Recruiting and hiring employees can take months, a daunting prospect for college-and-university feeding programs in need of immediate labor help. To short-circuit the process, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosts a summer job fair where screened candidates are interviewed and hired on the spot.
“We’ve been hosting this fair for the past three years, and it’s worked out well,” says Dawn Aubrey, associate director of university housing for dining services. “We host it in the course of one day, and it’s more efficient for the candidates because they get to converse with peers and receive more information about positions from a variety of people.”
Although the hiring process is shortened by months, a one-day job fair can result in one exhausting day. “The larger the group, the more interviewing we have to do, so it could last for three to four hours, although we try to make sure it doesn’t go more than three,” Aubrey says. “Typically, we expect about 80 percent of those we invite to actually make it.”
Candidates who express interest in a civil-service job at the university are invited via phone to attend the fair if they pass a pre-screening test. The largest group to attend was 56 people for 28 job openings. “We conduct group interviews, comprised of four to six interviewees, which are facilitated by management staff,” Aubrey says. “So typically it’s a unit manager, supervisor—or one or the other—and a chef.”
Conducting the interviews in groups has proved to be effective, as Aubrey has found new hires have more confidence when they start the job. “It can be intimidating when an individual is interviewed by three people, but with group interviews they’re conversing with peers and it takes the pressure off,” she says. “Confidence is key because you want them to feel that they can do the job and what’s expected of them.”
When interviewing candidates, Aubrey and her staff look for candidates with a good attitude before anything else. “Although we believe we can train anyone, we look for individuals who are positive, have a good attitude and want to be here,” she says. “At the end of the day that is the most important piece.”
Anyone who isn’t hired is placed on a waiting list. If a candidate is offered a position and does not want to work fulltime, Aubrey lets them know they can be an on-call employee and work whenever they’d like. Currently, Aubrey oversees 1,306 student employees, 302 of whom are full-time and 52 who are on-call.
Another advantage of the job fair is that it has helped build strong relationships between management and staff. “It gives them a chance in an informal environment to get to know each other, so they connect with the people that they will work with and for,” Aubrey says. “It’s not only about the job and what needs to be accomplished but ends up morphing into something more,” adding that she’s retained some fabulous staff who are committed to being a part of the team for the long run.
“Our retention rate varies by year, but it has increased by 30 percent,” she says. “Hiring and recruiting staff is expensive, so this is a way to really see a return on the investment we made with a new hire.”