“Speed dating” has gotten some attention lately. Here’s a company that thinks the same quick-conversation technique can work for picking employees.
One company thinks so.
London-based company Travelodge recently began a new strategy for hiring hotel managers: “speed dating interviews.” Basically, people interested in the job book a three-minute meeting with the interviewers. If that goes well, the candidate is asked to come back for a second interview, presumably of a more traditional length.
Similar to speed dating, the theory is that first impressions matter the most. As Travelodge’s HR manager Ruth Saunders explains, “Most experts agree that we all decide whether we do or don’t like someone within the first minute and a half of meeting them.”
The problem with that statement, of course, is that there’s a difference between “liking” someone and deciding if he or she will be a good worker. Since you still have to do a “real” interview after the initial screening, the quick conversation basically takes the place of the initial resume screening. That might give recruiters the tendency to favor presentation skills over actual experience.
That said, will it help find and hire good employees? Travelodge says it’ll have to hire more than 1,000 new managers by 2020, and that “new and innovative” recruiting techniques like this will help. We’ll have to check back sometime before 2020 to see if the approach works.
