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I recently read the book Algorithms To Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. You may currently be looking to hire the right staff in hospitality. There is some interesting advice on hiring that right person in the book. I’d like to share with you here.

Regardless of what position you’re hiring for. Trying to hire the right staff can be a stressful experience. It can be worth considering experimenting with algorithms formulated by computer scientists as detailed in the book.

As you will know algorithms are a finite range of steps that solve problems and take decisions. They’re the backbone of digital products. The device you’re using right now utilises algorithms. It runs them to decide which programs to utilise, when to terminate them, how it is sorting incoming information and how to communicate with other devices.

There are three computer algorithms that we can apply to hiring to efficiently solve the following three problems.

1. Among a range of qualified candidates. Which should I hire when looking to hire the right staff?
2. How should I go about onboarding after the hire?
3. When to move on and engage someone new?

First of all, problem number one. You require the selection algorithm.

There are two big ways to fail in selecting an applicant for a role. Decide too early and miss out on better applicants. Wait too long, and miss the opportunity to hire the best applicant if that applicant applied early.

Let’s imagine you have a potential pool of 20 qualified applicants for a role you’re trying to fill. You don’t want to rush and hire the first candidate you interview. Additionally you also don’t want to waste days (or even weeks) interviewing all 20. Thankfully, there’s a third option. A scientifically proven algorithm dubbed the “37% rule”.

Hire the right person using the 37% rule

The 37% rule says that you should evaluate 37% of your applicants with no intention of hiring them.

Meaning, reject the first 37% unconditionally. After having evaluated the first 37% pick the next candidate you who applies who’s better than all previous options that applied.

So in the hypothetical scenario of deciding between 20 qualified applicants, you interview the first seven applicants without intention of making them an offer. Then continue interviewing the remaining 13.

Stop interviewing the moment you find a person who is better than any of those seven you initially interviewed. The benefit of this process is it gives you a chance to evaluate your preference. It additionally provides a handy benchmark which you can base your ultimate decision upon.

Several years ago a University student utilised the 37% rule to choose his future wife. He reasoned that he could be dating whilst between the ages of 18-40. By relying on the 37% rule, when he reached 26.1 years old he’d propose to the first woman better than all the others he’s dated.

When he encountered that woman after becoming 26 he said “without doubt, she reached the qualifications for the algorithm. I asked her to marry me… and she turned me down”.

Naturally the 37% rule isn’t 100% going to get you the results you desire, as the student realised. But it gives you the highest probability of achieving a great outcome.

The 37% rule is only applicable if you can’t revisit previous candidates

It’s important to point out, the 37% rule is only applicable if you can’t revisit previous candidates. It’s usually the situation when dating but not usually when hiring. For example, if you feel there’s a minimum of a 50% chance past candidates are still open to an offer. Or did they go for another role while you were deliberating on other applicants? Did they lose interest in the offer over time as often happens when the hiring process is extended?

If they’re still interested the 37% rule becomes the 61% rule. That is, if you’re seeking the best possible applicant, leave making an offer until you’ve interviewed a minimum 12 candidates. Then if you don’t find a better applicant among the remaining eight candidats, return and choose the best applicant you interviewed of all 20.

The On-boarding Algorithm

The next algorithm worth discussing is what we’ll dub the on-boarding algorithm. When you take new hires on, it’s difficult to know how much workload to give them. You need to maximize their skillset. However you don’t want to provide too many tasks so they make errors, don’t reach standards or cause issues you later need to address.

For years computer boffins came up against a similar problem. Computers would connect to a network of computers. A computer would get overwhelmed with requests and not deliver information to the computer requesting that info.

To resolve this issue computer scientists developed a brilliant solution known as transmission control protocol “TCP”.

If a new computer joins a TCP Network, it receives just one packet of info from the sender. It lets the sender know it’s received the packet by sending its acknowledgment packet. With every acknowledgement the sender doubles up the amount of packets it sends.

When the computer gets overwhelmed with too many packets and fails to send an acknowledge packet back to the sender, the algorithm “additive increase multiplicative decrease” known as “aimd“ steps in.

The aimd algorithm decreases the number of packets being sent by 50%. This large cut creates space on the network, allowing the receiving computer to catch up. After this reduction the sender will be allowed to add one extra packet to each future message. The developers state “aimd is like someone saying a bit more, a bit more, a bit more. Okay, way too much, cut right back. Okay a bit more, another little bit more.”

Use a similar technique to ensure the successful on-boarding of a new team member

Say you hire a new member of staff and you give them a small responsibility. When they return that work in time and on schedule, then double up workload. Keep doubling up and when you receive work that’s not up to scratch immediately cut the workload by 50%.

