Hiring for Success.
How to avoid mistakes when aiming to hire the best employees yet!
Hiring is probably THE most critical job as a Spa Manager. If we don’t get recruitment right, all our efforts of creating attractive Spa menus, beautiful relaxation lounges, breathtaking pools and gyms, and showcasing the most advanced skincare in our Spa boutiques are worth so much less.
I want to share a personal experience from 15 years ago, which is still with me today: I hired the wrong person!
We were in a phase where we needed people to survive in our daily operations. I am sure you have been in a situation like this. Especially currently, while moving out of a pandemic, the recruitment climate is so tough that we are easily tempted to make exactly the same mistake I did 15 years ago.
This employee at the time showed mediocre performance during the probation period. We all had doubts. We - no, I kept him.
I thought we were not strong enough to make it through another few weeks until we found the right person for our team.
I thought we could carry the mediocre employee as a team… but no, everyone has suffered from the employee’s mediocre performance.
I wanted the employee to succeed, and I did not want to phase reality: the employee had limited capacities and was just not right for this job.
“Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. ”
The fact that I write about my mistake from 15 years ago today shows how much I learned from it. What I took away from this mistake and what I have shared so many times with many of my colleagues since was: If there is a doubt, there is no doubt!
This article from the NewYorkTimes is greatly educative. You find some unusual questions in there to ask during an interview. Maybe they would have helped me 15 years ago to make a better decision, already at the moment of the interview. Give it a read!
I would love to hear about your learnings from recruitment and how you make sure to build the best team for your Spa!