From Screening to Hiring: A Guide to Effective Recruitment in the Travel Industry

The recruitment process of new employees is not based on a paradigm that applies across industries, instead, it revolves around best practices. The same goes for travel companies, including travel tech brands. We are talking about a very profitable market that reached $10.0 billion in 2023, attracting entrepreneurs and numerous workers.

It simply means that if you need to fill a position in your travel company, you will probably have to filter through dozens of CVs and letters and schedule and work through the same number of meetings.

How can you make the travel industry recruitment process work efficiently? You can find here interesting insights you could use to improve your recruitment practices in the dynamic travel industry, where the playing field changes constantly and finding profiles with relevant experience can be challenging. 

Having a well-defined recruitment process is essential

Mize is still a relatively small company with 55 employees, nevertheless, we pay close attention to our recruitment process. In fact, we are striving to standardize recruitment practices in our company. A well-defined recruitment process enables us to assess each candidate thoroughly, tackle the most crucial information, and avoid biases.

Everything starts with a clear job description. After a clear job title, we follow with easy-to-understand description of job responsibilities and requirements. In addition to describing the position well, here at Mize we’ve also standardized the screening process. It enables us to review all applicants, cross-reference their applications with our requirements, and quickly identify the most valuable candidates.

Interviewing is also an essential phase during the recruitment process. It enables us to assess the candidate’s experience and skills. It also puts us in the position to ensure the candidate is the best match for our culture. We need to hire people who can contribute to the company’s success while experiencing that success as their own. You can see how we do it here at Mize.

Mize’s recruitment process 

The recruitment process we use here at Mize is a result of years of fine-tuning and customization. We’ve decided to settle with the following structure of the recruitment process as it enables us to assess multiple aspects of each candidate:

• Defining our job descriptions – we work as a team to define each job description. We strive to make them concise and to ensure we don’t leave out any critical piece of information.
• Briefing all potential job candidates – here at Mize, we want to give a heads-up to all job candidates. That’s why we compiled our Interviewing at Mize 101 document. It helps us introduce the most important information for all job applicants, including explanations about our product, our company’s mission, team members, social media links, and other essential information.
• HR interview – all candidates have to go through an HR interview. It helps us ensure we are talking with the right candidate for the role. We check for qualifications, previous job roles, core skills, and other general information.
• Direct manager interview – we also enable our managers to interview the candidates as they can ask more specific and relevant questions and see if the candidate would fit the team. 
• Home assignment – we also give our candidates a home assignment, the type of task varies depending on the position. It’s an integral part of our recruitment process as it helps us further assess candidates and see how they work on a task that represents their future work,  when on a deadline.
• Management interview – to ensure the perfect cultural fit, we also schedule meetings between candidates and management. Our candidates talk with either Dor Krubiner, CEO & Co-founder at Mize, or Omry Litvak, COO & Co-founder at Mize, depending on the role;
• Face-to-face meetings – face-to-face meetings are a must, and we ensure to have in-person meetings with all our top candidates. Most meetings are held in our HQ offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, or 1 on 1 meeting worldwide, depending on the candidate’s location. 

PRO TIP: Whether you fly managers to the candidate’s remote location or vice versa, you will often need to spend a lot of money on face-to-face meetings. However, don’t skip this step. Our industry is an in-person-oriented industry, and you always learn so much from the in-person meeting.

How to hire the right candidates for your company’s needs

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution here. Your company needs are unique, and they should reflect your recruitment process. Once you identify and define your company’s needs, you will be able to start looking for good candidates.

For instance, we are looking for a particular group of people in Mize. Our future employees need to be self-motivated, loyal, and easygoing, but above everything else, we don’t allow ego to enter the door. Collaboration and team play are deeply embedded in our company culture. 

That’s why we don’t want to hire people who want to prove themselves better than others. Our focus is on purpose-driven individuals who can contribute to our culture and improve our teams. Plus, they can also improve themselves during their time in the company.

How to improve the recruitment process as a travel industry company

As I’ve noted above, every travel brand is unique, which will reflect your recruitment process. If I had to come up with advice that can potentially help all travel companies, it would be something along the following lines:

“Always make sure to see the person that’s standing in front of you. Don’t fall into the trap of constantly comparing candidates’ attributes. Try to identify the unique value a specific individual brings to the table – and the value the company brings to that individual as well. Remember, hiring is a two-way street. If you take under consideration that you are being interviewed by the candidate as well – you will have a better hire.”

Conclusion

To sum up, the recruitment process is vital for businesses of all sizes across verticals. Travel and travel tech industries are no exceptions – a well-structured hiring process can help you avoid biases and identify the right candidates for your business. 

You can try to implement some of the practices that we do here at Mize. For instance, you can use advanced AI to write great job descriptions, use email finder tools to reach the right candidates, and schedule one-on-one meetings to learn details about your potential employees. 

Don’t take this process as something permanent. You should always return to your recruitment practices to see what works, what could be improved, and what’s obsolete.