Utilising such exponential growth you can rapidly find a colleague’s capacity. And by subsequently increasing workload one unit at a time, you provide them an opportunity to build back up. Go step by step, when they achieve the level where they failed they’ll have more confidence and will have much more chance of success.

The Switching Algorithm

The next algorithm worth elaborating on is what we’ll call the switching algorithm. If a team member consistently meets expectations, you won’t need to consider replacing the hire. If they’re just reaching expectations some of the time you should probably explore further options such as the Gittins index.

In the 70s a young mathematician, John Gittins was asked to optimize unilever’s pharmaceutical Investments. Gittins had to decipher if Unilever should continue investing in a proven drug or switch to a new drug being trialed.

Based upon multiple versions and months of testing Gittens developed a table of values to help Unilever decide if they should switch to a new drug they thought could be at least 90% as effective and profitable as a current proven drug.

Unilever utilised this table to determine the success and failure record of two medications by determining how regularly those drugs successfully treated an ailment. They then utilised the Gittins table to decipher the correct Gittins index. The medication with the highest Gittins index was regarded the best avenue to pursue.

Gittins indexes are considered a mathematically dependable method to determine if one should switch or proceed as you are. You can utilise the Gittins index to decipher if you should continue investing in a venture or a recent hire.

Once you’ve predicted the success and failure ratio of your present option and an option with 90% of the expected value of that present option, you should utilise the Gittins index table to decide which choice has the greatest value and opt for that option.

Naturally you need not consult the Gittins index table for every decision.You only need to keep in mind these two key points when looking to hire the right staff.

Firstly, an untested option with a success / fail record of 0 and 0 has a Gittins index of 0.7. That is, if an individual isn’t meeting standards a minimum of 70% of the time (their success rate is lower than 70%), you should think about pivoting to a new hire if you think a new candidate has similar potential.

Secondly. If you go for a new option and their early success to failure ratio looks inferior to your present option it still could be a better choice. If a new hire has four successes and five fails (they reached your expectations four times and didn’t do so five times). They will have a higher Gittins index than someone experienced with a thousand successes and a thousand fails. The untested newbie is more valuable (in the early stages anyway), than the veteran of apparently equal ability because we know less about them. Exploration intrinsically has value, as trying new things raises chances of finding the best.

Take the away the stress when aiming to hire the right staff in hospitality

Why not try taking the stress out of decisions by trusting mathematically validated algorithms.

CONCLUSION

Hiring: The next time you’re when looking to hire the right staff remember the 37% rule. Determine your sample size. Then utilise 37% of your sample size to determine a benchmark. Then choose the next best option that applies.

Onboarding: Keep in mind the transmission control protocol and the aimd algorithm. Begin small keep doubling up, then reduce by 50% when you encounter failure then slowly build back up bit by bit.

Pivoting to a new hire: Remember this finding of the Gittins index. When you’ve got two similar options, go with the newer less tested option for greater potential reward.

That was the essence that I got from Algorithms To Live By, written by Tom Griffiths and Brian Christian. This book provides a new perspective to evaluating decisions.

If you like these tips, please share it and as always I’d love to see your thoughts and comments below.

Until soon, wishing you a productive week.

Nathan

You may check out Algorithms to Live By in the link below
https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions-ebook/dp/B015CKNWJI

Your Hospitality Business IS Your Team – Attract Amazing Staff

POSTED ON 12TH JUNE 2020

Before Looking At How To Attract Amazing Staff, First let’s Look At Keeping The Talents You Already Have And The Costs Of Employee Turnover

Hiring strong talents who stay in their roles in absolutely essential to the success of any organisation. Keeping employee turnover rates low and developing a great reputation as an employer creates the environment to attract amazing staff. In this article, we discuss how to go about this.

Just Imagine that you had to write out a check for thousands of dollars to a leaving team member on their last day in your organisation. You would think that is crazy, right? It sounds it but the cost of a churn in staffing levels often amounts to exactly this. The loss of thousands of dollars of a company’s hard-earned revenue for every member of staff who leaves.

As a responsible manager, it is important to make sure you attract amazing staff and make good hires stay with your team. It costs employers up to 30% of an employee’s salary each time they leave. This figure can be much higher for more niche roles.

So how come the cost is so high in many organisations?

