Ferree & Associates: Interviewing Tips

Interviewing tips for employers? We're kidding, right? Wrong. Employers can avoid most hiring mistakes by simply spending a little more time preparing for the interview in advance.

Management people all hire people, some more than others. It's natural to feel comfortable interviewing. After all, it's not their job that's on the line. Or is it?

It is easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day aspects of your job. Prepping yourself to interview potential employees is frequently the last thing you have time for. On the other hand it is probably the most important thing you can do the day of the interview. After all, hiring the wrong person can be very costly to your company and your career. Conversely, hiring the right employee should make your job easier and make you and your company more successful.

Step 1
Write down the three most important aspects of the job. (The position description may list 20 or more, but most jobs boil down to about three essential duties that account for 80% of the job.) Next write down any specific areas within those duties that really need to be improved. Now write down interview questions that will require job applicants to tell you how they have addressed your critical areas. You want job applicants to explain how or what they did and the impact of their actions on costs, profits, and customer satisfaction. Arrange the questions you want to ask in the sequence that will provide you the most information about the candidate.

Step 2
Identify where you will interview the job applicant. YOUR OFFICE IS THE WORST PLACE POSSIBLE TO CONDUCT AN INTERVIEW. Your office creates all kinds of opportunities for you to be interrupted during the interview process. That breaks your interview concentration, often provides job applicants confidential information about the company they should not have, and often presents you and your company in a very unfavorable light. Plan the length of the interview. Schedule time for a tour of the hotel or corporate offices (so the prospective employee can get a "feel" for the operation, see the Corporate culture in action, and identify how others within the company function).

Will you visit the job applicants current place of employment before or after the interview? The best way to see if the candidate "walks their talk" is to visit their current property and see them in action.

Will the job applicant be asked to demonstrate their technical proficiency? If so how, where, how long will they need, how will that impact your on going operations, and how will you measure their success? Ask a DOS to make a cold sales call. Have a F&B Director prepare a menu insert to accomplish a specific objective. Have a Chef actually cook. An Executive Housekeeper inspect some rooms in your presence. A Director of Catering to demonstrate their approach to handling a specific group. A Director of Engineering to fix something. A Controller to analyze last months P&L. A Front Office Manager to instruct the Front Desk Clerks on how to upsell. Etc., etc., etc.

Step 3
If other people are going to be involved in the interview process meet with them to confirm that they still have the interview on their schedule and to coordinate what aspects of the candidates background each person is to cover.

Make sure they have taken the time to prepare for the interview (or remove them from the schedule and decision making).

Each person should have a couple of overlap questions to provide insight on the prospective employees responses. If four people are going to interview a prospective employee have the third person ask a couple of questions similar to those asked by the first interviewer, likewise the fourth interviewer should ask a couple of overlapping questions the second interviewer asked.

How your company can look very unprofessional? Don't bother coordinating the interview content and have everyone ask the candidate the same mundane questions, like reviewing their background four times. Or everyone covering the same area while missing other important areas. Prospective applicants can quickly tell if the company is ready to interview them or not.

Whether you, as the prospective employer are interested in the candidate or not, you want the candidate to leave thinking your company and / or hotel would be a wonderful place to work. You want every applicant interviewed to become a good will ambassador for your hotel and / or company. Interviews should be part of your public relations campaign. When prospective employees are treated unprofessionally during an interview they spread the word. Especially when they are unemployed!

Step 4
Immediately after the interview set aside 15 minutes to jot down notes from the interview, concentrating on your most critical questions first. Then rate the applicant on a 1-5 scale as a potential employee. Based on this information identify the next step. (A turn down letter. Doing work references and background investigations, etc.)

REMEMBER, every job interview has the potential to improve your profitability by 5 times the compensation for the position. What other decisions are you likely to make, the day of the interview, that can have that much impact on profits?

Some employers do a wonderful job of preparing for interviewing and always present themselves and their company professionally. Unfortunately, they only make up about 5% of employers. If you are one of those 5% congratulations.