Method

Casey Monahan

Human Connection Champion

In hospitality, I’ve learned that the best resume doesn’t always translate to the best hire. Experience matters, particularly for highly technical or leadership roles, but some of the qualities that make someone exceptional in hospitality are much harder to teach.

I look for emotional intelligence, curiosity, adaptability, humility and, above all, a genuine desire to take care of people. You can teach someone how to use a POS system, follow service standards or understand the mechanics of a role. It is much harder to teach someone to notice that a guest needs something before they ask, to remain composed when something goes wrong or to genuinely enjoy creating an experience for someone else.

I also pay close attention to how candidates make you feel during an interview. Hospitality is about human connection. If someone is naturally engaging, thoughtful, asks great questions and makes the conversation feel personal, those qualities often translate directly into how they interact with guests and colleagues.

Turning Strong Candidates into Strong Teams

Hospitality organizations need to move beyond the traditional idea of “culture fit” and instead focus on culture contribution, asking what a candidate will add to the organization. That means evaluating not only whether someone can perform the job today, but also whether they are coachable, resilient and capable of growing with the business. Some of the best hires may not check every box on paper but can bring tremendous potential, curiosity and an eagerness to learn. Behavioral interviewing is especially valuable in identifying these qualities. Asking candidates to describe a time they recovered a difficult guest experience, supported an overwhelmed teammate or received feedback they did not necessarily agree with can reveal far more than simply walking through a resume.

Finding those candidates also depends on how hospitality organizations approach recruiting. Successful hospitality recruiting comes down to relationships, storytelling and speed. The best candidates are often not actively applying for jobs, making it important to build relationships and talent pipelines before an immediate opening arises.

“Technology can automate recruiting, but hospitality still depends on people who build relationships, understand motivations, and spot potential beyond resumes.”

At the same time, organizations need to tell their own stories clearly. Candidates want to understand what makes a property or concept special, where the organization is going and how they can be part of that growth. Speed matters because great hospitality talent does not stay available for long, and an overly complicated interview process can mean losing an exceptional candidate simply because another organization moved faster. Candidate experience is also part of employer branding. Even someone who is not hired should walk away feeling respected and excited about the brand. Hospitality is a surprisingly small world, and every interaction contributes to an organization’s reputation.

Meeting Changing Workforce Expectations

Candidates today are asking different questions. Compensation will always matter, but people are also evaluating leadership, flexibility, career development, culture and whether they feel connected to an organization’s purpose. As these expectations evolve, technology and AI will continue to make recruiting more efficient, but that makes the human side of recruiting more important, not less. Scheduling, sourcing and administrative tasks can be automated, while recruiters can spend more time building relationships, understanding motivations and recognizing potential that may not be obvious on a resume. Hospitality is fundamentally a people business, so recruiting for hospitality should feel personal.

That human approach needs to continue after the hiring process because recruitment and retention are not separate conversations. The employee experience begins before someone ever becomes an employee, and the promises made during recruitment need to match the reality of working for the organization. If an organization talks about growth, employees need to see opportunities to grow. If it talks about culture, leaders need to demonstrate it. If people are described as the organization’s greatest asset, employees need to feel that in how they are managed and developed. This also reflects the direct connection between employee experience and guest experience. Hospitality teams are expected to create warmth, anticipate needs and make people feel valued every day. Leaders need to create that same experience for their employees.