• The process of checking candidate CVs. Arranging interviews and conducting them is a heavily time intensive process. This is even more true for smaller organisations without large HR departments for instance.
• Upon completion of interviews, employers then need to invest further time following up references, doing background checks and consultation with other colleagues about which of the candidates should be employed.
• Additional time is needed to make an offer to selected candidates. To sell them on the role and engage in negotiation with them. Employee Productivity
• Advertising the position on the company’s website or on generic jobs sites don’t attract amazing staff who are in your niche industry. Jobseekers in hospitality are looking for jobs but missing them. Those currently employed are simply not seeing the roles that you have advertised. Roles are unfortunately often filled with low quality hires. Ones that take much more time.
• Daily projects, even small tasks get put on hold or slowed whilst you hire new team members!
  
  This is an exciting time for both the company and new hire. One that can also involve a loss of output for other team members as the process of training begins for your new hire and team members. And you pause to help bring a new hire up to speed. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Risks

One of the greatest hidden downsides of losing a team member is the risk of burning out current team members who have to cover until a replacement employee is hired. This often-overlooked situation can all too often lead to further staff turnover. Therefore a greater financial hit happens as co-workers become disengaged enough to seek a new position. Further similar risk surrounds interviews, screening, and decision-making on new hires. Occasionally the replacement decides to opt for a role with another company. Causing the organisation to need to restart the search again.

How to Resolve?

Many organisations know employment agencies help save both time and costs throughout the entire staff replacement process. An employment agency can assist with job ad creation and copywriting. They possess the knowledge of where to best post a job listing. Niche recruiters can send out job ads to their database of candidates within the industry in your region. In addition, simple paid ads on their website’s jobs boards can also attract amazing staff. This is because quality candidates know about these boards and check them regularly.

Businesses who engage employment agencies also enjoy the added benefit of expert CV review, access to a huge database of quality applicants, expert screening. A good employment agency will also conduct thorough background checks on applicants.

All of this saves organisations huge amounts of time and costs and enables them to keep their focus on the areas that drive the success in their business. While the experts at the agency will do what they do best, which is to handle the search process on behalf of the organisation in need of quality staff.

Building Your Team – Attracting Amazing Staff

Building up a great team is one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences a manager can be involved in. It’s in this key period that pulling in and also holding onto such high-quality hires can greatly impact the success of your business goals.

Discerning prospective employees use networks to understand a ‘true picture of what it’s like to be employed in an organisation. So it is essential to ensure your current employees are as content as possible. They will become your greatest ambassadors attracting the best possible staff to your company. The truth is, taking on talented new team members vastly improves your operations, enhancing forward momentum and improving your bottom line. As with all things, there are key ingredients that are important to get right when you are seeking to expand your team.

Here’s how to attract amazing staff

Training, Development & Mentoring

For high achievers, the chance to develop across a range of areas is essential for work fulfillment. They’re looking to put trust and abilities with organisations that can help progress their career. They want to expand their range of abilities (both personal and professional) as a reward for the diligent work that such employees put in. In order to attract amazing staff and retain them, it is helpful to ask some questions about the work environment. Take actions to make steady improvements in such areas.

• What clear pathways for career advancement do you offer?
• Do you offer your staff responsibilities that are both challenging and fulfilling?
• Are you able to develop roles within your company that compliment the natural abilities and interests of your staff members / team?
• Does your organisation offer on-going training/career development?

Training

Training can take a number of forms. For example on the job learning is proposed by either you or the candidate through regular evaluation. Try to develop an understanding of employees’ career goals depending on your mutual plans. Employee training and development doesn’t necessarily need to come at a great financial cost. A great deal of time isn’t required. Neither do staff need to be absent from important duties whilst taking part in such programs? There are multiple less formal and cost-effective ways to develop your team, ensuring that they know how valued they are.

These could comprise of simple measures such as the following

• Online courses
• Launching internal mentoring
• Employee development programmes
• Taking a few hours educating management to have an active interest in their employees careers
•  Seeking genuine feedback from staff on how they wish roles to develop, coming up with plans to work towards that.

When staff feel that you are doing the best for them, they will stop at nothing make the organisation successful. A win-win for all involved!

Engagement Attracts Amazing Staff

When employees show up for work, are they engaged when doing so? Are they doing their best for the organisation? Those that do have a far greater sense of ownership and belonging to the team. Individuals are much more driven and engaged when allowed to contribute their valuable input and ideas.

Wherever possible come up with and develop new and innovative, offerings with your team. This will help to foster an exchange of ideas within your organisation. Why not sponsor annual gatherings of ideas from your team and come up with a plan implementing those that’s workable? Giving team members a chance to show projects they are passionate about helps create an innovative atmosphere. Engaging for all those who take part.

