Goal: Out innovate and out perform competitors.
AI is only a tool. Knowing that, why do many companies treat AI as something else?
First in this series, talked about no controls on AI, from anywhere. Makes it hackers paradise. Up to us to foil hackers. Must collaborate with competitors. Brave new world. We are no longer just adversaries. Now we have to partner/share selectively.
Second issue, about ideal teams and positions we need to optimize AI. And how impractical that is. AI can’t think for itself…darn. Will it ever reach that point in Hospitality Industry? Not when it comes to strategic business directions. That’s always been our job as Strategic Leaders. How to find effective AI employees from existing staff.
Consider forwarding this third article to your HR leader. Good tips and interview questions for candidates for AI positions
This issue; Managing AI Today, Tomorrow, and Next Week…Month…Year .
This issue got postponed week. Finding lots of articles on how to use AI. All conceptual. We don’t need more conceptual, we need practical. Found better material this week which clarified thinking.
AI is vehicle to help us in specific ways. To much of AI is being marketed as solutions.
Yes, AI can be force multiplier. I suppose that’s possible. All I’m seeing? AI applications which can do select things faster and more accurately. Things like data analysis…if right prompts have been written to generate information a company is looking for.
There are as many ways of looking at data as there are people. Just one error in AI prompt will totally skewed results. That can have negative consequences.
How as leaders do we avoid that?
By having right people in overseeing our AI applications. People with the right skill set. Skill sets I’m seeing discussed are obvious, but not critical.
Strategic leaders are expected to provide truth, facts, stats and rationale. That’s always been our job. AI has not changed that. But many seemed to be lulled into false sense of security that AI will solve lot more than it actually will.
Rereading this. See I’m spending lot of time on ‘how and what.” How to better identify skill sets needed. Critical ones are not even being addressed in articles. Next how to better interview candidates that will lead and set tone of your AI efforts. What kinds of question and situations candidates need to be asked. Questions and situations that will better identify if they have skills you need.
Most candidates are using AI to construct their resumes. That makes resumes functionally worthless. We have no idea if values and accomplishments on resumes are real. We need to be asking candidates to present their skills in different ways.
We are not seeing that trend. Our role as executive leaders is to insist, actually demand is better term. Demand that our Human Resources Departments start collecting candidate information that will actually help them assess candidates.
Quick reminder. I formed, created, and oversaw largest hospitality industry job board for 11 years. Job board industry got sideways, so we sold it. Things in that industry have not gotten better. The wasted time is costing hospitality companies billions every year.
Want to improve profits at least 5% more this year? Revamp your hiring process. (Need help give us a call.)
Just read major international survey. Only 19% of companies are prepared to acquire AI skills needed. Article was written for small, mid-sized and large companies. That describes all but handful of hospitality companies.
AI employees with skills we want are rare. Lack of supply has driven salaries. Good candidates we hire are swiped within months. None of us want to play that game.
Solution: Do better job of hiring initially. Then making jobs challenging and interesting…enough that employees will want to stay. Interesting enough to turn down salaries significantly higher. Our AI employees need to be involved in high-ranking AI discussions.
How to attract employees with AI skills we need.
We really don’t know the skills we need to be effective in AI. We are all guessing. Need few more years for them to evolve clearly.
Since we really don’t know skill sets needed, we fall back on generic ones. Like creativity, intuition, discernment, empathy, ability to relate, and who has fitted into company in past. Those are great skills all our employees need. But how do those skills translate to managing AI efficiently and effectively? While motivating, inspiring and energizing our employees?
Applying generic skills to AI is only as good as the training employees receive. (And in AI training is crap shoot.)
4 additional skills AI employees must have
Curiosity
Education in sciences and math.
How to write detailed prompts. To give company business results needed.
Understand technical aspects of each AI application company uses. Ability to see how application actually works. To understand whether application will give company what it wants and needs.
Important distinction: Here we are talking about employees responsible for implementing AI correctly. Different than employees actually using each AI application. We are seeing the two getting confused.
Let’s look at each of those individually.
Curiosity
How things are made. What they are intended to do. How application measures and interprets data. Curiosity on what happens to results, when prompts get changed. We need technically inquisitive employees. Employees typically referred to as “Geeks.”
