human‑centred hiring: why it’s needed more than ever.
If you work in hospitality, you know the sector is built on people, but these days it can feel that hiring processes don’t take that into account. We talk about being “human” in hospitality, but the reality on the ground can be different.
Right now, the sentiment in the sector is a challenging mix of optimism and exhaustion. Businesses want to thrive but realistically teams are stretched. Leaders want to hire well, but the pace, pressure and process mean they can’t truly understand the person in front of them. So, they often mis-hire.
If hospitality businesses are to stabilise and succeed, they need strong, capable teams. And the way to build a high performing hospitality teams is to hire them based on who they are, how they operate and how they deliver.
That means hiring people for who they are… as people.
And that’s why human‑centred hiring matters now more than ever.
what human‑centred hiring looks like in 2026.
It may sound like a ‘soft’ way of working, but human-centred hiring is highly strategic. When you operate in this way you are intentionally reviewing and choosing people based on certain characteristics and capabilities that you know your workforce and culture need.
That means:
starting with the person not the job title or list of experience
listening and screening for context, motivations, values and behaviours
hiring for team culture and progression as a priority
hiring for the delivery of long‑term business goals not short-term delivery
Hospitality is emotionally intelligent, human focused work, so if you don’t hire with that in mind, you’ll see it in the service, performance, and energy of the team. Your teams and customers will feel it too.
the cost of getting it wrong (and why that’s happening).
Most hiring managers and teams are juggling a lot right now, and operators are firefighting. Plus, candidates are applying to multiple roles at once, using tools that allow them to ‘spray and pray’. There is a huge disconnect.
Everyone is moving fast to keep up, but outcomes aren’t improving. Hiring in hospitality is becoming transactional, and that’s an own goal.
When hiring becomes transactional, four things happen:
You miss out on brilliant talent because they don’t tick set boxes
Your talent pool shrinks and becomes ‘samey’
You end up hiring people who don’t align with your culture
You’ll rehire sooner than you’d like because hires aren’t retained
All this is a result of systems and pressures that make it hard to see the human being behind the application.
Human‑centred hiring is the answer. But it does take commitment and time (or engaging a good recruiter to work effectively with you).
the commercial benefit of hiring with intention.
Hiring with intention means doing some pre-work. That involves establishing the kind of person you want to hire based on your team, culture, strategy and the ambitions for the role.
You then use this understanding to identify not only the level of experience and skills you want to bring in but importantly the kind of attitude, aptitude, values and behaviours you want to hire.
Finally, you create a hiring brief based on that work, and then align your filtering, interview and selection processes around it.
The result for you is a wider range of potential candidates, more confident hiring decisions, and better retention and delivery because your hires align with your culture, values and goals.
The result for the candidate is that they feel seen, understood and valued from the first interaction. If they’re hired, they’ll be all in. And if they’re not, their positive impression of your brand will live on regardless.
need help with human-centred hiring?
Hiring in a human-centred way is a foundation of the way I work at mum.
If you’d like to talk more about our approach and how you can work with us, I’d love to hear from you.