yes to any ofthese questions, this course is for
you. This course is designed toget you started and grow your business as

(02:23):
a hospitality property owner or manager withmore than just quick fixed tactics, but
instead help you develop successful long termoperation methods. I will cover Series one
Hospitality Property Organizational Structure, Series numbertwo, Steps to Hiring exceptional hospitality property

(02:45):
staff, Series three, Marketing Strategyfor Hospitality Properties. Series four Guest expectations
in the hospitality property industry. Doyou want to take your hospitality property to
the next level. Don't hesitate,sign up now. Before the break,

(03:07):
I said I would continue with theguidelines you need to follow when hiring employees.
Create a structured interview process. Creatinga structured interview process helps ensure consistency
and fairness in the hiring process.This can include asking all candidates the same
questions, assigning scores to responses,and using a rubic to evaluate each candidate.

(03:34):
A structured interview process helps ensure thatcandidates are evaluated fairly and objectively.
Use behavioral interview questions. Behavioral interviewquestions are an effective way to assess a
candidate's past behavior and performance in differentsituations. These questions are typically structured as

(03:54):
tell me about a time when,and can help evaluate a candidate's problem solving,
teamwork, and communication skills. Behavioralinterview questions can also help predict how
a candidate will behave in future situations. Conduct multiple interviews. Conducting multiple interviews

(04:15):
with a candidate can provide a morecomplete picture of their skills, experience,
and personality. This can include aphone screen initial interview and a final interview
with the hiring manager. Multiple interviewscan help ensure that the candidate is a
good fit for your properties, culture, and values. Utilize technology. Utilizing

(04:40):
technology can help streamline the interview processand provide more flexibility for the candidates.
This can include video interviews, onlineassessments, and virtual job fares. Technology
can also help assess a candidates technicalskills and experience, such as through skills
esments, and other challenges. Provideclear communication. Clear communication is essential throughout

(05:08):
the interview process to ensure that candidatesunderstand the job requirements, expectations, and
timeline. Providing regular updates two candidates, such as the status of their application,
can help maintain their interest in theposition and ensure a positive candidate experience.

(05:29):
Let's get into specifics. When itcomes to interviewing, you will have
two options unstructured interviews and structured interviews. If an interview is unstructured, it
doesn't mean you don't have to preparequestions ahead of time. An unstructured interview
allows potential employers to ask different questionsto each candidate, which could become an

(05:53):
opportunity for an employer to judge candidatesbased on who they will get along with,
as opposed to whether a candidate isqualified for the role. A structured
interview is the process in which candidatesare asked the same predetermined questions in the
same order. It helps you minimizebias or personality preferences that could otherwise affect

(06:15):
your decision to move forward with acandidate. What should you be looking for
in a candidate? You have tolook at your priorities. Do you want
candidates with more hard skills or softskills? Most companies hire based on hard
skills because it's easy to make decisionson such binary questions as do you have

(06:35):
three plus years of experience on thefront desk or do you understand booking systems?
But with such variability in a positionsrequirement, does the answer to that
question really help you qualify a candidate. In today's travel industry, soft skills
are becoming more important and you needto look for specific elements During the hiring

(06:57):
process. You look to see ifthe candidate has self awareness, self regulation,
motivation, empathy, and social skills. These are the five elements that
make up once emotional intelligence. Whenit comes to hiring individuals, emotional intelligence
is really something you have to identifythrough face to face conversation. Can you

(07:20):
hear the excitement in the candidate's voicewhen they tell you about their work experience,
you'll be able to judge self awareness. Have they shown a genuine interest
in helping others on their team?Self regulation? Does the candidate know their
own strengths and weaknesses? Motivation?Does the candidate speak about their previous company?

(07:45):
What relationships did they build? Empathy? Do they have the ability to
understand and share the feelings of others? And social skills. How did the
candidate handle a frustrating situation or amist Look for these cues in the interview
stage of your hiring process and makesure to value those skills just as highly

(08:07):
as any technical skill or relevant experience. You can always train candidates how to
make a bed, It's much harderto teach emotional intelligence. Interestingly, most
properties don't train their employees for softskills. According to a study by a
global human resource consulting firm, onlyeleven percent of senior leaders are effective at

(08:31):
displaying empathy and maintaining others esteem.Does all of this make sense so far?
Let me know by leaving a shortcomment. Before you get to the
interview process, you have to makesure you attract the right candidates. Here
are a few suggestions. Make sureyour on site content is optimized for job

(08:52):
searchers. Do your job descriptions containkeywords that a job seeker might type into
a search engine, you using theiraddiction. Use social media to demonstrate your
company's culture, values, and mission. Social media isn't just a high level
marketing strategy. It's often a candidate'sfirst touch points with your business. You

(09:16):
can try starting at LinkedIn group whereprospective candidates can ask you questions. Put
your own Twitter handle on your careersite so candidates can tweet you messages and
follow your posts. Use specific qualificationthat candidates can quickly identify with Your goals
should be to build trusting relationships,showing people that your business cares to develop

(09:39):
their skills and help them grow intheir careers. Once you have done this,
you'll have a much easier time approachingyour perfect candidates when that perfect opening
comes up. If you are amember of the Hospitality Property School group,
as a bonus, I am goingto share a list of interview questions you

(10:01):
could ask In conclusion, conducting hotelemployee interviews requires a structured and objective approach
that focuses on both technical skills andsoft skills. By preparing a list of
questions, creating a structured interview process, using behavioral interview questions, conducting multiple

(10:22):
interviews, utilizing technology, and providingclear communication, Hotel owners and managers can
identify the best candidates for the joband maintain a positive candidate experience. By
investing time and resources into the interviewprocess, hospitality properties can build a strong

(10:43):
team of hospitality professionals who can deliverexceptional service to guests and contribute to a
positive workplace culture. Do you currentlyhave an interview strategy for your hospitality property.
Let me know in the comments.We cover more in all aspects of
operating a hospitality property in the Guideto Owning and Operating a Hospitality Property successfully

(11:07):
course Take at that ditch. Youcan find more information at Keystone HPDE dot
com slash course. You're going tohave access to this episode for as long
as you're like, but if youwould like to see all the bonuses you
would have access to as a memberof the Hospitality Property School group, check

(11:28):
out the short video in this episodepost show notes. In our next episode,
I will be talking about hiring theright front desk employee. If you
haven't done so, yet, makesure you sign up for Insider Tips,
give us a wave on social andjoin one of our groups, and make

(11:48):
sure you get your free copy ofthe How to Improve your Hospitality Property Success.
All of the links can be foundin the show notes. If you
liked this, let me know inthe common section belong and if you're going
to implement any of these procedures.You can support this free podcast by leaving
us a review and giving us afive star rating wherever you happen to be

(12:09):
listening to it. Every review ithelps more people find a podcast at no
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for your attention, and let's continueto work together to put heads in your
beds. Until next time, havea fun day.