Question to ask candidates: Describe something you made or built from scratch. If they can’t, major negative interview mark for AI candidates.
Education in Math & Sciences
To understand how AI Application really works AI employee must understand how and what it was written for. Employees using AI applications never see back end, how software actually works. That function is for employees specializing in AI.
AI applications look innocuous enough…until you identify how they work. In the old days we referred to this as “what’s under the hood.” This isn’t the auto showroom, it’s in the engineering offices at the AI production facilities. It’s not the perfume on the shelf, it’s scientific formula that creates the perfume.
Employees working with AI applications need to understand what goes on behind the scenes. That means more math and science skills than most employees have.
Liberal arts employees want to apply for AI jobs? Find out extent of their math and science background. If weak, suggest they take corrective courses.
Writing detailed technical AI prompts
Very critical skill for everyone involved in AI. The kind of prompts needed to analyze data. Analysis to make sure companies extract what they want and need from data.
AI prompts are very detailed instructions written to tell AI what to create.
Most of us think of AI prompts as 4-5 things we ask Chat or Claude.
Majority of people writing prompts go from A to Q to Z. Missing all the steps between
The more detailed the AI prompt, better the result. It’s hard to write detailed, step-by-step instructions. Just read a very good prompt on how to wash dishes in dishwasher. It was in a class learning how to write detailed prompts. When finished the prompt was 70 lines long…2 hours later.
When people think of prompts, they think of prompts end users write. Often to create a graphic. Chat GPT or Claude have viewed millions of end user prompts. AI has seen 100,000 prompts exactly like end user has just created. Enables AI to do what it is supposed to do. Interpret what we want and give it to us.
When interviewing for employees for AI Departments? Above are not prompts needed.
Took coffee break. Read short article on 10 skills AI employees need. Only 2 of 10 clicked.
1. Importance of knowing how to interpret data. What the company wants from data. Back to earlier mention of science and math skills and training.
Interviewing: Present candidates with real data set. Ask them to interpret data. If direct boss is not doing interviewing, make sure interviewer understands what to listen for in an answer.
2. Understanding of risk from hacking or misunderstanding what AI application will do.
Everyone working with AI applications needs to be aware of security risks.
Even more important if AI is available to customers or the public. Think AI reservations. Or “Chats” available to guests. Emails or texts about “specials.” How easily can guests or others access parts of AI application they shouldn’t? AI employees need to be aware. Know how to spot openings in systems, that hackers can exploit.
How to interview AI candidates against 4 critical skills above.
95% of employment ads are very poor. Means most candidates applying will not appear to fit. Likewise, computerized resume screening is equally poor. End result, most candidates called don’t fit. Wasted time and dollars. Worse, vacant positions remain vacant. Don’t throw HR under bus. Show them better way.
Solution: Write employment ads asking for details about 3 successful AI projects they have worked on. Tell candidates to include:
- 2-3 sentence project description.
-Paragraph on result.
-Why it was successful?
-What they would do differently next time.
-Then ask candidates to describe their process for writing prompts. Listen to hear if they are just writing end-user prompts.
Follow-up question: How long is the average prompt they write? Correct answer: “It varies, but often prompts will be 20-60 lines.” If they say 5-10 lines they are writing end user prompts. Not right candidate for job.
When they give correct answer above: We still don’t know if they can write prompts that qualify them. Ask them to write the washing dishes prompt above
Tell them they are taking dishes from dirty sink, cleaning any that need cleaning before going into dishwasher, then loading dishwasher on through the actual washer process.
Give candidates 15 minutes to write the prompt. Candidates who end up with just few lines, are not the right fit for job. If they have bunch of prompts they understand the process. Just give their answer quick look. Does their answer appear to flow logically? If not, ask more detailed questions to see if they just rushed answer. Or don’t have clue how to think logically. Good AI employees are very logical in all they do.
Incidentally this technique can work for all other hospitality jobs. Start giving your HR team ammunition they can work with. Have them write ads asking for specific types of accomplishments each job needs. Companies doing this receive far fewer resumes. (Saving company lot of time and labor.)
