Ever wonder why companies take forever to make a hiring decision? You send in your resume, have an interview (or several), they tell you they like you, promise to get back to you in a few days… and a month later they still haven’t made a decision.

Travelodge seems to have come up with the solution: Quickie interviews, which, I shudder to guess, must result in quickie job offers, no?

Travelodge invites people to come to a “speed dating” event, where they talk to HR reps for a fast 3 minutes. Travelodge’s rationale is simple: People make decisions about whether they like someone in the first few minutes after meeting them. Talk fast, get hired.

Ruth Saunders, the Resourcing Manager at Travelodge (gimme a break — yet another goofy HR title?), says, “We will recruit over 1,000 new managers by 2020 and it is imperative that we continue to find new and innovative ways to recruit in order to find the right people and satisfy this unprecedented demand.” Scrub ’em up; get ’em ready.

Sorry if I implied Travelodge hires as quickly as it recruits, but the company has made no statement about how long it takes to decide whether you are one of the right people. I wonder if the company’s HR department will rent you a room by the hour while you wait…

5 Comments
  1. Heres a question about a headhunter leading me to a previous employer.
    I left a university type job on good standing and often get called for faculty jobs in the creative industry.
    I had answered an ad on a list for a creative position. And was called immediately by a headhunter. No company name was supplied until after negotiating salary and told it was a temp position at the university I previously taught at.
    My question is if accepting this from the headhunter do I break all relations I previously had with the institution? I would feel bad if I could not teach there anymore and would have to go through this headhunter for everything at that location.

  2. Dee, you would need to look at the agreement you sign very carefully to see what the restrictions are. It may be that any work you do for the insitution for a certain period of time must all be done through the agency. You should also ask the institution how it is bound by this agency – that is, how it’s agreement with the agency would restrict your relationship. Good for you for asking these questions before you accept the deal. The “headhunter” (it’s an agency, not a headhunter) might indeed control anything you do with the institution once you sign up.

  3. When I got my first job out of the military after 9 years of service, I did the speed dating thing in reverse. The headhunter gathered 40 of us in one place and had interviewers from about 20 companies come to us for one hour interviews over two days. I did 12 interviews in 2 days (blithering idiot by the end) with with 12 different companies. Within a week, I was interviewing at one of the companies and I had a job offer the morning after I returned home. I stayed with them for nearly 10 years and left only because it was time for a new adventure.

  4. i am in this exact situation right now. is there any way to expedite the decision or to turn it in my favor? thanks, b.

  5. b,

    The key thing to understand is that the next step is the employer’s. You could send a thank you note with an attachment that suggests you’re thinking about them (http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/crocs56thankyou.htm). But the BEST thing you can do? Move on to your next opportunity, which gives you control. Never wait for someone else to make a decision about your future. Create new options early and often.