Hiring staff can feel like a huge task, especially when your to do list is already as long as your arm. But it’s a job worth investing time and energy into as getting it wrong creates a whole host of problems for you – and your new employee – that will far exceed the time you should have spent making the right choice in the first place.
There are obviously no guarantees when it comes to hiring individuals, but if you start by asking the right questions, you’re giving yourself the best chance of finding a truly valuable new team member. Here are some examples of the sorts of questions you should ask to find out if your interviewee could be a prospective employee.
As everyone in the industry knows, multi-tasking and staying on top of your workload are essential when organising events. Grill your potential staff member on the finer details of how they manage their workload and how they prioritise jobs. Don’t be afraid to ask for specific examples and dig deep with the details – spreadsheets, processes, meetings, everything they use to ensure nothing slips through the net.
What you’re looking for here is an example of someone being able to think on their feet. Perhaps something didn’t go to plan on the day of an event and a work-around needed to be put into place at short notice. Or maybe your interviewee had to dissuade someone from an idea they knew wouldn’t work and come up with an alternative that kept everyone happy and enhanced the event itself. This question might also give your prospective employee a chance to admit to making a mistake and overcoming it and you the opportunity to see how they work under pressure.
The events industry is an ever-changing world and you want to make sure that whoever comes to join you and your team has their finger on the pulse with all the latest trends and news. Discussing the magazines, blogs, social channels and events they are tapped into will give you a good idea about how entrenched they are in the industry.
Looking for a new challenge, hoping to climb the ladder, wanting to work for an inspiring boss… your interviewee’s answer to this will give you an insight as to whether or not the job is one that will fulfil their needs, which is just as important as them fulfilling yours.
This will give you and your candidate a chance to discuss the very important topic of finances and money. It’s debatable as to whether or not anyone would admit to this error in an interview, but it will at least give you the opportunity to talk about how best to manage budgets and prepare for unexpected costs and contingency funds.
Whatever type of events you organise, it’s important to have staff who can be creative. This question will hopefully give your interviewee the chance to show you their passion for what they do and will give you an insight into what makes them tick. Does their idea of an inspiring event match up to yours?
Every employer has a responsibility to help their staff take care of their mental health, and this question will help your interviewee understand your commitment to this and will also give you an idea if they also appreciate its importance. If your subject is struggling to answer, it’s possible that their stress management is integral to their life and they might not see it as such, so volunteer suggestions such as exercise and hobbies to help them along.
The idea of this question is to find out if your candidate is aware of the latest trends – push them on subject matters such as digital and technological advances, catering and entertainment. You want your team to be ahead of the curve with all new developments in the industry so this is an important conversation to have.
Always finish your interview with an off-piste question. What animal would you be and why? Where was the last place you went on holiday? What was your most embarrassing moment at school? This will give you and your interviewee a chance to get to know each other a little bit better and for you both to decide if this potential match is a good one. By warning them it’s the last question they will hopefully release any nerves, relax and let you get to see the real them.
If you’re struggling with time and have an event you’d like to hold at our West London conference centre, we have an in-house team of planners who can take care of as much of the logistics as you need. Our team is highly-experienced, really friendly and knows our venue inside out so are very well place to help you host a successful conference, meeting, training session or seminar. Give the team a call on 020 3313 1606.