The interview guide is a page of twelve questions, each with a note on what it is listening for, and a scoring sheet. It is built on the single most consistent thing the hoteliers and chefs told me about hiring: they hire for character and train for skill, and they have specific ways of hearing the difference across a table.
Where it comes from
Chapter 4 of the book is called First the Team, and Graham Ledger, then general manager of Singita, gave the hiring rule its clearest form.
“The 80 refers to enthusiasm and cultural fit, while the 20 refers to the technical side which can be taught and developed over time. The 80 portion is the key.” Graham Ledger, then general manager, Singita
Matthew Orlando, then chef and owner of Amass in Copenhagen, said he hires on personality more than skill because the work needs passionate people who care; Emmanuel Stroobant of Saint Pierre in Singapore said the right attitude will always trump skill. The question is how to hear it. Aaron Kaupp, then general manager of Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris, asks candidates about difficult situations they have faced and listens to how they tell the story. James Low, then general manager of COMO Uma Paro in Bhutan, remembered his own interview with Bern Chorengel at Hyatt, who set the résumé aside and asked instead what Hyatt meant to him and how he could add value. The guide’s questions follow that pattern: they ask for stories, and they listen for what the candidate noticed, whom they looked after, and what they did when no one was watching.
The twelve questions
- Tell me about a guest or customer you still think about. What did you notice about them?
- Describe a shift that went wrong. What did you do in the first five minutes?
- When did you last fix something that was not your job? What happened?
- Who taught you the most in your working life, and what did they show you rather than tell you?
- Tell me about a time you were corrected. What did you do with it?
- What do you do in the first week at a new job that nobody asks you to do?
- Describe a colleague you covered for. Why?
- What does a good day on shift look like to you, from the inside?
- Tell me about a time you said no to a guest. How did you say it?
- What have you noticed about this place since you walked in today?
- What part of this work would you do even if it paid less?
- What should I have asked you that I did not?
Each question on the page carries a line on what to listen for: specificity, other people in the story, ownership without blame, and whether the candidate’s attention goes to the guest or to themselves.
What is on the page
The twelve questions with their listening notes, and a scoring sheet with four lines: notices people; takes ownership; protects colleagues; tells the truth about mistakes. Each scored one to three with a one line reason, and a box for the one thing the candidate said that you would repeat to the team. Technical skill is scored separately and last, as a yes or no on whether it can be taught in the time you have.
How to use it
Use the same questions for every candidate for a role, so that the answers can be compared. Let the candidate tell the whole story before you follow up. Score within ten minutes of the interview, while the stories are still exact. If two interviewers are involved, score separately before comparing.
What to look for
Look for the candidates whose stories are full of other people. The leaders in the book describe the human touch as something that cannot be taught, and the surest sign of it across a table is a candidate who, asked about their own success, talks about a guest, a colleague or a mentor. Ledger’s other warning belongs here too: a poorly inducted hire will fail spectacularly, so the next tool after this one is the induction review.