Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - July/August 2022 - 29

again or still?
BY DAVID VOELZ, CEC, CWPC, CCA, WCEC,
CDM, CFPP, FMP, FSWC
role to take on some line-level duties.
We feel these pressures and want to
get that " body " in quickly to take the
pressure off our department. Being
patient through the hiring process is
difficult! Look over your schedule for
specific days of the week, and assign
time to focus on all the aspects of
hiring. If we allow the hiring process
to creep into our schedules and
displace other things, now we'll have
issues on top of staffing! Take control
of your time and work to make sure to
put effort and focus in the appropriate
places.
Stop Doing Interviews, at Least
First Interviews, In Person
No doubt we could complain ad
nauseam about how many interviews
we schedule, only to have no-show
after no-show. I don't have an answer
for how to get candidates to honor
their appointments, but I have figured
out how not to waste my time. I am
now scheduling all my interviews
online (Zoom, Teams, Google Chat).
No exceptions. When doing in-person
interviews, I would stop what I was
doing 5 minutes before the interview,
clear my desk or go to the interview
location. Then when the candidate
didn't arrive, I'd wait not-so-patiently.
Maybe they got lost because they've
never been here before? Maybe they
couldn't find parking? Did I tell them
which door to come in? After 15-20
minutes of waiting, I'd go back to
whatever task had been put on pause,
spend another 5 minutes getting it
started, and continue on. But I had
wasted 30 minutes on nothing! Now,
by doing online interviews, I pull
up the candidate's resume in the
background, sign on to the meeting,
and continue with administrative work
I've already scheduled. If they show
up, great! If not, I just keep working
on something of mid-level importance
and possibly be ahead of the game.
Make Your Interviews More
Effective By Using the 'STAR'
Method
My father, an MBA, was a great
interviewer for his company. Early
in my management career I recall
lamenting to him about all the people
I was hiring that turned out to not be
a good fit for the organization I was
working for. He asked, " Are you using
the 'STAR' method? " He might as well
have asked me how to build a nuclear
reactor. I had no clue what he was
talking about. As was his habit, he sent
me a 40-page document outlining its
purpose and many example questions.
To summarize, 'STAR' stands for
" Situation, Task, Action, Result. "
Instead of asking candidates 'yes'
or 'no' questions, the 'STAR' method
probes candidates' experiences and
guides them to expand on them.
Instead of asking a candidate, " Can you
cook for a census of 250? " you may ask
them, " Tell me about a time when your
census increased unexpectedly. What
did you need to do to accommodate
the increase? How did you go about it?
How did that work out in the end, and
were the patients satisfied with the
work-around? " This gives you a much
more in-depth answer that exposes
not just the candidate's physical skills,
but also their thought processes and
how they deal with challenges. The
next level of this method is to have a
thorough understanding of the method
and move away from a question-andanswer
format. While going through
NUTRITION & F OOD SER VICE EDGE | JULY-AUGUST 2022 29
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Nutrition & Foodservice Edge Magazine - July/August 2022

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