Hey, it's Shaun from Open Pantry company.

And this is the prep list.

Your Monday hospital reset.

Each week in under 10 minutes, we'll look at one trend, one tool, one operator move, and one smart question to sharpen your week.

This week's focus is a big one.

It's talent acquisition.

Because no matter how good your brand or product is, if you don't have the right people in the right roles, it's all going to fall apart.

So the trend to watch for this week, recruitment in hospitality has shifted dramatically in the past 18 to 24 months.

Where venues used to heavily lean on platforms like seek ads and word of mouth, today's operators are spreading their nets across multiple platforms.

Seek and Deed in Australia still dominate, but often bring volume over quality.

Scout jobs and LinkedIn are giving venues access to stronger front of house and back of house leadership candidates across the board.

And increasingly, operators are tapping to their own platforms.

Job boards built into rostering systems like Deputy Tanda or Employment Hero are really kicking goals.

The smartest venues aren't just posting jobs and hoping.

They're testing different platforms, adjusting job ad wording and reviewing what kind of candidates each platform attracts.

Because if you only fish in one pond, you're going to keep catching the same fish.

Your tool to test for this week.

This week's tool is a simple but powerful one.

Interview question templates too often hide hospitality.

Interviews just turn into casual chats.

So have you worked in a busy venue before?

Do you like working in teams?

Tell me about your last role and why you enjoyed it.

Those kind of questions just don't cut it anymore.

Build a structured set of questions for each role.

For chefs, ask about their prep, scaling, allergen handling and leadership style of their team.

For front of house managers, ask about conflict resolution techniques, upselling techniques and their rostering experience.

Critical to make sure that you make money in your venue.

Even better, get your team involved with this one.

Ask them.

What's one question we should ask a candidate for your role templates?

Save time, reduce bias and make sure you're testing for the skills that actually matter inside your venue.

The operator move for this week.

One group we work with recently and over the last three years is Harvest Hospitality.

Originally called Harvest Hotels, they've been leveling up their hiring by rethinking their job ads.

Instead of using generic ads with long bullet points, they've started writing ads that sound like their brand voice.

They made it clear what they stood for, why their culture mattered, and what kind of person would actually thrive in that environment.

And they pushed those ads not just on seek, but across LinkedIn and their own career pages as well.

We've worked with them for great success in recruitment over the last couple of years.

They're now at a point where they have more aligned candidates and hires who actually stick in their roles.

We've helped them bring on senior roles like cmo, Executive chef and ahead of people, all by leading with clarity and consistency.

Your team question for this week.

Are we attracting the right people or are we just filling the gaps?

It's an honest check in because sometimes hiring feels like firefighting, but the best teams are built by by pausing to attract the right candidates, not just the available ones.

And that's your prep list for this week.

If you're struggling to recruit, don't just copy paste that last job ad.

Build a template, test platforms and make sure your brand voice comes through.

We've created a hospitality framework that maps this out.

We've got our email address in the show notes of this podcast.

Reach out to us and we'll give it to you for free.

And as always, if you found this episode helpful, share it with the Hospitality mate and hit subscribe for more of the prep list.

We'll see you next Monday for the prep list.