Resumes they receive all warrant a call. (Except those that didn’t follow ad instructions. They have already ruled themselves out.) Biggest problem with job boards? They encourage masses to apply. Any ad that generates more than 25 responses? Poorly written. May be HR, or may be department didn’t give HR right information.
Before calling candidate: Recruiter needs to carefully identify and write down questions. True screening questions for specific use of each skill. Determine if candidate has critical skills needed. Take careful notes. This is not what we see at clients. Nor is it the process companies explain.
Recruiting calls take real thought…initially at least 15-30 minutes before call to identify follow-up questions. End of call recruiter needs to write down their evaluation, including questions they wished they had asked.
Traditional resumes are no longer relevant. Appears at least 90% of resumes are AI written. If they tell us anything, it’s an accident.
During interviews give candidates a task. We ask them to describe their 3 most significant accomplishments, each in 4 paragraphs.
-Paragraph describing the project.
-Paragraph on results
-Paragraph on economic impact.
-Paragraph on what they would do differently next time.
Their answers show us how they communicate. Are their writing skills clear? Do they think logically…or disjointed., etc.
Why not ask for this in advance, instead of a resume? Candidates are smart. They will use AI, to write their answers. Doing it during interview eliminates that as opportunity. Today’s world we have to out-think AI. This process can be applied to all hospitality openings.
Above questions are examples.
More Interview questions for AI positions:
Have candidate read 3 paragraph evaluation. Then ask them to explain and summarize. (Make sure inhouse recruiters have training on how to evaluate answers.)
What science courses did you take in high school and college? Did you like them? What were your grades in those classes? How will teachers respond when asked how you did?
Beyond algebra and geometry, what math classes have you taken? What will teachers say when asked how you did?
To do well in AI jobs employees need interest in math and science. Not mere tolerance. They must enjoy data analysis. Yes, AI can do data analysis, but not until prompts have been written.
Again, importance of prompts. AI employees need to enjoy sitting back and asking themselves what does this data tell us? What do we want data to tell us? Can I reconstruct data to better show/explain. (Why it’s important for AI employees to be included when considering AI Applications and future AI needs.
AI employees need discernment and empathy. To see when employees they are talking with are following and tracking conversation. When to stop, back up and explain a different way. (The exact same skills we want of our management teams outside AI.)
Interviewing? Ask candidates how they track conversations. To give example when noticed they needed to stop and back up. Did they get points across to audience second time? How did they know? (Interviewers must be trained to identify acceptable answers, from unacceptable.
Solid, measurable independent experience is more important than ever. Ask candidates to explain: assignments where candidate had to make decisions. How they measured results. What they did wrong/could have done better.
Generic skills above? Have bosses identify exactly what they want to measure. Then write interview questions and acceptable answers.
Some companies are doing great job. Others????
If your jobs are open more than 6 weeks you need improvement. We see many openings 12-20 weeks. Every week a job remains vacant profits drop by 20% of salary for the job. 6 weeks reduces profits by 120% of salary. 20 weeks reduces profits 4 times annual salary. This is referred as The Contribution Factor.
The Contribution Factor: Every new employee should improve profits by 5 times their salary first full year on job. Directly, or indirectly, but in measurable ways. Stated another way: Profits drop 20% of salary every week position is vacant.
Stop worrying about employment costs. Start worrying about lost profits!
(We have lot more information about The Contribution Factor. Concept was developed early 1960’s toward end of boom time. Companies had been hiring by the thousands and were starting to worry if costs were justified. Every job posted had to contribute to profits in ways easily and clearly measured.)
Generic skills cited earlier? Have bosses identify exactly what they want to measure. Then write interview questions and acceptable answers.
A few companies are doing great re-evaluating how they address job skills. How is your company doing? Just ask HR average time jobs are open. Then apply The Contribution Factor.
How do you keep your AI employees from job hopping?
How do you get your AI employees to stay? Odds are they will get recruiting calls at least monthly. Better they are, more frequent the calls. More money, larger bonuses, more time off? Nice, but probably won’t impact.
AI employees are inquisitive. Involve them in conversations about AI applications being considered. Ask them to watch for new AI applications and articles in specific AI areas. Listen to them and involve them. Recognition is at least as important as money. The chance to be “in the know” inspires them to do better and keeps them interested in your company.
