The wrong recruiting, interview and hiring process.
This is part # 2 of a series of articles addressing the lack of good talent in the F&B industry in the GCC. If you missed part #1 please click on this link: Par #1 to get a sense of continuation.
The recruiting process:
In the GCC region we use the term recruiting very loosely. What we really do is, collect hundreds of CVs and filter them. The process is used to either fill a vacant position, or to fill a newly created position. The way we do it, is by having the owner or leader yell out to the HR manager for example 🙁 Hire me an Operations Manager). There is no reason given, no meetings, and no studies. A decision made based on gut feeling. Someone who is very influential had the gut feeling that the company needs an operations manager. In a professional company, the decision is different. It is made because, a team of leaders met and decided that if the company is not performing well, it must be the operations fault. Therefore, we need to replace the operations manager, or create an operations manager position. Again, no studies, no research, and no consultancy with experts…etc. In a very structured and very professional company, there is a staffing plan, and there is a board of directors that can afford to do things right. In this case, there is a memo sent to HR to recruit an operations manager with some kind of criteria.
In all 3 cases, the HR department’s head either places an ad using channels such as the one that end with zzle.com, and the one, which ends with yt.com. In such ads, the goal is to generate a huge number of CVs and not quality CVs. In some cases, if the company can afford it, they hire a recruiting firm (Head hunters). Head hunters immediately go to professional portals such as LinkedIn and scan through using key words. Then, random calls are made, applicants are shortlisted and interviews start taking place.
The Interview process:
The first one is the dreadful phone interview. The phone interview starts: I am a head hunter, looking to fill a position for a great company. Are you interested? The answer is never (No I am not) because we are curious creatures and wish to know what is going on in the market. Then the interview moves to telling the head hunter his/her job history, life style for the past 20+ years and ends with can I answer any questions for you? The head hunter replies (Thank you, it was a pleasure I will contact you again soon).Please Keep in mind that the head hunter just joined the recruiting company. He/she used to recruit for construction companies before joining. 99% of the time, the applicant never hears back (good, bad, or indifferent). The lucky 1% gets a call back and is told, he /she have been shortlisted, and a personal interview is scheduled.
The Personal Interview
The candidate is invited to the home office to meet with the HR manager. The HR manager is new, does not know much about the job details or the company needs. All he/she knows is that he/she is psychic, and should find out after few questions if the candidate can proceed to meet with the big guys. After few general questions about personal things, now the HR manager is comfortable that the applicant deserves to go in front of the panel. Right before the applicant leaves, the HR manager asks the candidate to prepare a presentation. WHAT? A presentation? I know nothing about your company or your company’s needs. Now you want me to prepare a presentation, showing how I can help your company reach its goals, and in 2 days? Crazy. Yet, the candidate agrees because he knows a friend who can help. He/she proceed to call the friend, gets the company logo from the internet, does some research and prepares a very impressive presentation based on theory and using the (copy, paste) method. After all, he has no real information to base his presentation on, so theory is the best he/she can do.
Now to the board room with a CEO, CFO, Corporate Attorney, HR manager, and the Marketing manager. All of whom have no idea about operations. They love the presentation (Compared to what they know, it made perfect sense. It is based on theory. We all know theory works). In addition, while talking, they notice that few of the panel members know few of the applicant’s friends. That breaks the ice, provides a comfort zone for both, and puts all at ease. The discussion starts to circle around gossip about the industry, and how others are doing and why this company is crazy and that one will never make it. If the applicant and the panel members agree on most of the gossip and how bad or good others are doing, then he/she must be qualified. He/she can relate, and that is what they want. So far, no one talked about operations except when the subject came up about increasing sales. The candidate said the magic words (Take care of the customer). The panel looks at each other showing how impressed they are, and move to the next critical questions: How much do you expect in compensation and, when can you start? The candidate lies and tells the panel that he/she was making $20,000 per month and can start next week. The lie about the money is because no one can verify income due to lack of systems.
Few weeks later, an offer letter arrives, and to the surprise of the candidate, he is getting a 40% raise from his last pay. BINGO. In addition, his starting date is next week.
The Hiring process:
Welcome, this is your computer, this is your office, I am your secretary. I need a copy of your passport, and few details about your family. Welcome to the team, and if you need anything, please let me know. That is the orientation. Simple and easy. After all, who can do the orientation for a position no one knows anything about? Also, he/she was hired because he/she know what to do.
The week after, and during the meeting with the board again, the newly hired operations head is asked, why we are not making any profit and why are sales down? We thought you told us that you can fix this during our meeting. What happened? The answer is always: I am working on it. I am firing few managers, replacing them with managers I worked with before, and increasing the menu prices to generate more sales. OK there is a plan…
This process is the reason we do not have quality talent. A leader of the operations at a company was recruited, hired, and started, with minimum inquiry as to his/her qualifications to run an F&B company. (Oh, I forgot. He/she does have an MBA degree in communications and the panel thought that is a plus. He can communicate)
The result
Who can guess how long this new hire will last? I am here to tell you, he/she will fake his/her way for 2 years before everyone finds out that he/she was the wrong hire. Yet, the recruiter got paid, the HR filled the position, the operations department has a head, the leadership does not have to worry about finding someone to blame when things go wrong. Mission accomplished. In addition, firing many managers and hiring new ones, and increasing menu prices is keeping everyone busy, it will take 2 years for the dust to settle.
In the eyes of the candidate, it gave him/her the false sense that they have the right talent to lead a company. The failure was not his/her fault, and he/she can justify it during the gossip session at the next panel interview. Not having the good talent capable of hiring other good talent, creates a snow bowl effect of bad talent in our region.
What we need is to trust consultants that are knowledgeable about the details of the position, to work with recruiters to fill such positions, and be a neutral force to be fair to the candidate and employer.
Murad Alnasur
