In any industry, including the hospitality and hotel industry, a concept exists called “candidate shelf life,” and it’s one that can affect the chances of a hotel landing top talent for their team. To get an idea of what this concept entails, imagine yourself going to a grocery store to buy bananas, and when you get there, you notice that most or even all of the bananas are very green. Naturally, you would take your bananas home and place them on a shelf, a banana stand, or in a bowl. After you have allowed them time to sit for a couple of days, your bananas begin to get that perfect yellow color and ripen. From there, they are ready to be eaten.
However, if you end up waiting too long, your bananas will start to get brown spots on them, they will start to wither and thereby affect the flavor, and then the gnats take notice and swarm in. When it comes to job candidates, they go through a similar process. To clarify the banana parallel, there are a couple of things that you need to understand about the psychology of behavior and change. For one, it’s fairly normal for one’s emotions to overwhelm rational thought, and another is that a big change—like that of a career move—happens through a series of much smaller steps.
When you’ve got a candidate who you’re really interested in, you interview him or her, and then you proceed with making an offer, the candidate may be like that green banana. They might decide they aren’t ready, and this could lead to them declining the offer. Contrastingly, if you have got a candidate who you’re very confident about, but rather than responding swiftly, you take the candidate through a delayed, long process (let’s say about eight weeks) prior to making them the offer, they may be like that overripe banana after it sat on your shelf for too long, thus causing them to decline the offer.
Fortunately, for hotel and hospitality businesses looking to bring new people on, there are methods for overcoming this. A basic rule of thumb that you should remember and adhere to is that the best interview process for new hires is between three and four weeks in total. If the process for your open position happens any slower or faster, it may end up being too slow or too fast for the one you believe to be the best person for the job, possibly leaving you with candidates who may work out but who may also cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars if they truly weren’t right for the job.
Knowing how to balance a thorough interview process and one that’s streamlined for when interest is still hot can be tricky for any business. With a figure of three to four weeks to focus on, any business that finds itself below or above that figure on its interview process knows what needs to happen next, and it will definitely help you not only find the people you want but also convince them they want you too. To hear more about the hiring process and to learn how you can better attract the top talent in the industry, subscribe to our Youtube Channel. In addition to tips, we also publish the best opportunities available for today’s top talent in the hospitality industry. For more information or to subscribe, click here.
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