Involve them early when considering new AI applications. They will be some of your companies future leaders. Start preparing them now.
Why have I been talking about above to Strategic Leaders?
Two reasons.
Talked with lot of companies that are not adapting. Thus the above refresh.
Many companies are telling us they are not getting these concepts across to their teams.
Motivate and inspire AI employees. Address what is most important to them. Ideally, we do this with all employees. Sometimes that just isn’t practical. It is requirement to keep AI employees.
Want better AI employees?
Look to strategic partnerships with competitors. Or other companies needing same AI positions.
None of us, for next several years, are going to be able to hire candidates for AI we would like.
Growing our own is best. It won’t be enough. Work with others. CHRO/HR needs to cultivate companies working on projects with similar AI needs. Has HR been told what your projects are?
Sharing resources:
Speeds process
Reduces costs
Leverages AI
Read an article about forecasting the AI skills we each will need. That‘s wrong approach. Look at skill sets needed today. As additional needs surface, address needed skills then.
We recommend against AI courses. Expensive and written for generic audiences. Your needs are more specific.
If there is very, very specific need and course addresses need exactly, maybe. Far better to ask employee what help they think they need.
Their insight will be far more accurate than anything you can suggest. If they are not sure? Direct them to sources that offer help.
Easy to spend thousands on courses. Cheaper the course is, more universal it is, and less value.
How about introductory course for employees not exposed to AI? Really? Almost everyone has enough exposure at home, through children and friends. They may not be educated users, but odds are they are beyond an entry course. Give them the specific instructions they need for their job. Then encourage them if they want to learn more.
Looking at employees/outside candidates for AI position? Start with tasks position job will perform. Outcome desired. Timeline. Now back into skills needed and how quickly. Should sound familiar. Same process each of us does with anything else in business.
Understanding far reaching effects of AI for your business.
Worthless. Think about business. How well do any of us understand what‘s coming in 3 years.
That’s stretch for AI leaders. Waste time for rest of us.
Another coffee break.
Read frustrated rant.
Topic. Question or problem guest/customer has. Rant: Inability of anyone under age of 40 to pick up the phone and deal directly.
Natural instinct, send text or email answer. Only to find question really wasn’t quite what was asked. So another email. Another answer, couple hours later, few more back-and-forths, until one of the parties gets frustrated/gives up.
Stayed at hotel other day when guest complaint came in. Got turned over to hotel’s chat. I hung around few minutes to see how chat handled complaint. Bad. Terrible is probably better term. Turns out I was staying on same floor as guest. Learned that when I was walking down hall hearing very frustrated guest screaming at chat.
Hopefully your hotels all have policy that questions/complaints get handled with personal call. Easier, quicker, more satisfying to everyone.
Some things are still better face-to-face or by phone. I use Charles Schwab. Every time I call a real person answers. Will I switch to another service? No way.
Summation: Nothing in hospitality business has really changed. Only the ways we use technology. To those of you under 40 that sounds like blasphemy.
AI is no different. It is a tool to handle specific segments of few hospitality jobs.
Quit worrying about AI skill sets you need. Besides same generic skills all employees need? AI needs employees who are curious, enjoy technology and have enough math and science skills to understand what is expected of them.
As needs arise for AI, find AI application for specific need. Then train existing employees. Don’t waste time looking ahead. AI evolving so fast. There are already applications for anything your hotels want to do. Whatever exists today, will be better 6 months from now.
Partner with competitors on common needs. World is changing to fast. We can’t do everything ourselves anymore. Competitors are compatriots.
Missed previous issues?
Fourth installment next week:
-You’ll Never Gain Control of AI. Evolving to Fast.
Now What?
Have AI questions? Like more info on The Contribution Factor? Writing better employment ads? Increasing profits additional 5+%. Send us an email or give us a call.
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Tom Ferree is the founder of Ferree & Associates and SecureEmploy, organizations focused on helping companies find exceptional talent and helping professionals advance their careers. Since founding Ferree & Associates in 1977, Tom has worked extensively with hospitality companies, executives, and rising leaders across the industry. Through SecureEmploy, he shares practical career strategies, leadership insights, and real-world advice to help professionals grow their careers and help organizations build stronger teams.
