In The Restaurant Interview, Anthony at Recruiting.com mentions this USA Today article, The Waiter's Rule where CEOs judge your future employment performance by the way you treat the waitstaff.
How others treat the CEO says nothing, they say. But how others treat the waiter is like a magical window into the soul...
The Waiter Rule also applies to the way people treat hotel maids, mailroom clerks, bellmen and security guards. Au Bon Pain co-founder Ron Shaich, now CEO of Panera Bread, says he was interviewing a candidate for general counsel in St. Louis. She was "sweet" to Shaich but turned "amazingly rude" to someone cleaning the tables, Shaich says. She didn't get the job.
Shaich says any time candidates are being considered for executive positions at Panera Bread, he asks his assistant, Laura Parisi, how they treated her, because some applicants are "pushy, self-absorbed and rude" to her before she transfers the call to him.
Hiring is a tricky subject, one that requires many data points in order to make a worthwhile conclusion. And, surely, if you are at the C-level in your company, the candidates that make it to interview with you have been around the block a few times and may have picked up some habits along the way to try and smoke-screen you from a shady past.
How to Prepare Your Staff
Warn your staff before hand by casually noting that you'll be interviewing someone or some people at such-and-such time(s). Ask them to note anything odd or interesting about them. Then ask them just as casually about the candidate(s) afterward.
This is a valuable--nearly priceless opportunity to get a peek inside their true selves. The candidate is probably nervous, obviously pre-occupied, and that tension may spill over into interesting reactions to common circuimstances.
I would also strongly recommend that, if others on your staff can't interview the person as well, they should at least drop by the waiting area, casually mention something to the receptionist as if in-passing, and then strike up a non-interview-esque conversation with the candidate:
Hi there. You look like you're here for an interview... Oh really? Well, what job are you going for, if I may ask?... How was traffic on your way in?...
Another Option
One other way I've seen this process applied is to have the decision-maker interview the person first in a non-descript office or conference room, and wearing more casual attire, while another senior member of the staff interviews secondarilly--dressed to the hilt and using the nice mahogany office in the corner--this allows you to see how they treat people differently based on their perceived position or importance.
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