March 12 - by Andreas Breitfuss
Restaurant Management Center
Finding the right employee sometimes can become a nightmare, so today I wanted to show you a procedure which allows you to present a professional interviewing procedure when faced with the task of hiring new staff.
Once you have placed your advertisements you will start to receive some resumes/CV’s either by facsimile, email or post, divide the applicants for an interview into a YES, NO and MAYBE piles. Call all the yes candidates for a interview time and allocate about ½ an hour to 1 hour depending on the position (senior positions should be an hour at least).
PREPARING FOR THE INTERVIEW
Preparing for the interview is very important as you want to create an environment that is inviting for the applicant as most people you will interview will be nervous. Follow the following checklist for the interview:
1. Prepare the office or restaurant surroundings
2. Forward your mobile and other calls
3. Let other team members know that you are conducting
the interview and you should not be disturbed.
4. Find a quite place in the restaurant or office
5. Ensure that you have all the relevant paperwork prior to their arrival: The applicants resume/CV, job description for that position, a list of interview questions, application form and a brochure or fact sheet on your establishment.
THE INTERVIEW
When the applicant arrives greet them in a friendly manner and hand them the application form to fill our along with the brochure or fact sheet of the restaurant or café. Once the application form has been completed start some rapport building conversations like their hobbies, sports, last nights football score anything to relax them a little more. Tell them a quick interview process or sequence this will allow them to relax and help them prepare for each of the stages your interview sequence is as is as saying:
“ Well thankyou for coming for the interview what we will be covering in the interview is that I will let you do most of the talking, then I will ask you a series of questions and then you can ask any other questions I did not cover, our time together will take approx. 1 hour”
During the interview you will want the candidate to do most of the talking and ask them questions that are open ended, questions that they can’t just answer with a yes or no. Some good open ended question can start with “Tell me about your experience”, “How would you sell more beverages if you get the job with us”.
Once the candidate has finished telling their story it is now the time to ask them the specific questions that you have prepared. Ask each of the interview questions and write down their response in the area provided. Once you have filled in all the answers ask the candidate if there are any further questions they would like to ask or any matters that they would like clarification on. Thank the candidate for attending the interview and make sure to tell them how long it will be before you respond back to then wether they have been successful or not. Also check that it is ok to check with all the referees thet are indicated on their resume/CV.
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
Rate the candidate from the answers that they gave to you in the interview process rate the responses onto a interview question sheet, the question sheet corresponds to the questions that you have asked them. The question sheet will help you determine based on the attitude of the candidate wether they are appropriate to work for you. The more Yes’s they candidate gets on the question sheet the better. You will also be able to rate that candidate with the other candidates that have applied for the position.
SHORT LISTING THE CANDIDATES
You must now short list the top 3 candidates for the position and put them in order of your preference.
REFERENCE CHECKING
It is now at this point you must check the referees of the top 3 candidates, following the question sheet for referee’s procedures. You must be sure that the candidate is being truthful and that the referee would hire the person again.
TRIAL RUN
Once you have received a favourable response for the top candidate it is now time to contact them and offer the person employment with you. You can at this stage offer them a paid trial run for a shift just to see how they perform on the job. Although you might want to get a couple hours of free labour from them it is vitally important that you pay them for this time as it shows your high level of professionalism. You need to show that you are a fair and professional employer as who wants to work for an employer that rips off their employees even before they officially start in a position.
Source: Restaurant Management Center
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