Unreasonable hospitality in talent acquisition
After listening to Will Guidara share stories from his book Unreasonable Hospitality, I couldn’t stop thinking about how his principles apply to talent acquisition.
Guidara transformed the restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, by obsessing over making every guest feel extraordinary — not through expensive gestures, but through genuine attention and unexpected moments of care.
Sound familiar to what we should be doing with candidates? Except most of us aren’t doing it.
Here’s what talent professionals can learn from world-class hospitality:
Make people feel seen
Guidara’s team remembered guest preferences, noticed small details, and created moments of genuine connection. In recruiting, this means:
Remembering specifics from previous conversations
Acknowledging what makes each candidate unique
Following up on details they shared (their daughter’s graduation, their career transition concerns)
Personalizing communication beyond “Dear Candidate…”
One of Guidara’s key insights is also one of my favorite quotes from Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Go beyond the transactional
Hospitality isn’t just about executing tasks well. It’s about creating experiences that exceed expectations.
In talent acquisition:
Don’t just fill the position. Help candidates understand how the role advances their career.
Provide feedback even when you’re not moving forward
Make the interview process reveal your culture, vs. just evaluate skills
Stay in touch with great candidates even when you don’t have immediate opportunities
Create a culture of service
Guidara built a team that genuinely cared about their guests’ experience. Every team member, from dishwashers to managers, understood they were in the business of making people feel extraordinary.
For talent teams:
Ensure everyone who touches candidates (schedulers, interviewers, hiring managers) understands they’re representing your employer brand
Train interviewers on creating positive experiences, not just evaluating competencies
Make candidate experience metrics as important as time-to-fill
Empower your team to make decisions that improve candidate experience
The details matter
Small gestures create lasting impressions. Guidara tells a story about turning a hot-dog cart into a fine-dining experience for tourists who mentioned they hadn’t tried NYC street food. The gesture wasn’t expensive, it was thoughtful.
In recruiting, this looks like:
Sending interview confirmation with parking details, interviewer bios, and what to expect
Providing water and a comfortable waiting area
Starting interviews on time (or apologizing genuinely when you can’t)
Sending a thank-you note after an interview (Yes, to candidates)
Making offer calls celebratory, not transactional
The business case
Guidara didn’t pursue hospitality for altruistic reasons alone. Unreasonable hospitality drove business results. Eleven Madison Park became one of the most successful restaurants in the world because of their commitment to making guests feel valued.
Similarly, unreasonable hospitality in talent acquisition:
Reduces candidate drop-off rates
Improves offer acceptance
Strengthens employer brand through word-of-mouth
Increases employee engagement (people who felt valued as candidates stay engaged as employees)
Builds a talent community that returns and refers others
Start small
You don’t need to overhaul your entire process. Pick one touchpoint — maybe your interview confirmation email or your rejection message — and make it more human. Add one sentence that acknowledges the person behind the application.
The holiday season is actually the perfect time to experiment with this. Send a genuine note to candidates who interviewed this year but didn’t get offers. Thank past candidates who accepted offers elsewhere but made your process better by participating thoughtfully. These small acts build relationships that may pay off when circumstances change.
The challenge
Unreasonable hospitality requires intentionality. It means slowing down when you’re busy. It means caring about people you might never hire. It means treating recruiting as relationship-building rather than a transactional filling of requisitions.
But here’s what I’ve observed over 20+ years: the organizations that consistently attract top talent are the ones that make candidates feel valued throughout the process, whether they get the job or not. As Guidara writes, “People can feel the difference between being served and being cared for.” Your candidates can feel that difference too.