Other ways of making employees feel valued and attract amazing staff are as simple as having a wall within your company for photographs of employees. Those who have worked there more than (X) years or that have reached certain other important milestones. Or an “equality” program that goes further than the usual slogans and HR policies.

For example, one client saw immediate improvement when they ensured that all staff including kitchen porters received an equal share of tips. Additionally, they made sure that there were no reserved perks just for executives — everyone as an equal. The company has a philosophy of as much as possible trying to treat employees as if they are family. These measures have gained this company a reputation amongst many applicants via Cutting Edge as a top place to develop careers. This has alone helped ensure a remarkably low staff turnover rate.

Accountability

Continuous feedback and accountability are vital to ensure staff satisfaction, staff retention and as a result an improvement in performance. This attracts other talented staff. Employees need to be given reasonable yet challenging targets to aim for and be held accountable for their results. So you need to ensure you have robust and fair methods in place to monitor performance. If not, it is inevitable that standards will loosen to the disappointment of clients and those working within the organisation. When employees aren’t able to meet such targets it’s important to assess whether the results are being measured correctly.

If the targets are reasonable, if after being given a chance to make improvements the team member isn’t able to meet the required standard, it’s important for the sake of the staff member (and also of your organisation) to move the employee to a role where they will be able to manage. Alternatively, they will need to be given a chance to seek a more suited role in another workplace.

For those of you who strive for clear feedback and communication and a truly engaging relationship that fosters radical growth. Something that can spur on the great increase in performance is to ask your staff to assess your performance. As a boss ask them to politely evaluate where you have done well and also come up short. As a leader, what do they expect of you? How you can improve?

Evaluation is vital to assess improvements over time and to outline what satisfy and demotivate the team.

Your processes to should evaluate…

• Comprehension of attitudes
• Happiness at work
• Staff turnover
• Satisfaction levels of your employees across a range of issues
  
  
  
  The following should be included
  

• Survey staff in order to comprehend the true motivations that cause people come to and depart employment in your company.
• Ensure staff know if they are achieving predetermined, reasonable goals, and when they are progressing well in their careers.
• Evaluate if it is possible to offer more flexible work arrangements for those who are parents or older children etc.
• Conduct an evaluation of the teams/areas that are experiencing highest staff turnover. Implement solutions to resolve an issues.
• Look into ways that you can you ensure managers are held responsible for staff retention and engagement

• Gain a clear understanding on the key roles in your organisation that have the biggest bearing on profitability and productivity.
• Look at investing in getting the best possible people and systems in place in these roles.
• Check your management team understand the true cost of poor quality hires, staff turnover and how to improve on this.
• Ensure that you are operating with an effective employee orientation program.
• Employees should have a clear understanding of the company culture, aims and what is expected of them.

What can you do to improve your hiring process in order to access a deeper pool of talents and better match individual’s talents with company culture and job requirements?

1. Salary & Package. Naturally employees don’t just want flexibility in how their careers develop, they are seeking salary flexibility also.
2. Reasonable Compensation. Most employees comprehend that all roles are not made equal. Kitchen porters (albeit some contend the position is immensely undervalued), don’t hope to attain equivalent compensation to Sommeliers. Yet, when obligations are comparable, individuals expect to be paid the equivalent.
3. Enhancing the Package. Often a breakdown in salary negotiation with a prospective employee can be overcome by incorporating flexibility in the package. These can be certain benefits that can be paid out paid for out of pre-tax income. Such as: Personal computers, phones (or other technology useful to their job), equipment, accommodation closer to the workplace. Upgraded health insurance, budget for dining out (great for ensuring your staff know and keep up with the competition). Gym memberships, transportation and much more.
   
   Compensation packaging can even be incorporated with the above section on training and mentoring. Employees who appreciate more intensive career training and development may wish to participate in courses as part of their compensation.
   
   Many employers and employees underestimate the extent to how creative it is possible to get with the compensation package. To which extent it provides an equal win to both parties.

Perks Attract Mazing Staff

What are a few different perks that your organisation has used to pull in and retain its first-rate representatives? Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that offering non-monetary bonuses make organisations increasingly robust. Even in the event that individuals don’t originally all get along. Motivating forces need not necessarily be costly. Time off, gift vouchers, or meals out have all proven to be positive motivators. Additional motivators such as memberships, child care, great staff meals all improve the lives and well-being of your co-workers. They help to build morale, reduce pressure, give your team further encouragement and foster an enjoyment around coming into work.

