Prepare a role scorecard before you recruit
Great interviews start well before you meet a candidate. Create a one‑page role scorecard that lists the outcomes you want the hire to deliver in the first 90 days (not just a duties list), the must‑have competencies and licences (for example, RSA, First Aid), and the working patterns they’ll need to cover. In hospitality and retail, staffing needs change by daypart and season—if your scorecard ignores the roster, you’ll hire an excellent candidate who can’t actually work the hours you need.
Map your scorecard to the real world. Look at last quarter’s roster and identify the shifts this role will cover, any split shifts, and weekend/public holiday requirements. If you manage multiple sites, note which locations this role must support. Designing interviews around the realities of your operation reduces mismatches later and helps you assess availability and reliability alongside skills.
Use systems to make this practical. Build your must‑fill shifts into Rostering so interviewers see coverage gaps while they hire. When you publish the new starter’s first week, live data from Time & Attendance confirms who actually turned up and when, so you can refine templates quickly.
Use structured, behavioural interviews
Unstructured interviews feel friendly but produce inconsistent results and hidden bias. A structured approach—asking every candidate the same core questions and scoring against clear criteria—predicts job performance better and is easier to defend if challenged. Build questions that start with “Tell me about a time when…” so candidates must evidence past behaviour that matches the role’s challenges.
Examples for frontline roles: “Tell me about a time you handled a rush without sacrificing service.” For team leads: “Describe a time you had to re‑roster a team at short notice—what did you prioritise and why?” For back‑of‑house: “Walk me through a time you identified a process bottleneck and fixed it.” Tie each question to your scorecard and weight answers that demonstrate safety, service, productivity and reliability.
To improve consistency, use a simple rubric (1–5) and define what a strong answer includes. Keep brief notes that justify each score using objective language. This makes it easier to compare candidates fairly and to reflect on whether your questions truly predict success. As the final step, run a quick calibration discussion with other interviewers to align scores before you decide.
Stay lawful: what you can and can’t ask
Australian employers must avoid discriminatory questions and practices during recruitment. Protections apply to prospective employees as well as current ones. Focus questions on a person’s ability to perform the inherent requirements of the role and the hours the business genuinely needs covered.
For a clear, practical overview, see the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guide to preventing discrimination in recruitment. The Fair Work Ombudsman also explains unlawful workplace discrimination and adverse action in its workplace discrimination fact sheet. Questions about age, relationship status, pregnancy plans, religion, disability or ethnicity are generally out of bounds unless a genuine occupational requirement applies and is lawful.
Good practice: explain essential physical tasks (e.g. safely lifting up to 15kg, standing for long periods) and ask whether the candidate can perform them with or without reasonable adjustments. Keep notes objective and job‑related. Avoid writing personal impressions; record evidence that links to your scorecard. If you’re hiring for night work or weekend work, it’s fine to ask about availability to cover those shifts, but avoid probing into personal circumstances beyond what’s necessary to confirm availability.
Keep work trials short—and pay correctly
Short, supervised skills demonstrations can help validate capabilities. In Australia, however, unpaid trials are strictly limited. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance on unpaid work trials explains that trials must be brief, directly related to showing skills, and supervised. If you need more than a demonstration, you should engage the candidate as an employee and pay the correct minimums.
When a paid trial is appropriate, ensure you apply the relevant award rates, penalties and allowances. RosterElf’s Award Interpretation helps you calculate the right pay for trial shifts and avoid inadvertent underpayments. Capture actual start/finish times via Time & Attendance so the payroll file reflects reality, not estimates.
Keep trials purposeful: define the tasks to observe (for example, safe knife handling, bar set‑up and close, POS accuracy under pressure) and limit the duration to what’s reasonably required. Provide feedback the same day so candidates know where they stand. Trials are recruitment tools—not free labour—and your process should reflect that.
Check work rights and references the right way
Employers have a responsibility to confirm a candidate’s right to work in Australia. Use the Department of Home Affairs’ Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service for organisations to check conditions, such as limited hours for student visas. See: VEVO work rights checks.
When collecting resumes, identity documents and referee details, follow privacy law. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner outlines the Australian Privacy Principles and rules for use and disclosure of personal information. Obtain consent before contacting referees, collect only what you need, store it securely, and delete it when there’s no lawful reason to retain it.
Reference checks should confirm job‑related facts: dates, role scope, strengths, coaching areas and eligibility for rehire. Keep notes factual and consistent with privacy obligations. If you record interviews for training, inform candidates and explain how recordings are stored and for how long.
Reduce bias with consistent scoring and panels
Unconscious bias can sneak into interviews through snap judgements based on background, accent or likeability. Guard against this by standardising the process: structured questions, a shared scoring rubric, and a short calibration meeting where interviewers explain their scores using evidence. Consider a panel of two to three interviewers—diverse perspectives improve signal and reduce the impact of any one person’s bias.
Where possible, include a job‑relevant task or work sample (for example, handling a difficult customer scenario, writing a short shift handover note, or a safe food handling checklist). Work samples tap into actual capabilities rather than impressions, and they often reduce bias compared with informal chats.
If your state or territory has psychosocial hazard regulations, ensure your process respects candidate wellbeing and avoids unnecessary stressors. Safe Work Australia provides resources on psychosocial hazards and how to design work interactions more safely.
Give a gold‑standard candidate experience
Every interview is also a marketing moment. Candidates talk—especially in hospitality and retail—so professionalism pays dividends. Confirm interviews promptly, set clear expectations (location, dress, documents to bring), and run on time. After the interview, let candidates know when they’ll hear back and stick to it. Even rejections should be respectful and, where feasible, include brief, constructive feedback tied to your scorecard.
Keep communication centralised. Avoid scattered texts and sticky notes; manage interview times, trial shifts and first‑week onboarding inside Rostering. On day one, use Time & Attendance for clean clock‑ins, and make sure trial or induction hours are recorded correctly for payroll. A well‑run process builds trust and lowers no‑show risk.
Finally, close the loop on privacy: if a candidate wasn’t successful, securely delete unneeded personal information in line with your retention policy and privacy obligations. Confirm to the candidate that their details won’t be used for other purposes without consent.
Decide with data, then onboard and roster smart
After interviews and any lawful trials, compare candidates using your scoring matrix and notes. Weight job‑critical competencies (safety, customer service, reliability) more heavily than “nice‑to‑haves”. Document the rationale for your choice—factual, job‑related notes help if decisions are questioned later.
Once you’ve picked your hire, move quickly. Publish the first fortnight of shifts in Rostering with a mentor nearby for early shifts. Use Time & Attendance to confirm attendance and punctuality. If you run a paid trial or induction, rely on Award Interpretation to apply the right penalty rates and allowances from day one.
Keep improving the process: track time‑to‑hire, offer‑accept rate, first‑90‑day retention and the variance between rostered and attended hours. These metrics tell you whether your interviews are predicting long‑term performance—and they highlight where to refine questions, trials or onboarding.