Extra perks can make the distinction between a decent organisation or notAs you need your team to go the additional mile for your organisation, Managers that are able to achieve this develop a mutually valuable relationship from which to go forwards as a solid team within the hospitality industry.

Reputation

Often in business, our reputation precedes us. It is essential that Managers and business owners experiencing a high staff turnover look into their organisation and understand what’s causing this to be the case.

Try asking yourself the following questions

• If I wasn’t employed here right now, would I want to be? What changes would you want to implement?
• When we treat employees as we would hope to be treated ourselves As extended family, with kindness, appreciation and respect. It has the impact of creating a team who are hard working and dedicated who work with commitment.
• Does your working environment have a strong sense of team spirit? Or are your team simply going about their work in an individual way? What steps could you take to ensure that they work better as a team. Simple steps such as asking FOH staff to work for a week with the kitchen team (and vice versa) does wonders for team bonding.
• Do you ensure employees are working in a positive environment or are there factors that could be reduced. What would cause things to become less tense and stressful than they currently are?
• Do certain characters in your team take away from a great working atmosphere, rather than enhancing it? If so it may be time look at moving them on and bringing in some fresh talents.
• Leaders – When employees can believe in the management team, they have a sense of security and trust. Management who are available, understanding, can guide and mentor well; give balanced and reasonable feedback are vital to work satisfaction of the team.
• The happiest of work environments exist when co-workers collaborate and get along well, both in and outside of the workplace. A workplace that fosters an atmosphere of adaptability, acknowledgment, and understanding. And those with supportive peers make individuals happy to come to the workplace each day

Acknowledgment / Recognition / Control

Everybody has an impact on the organisation’s prosperity. It is important to find ways to ensure that staff knows you appreciate this. Small acknowledgments that attract amazing staff can include

• pausing for a moment to recognise somebody’s efforts
• Composing a card or Post-It to say thanks
• A public mention or accolade can mean more than you know. Always aim to offer credit to the individuals who merit it.
• Firmly attached to acknowledgment is feedback (as discussed in above sections).
  
  It is important to remember that most employees prefer not to wait upon yearly audits to know how they’re doing. Timely legitimate and astute constructive pointers encourage individuals. Help employees clearly comprehend the areas in which to improve and as such encourage individuals to do much more.

Control – The more employees feel they can assume responsibility for their day, the greater their sense of empowerment. If you’ve recruited wisely, trust individuals to carry out their responsibilities. Make sure your are on hand on the off chance that they hit a problem or need your input. Otherwise, expect and trust that they will deliver accordingly and on schedule.

Trivial Matters Snowball

We’ve all been there. Emergency or pressing issues make want to us dive in to improve things, the petty stuff can drive us insane. If not kept in check trivial matters can be real “spirit busters”. Wherever possible keep to a minimum as many such day-to-day aggravations as possible. Ensure the main tasks stay in focus. Your staff will thank you for it and it will allow the organisation to move forwards on its shoulders.

Variety

It may well be tricky trying to think of new things for individuals to do. Yet given the opportunity, most staff will welcome a new challenge, the opportunity to prove they are up to it. Boredom prompts disengagement and is one of any organisation’s least welcome adversaries. Ask team members what they’d like to work on? Areas they think the company could develop that they would like to oversee that also attract amazing staff or things they’d like to learn. You could well be surprised or even thrilled with the outcome!

Understand Your Audience

Recruiting is what drives the core of your organisation, as the staff that operates your business are the business. The art of recruiting is understanding and selling what your organisation offers to those key individuals. You are targeting whom you wish to take your company to the next level. Understand who your intended target group is and what drives them, comprehend what you have to offer to that group. What do you bring to the table, and how might they profit from what you can offer? With this more nuanced approach, you can put this offering as the focal point of your message. Promote your organisations culture. Particularly that which will resonate with their requirements, their skills, and mindset as it relates to your company.

Summary

Nothing is more effective than attracting amazing staff, engaging and motivating them and ensuring that they work as a team. When it comes to attracting top team members, reputations for great working environments attract top talents. Thus taking your organisation to the next level. As a leader, the best you can accomplish for your organisation is to get great people in roles that fit. Empower them to do what they do best.

Additionally, the most popular organisations to work for are those that have the strongest branding recognition. Ensuring implementation of the above does wonders for staff, organizations recruitment, and the quality of the people in your team.

Find out more

If you’d like to know more about how a staffing firm can assist in attracting amazing staff for your organisation contact our office at (+852) 26623266 to speak with a recruiting expert or email [email protected]. We’ll get back to you within 24 hrs. 

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