From the Front Desk to HR for More Than 50 Hotels with Toby Ramirez-Johnson of Omni Hotels & Resorts

Toby Ramirez-Johnson, Senior Corporate Director of Human Resources of Omni Hotels & Resorts, started in the front office at the New Haven Omni in 1997. Today she sets HR strategy for more than 50 Omni properties, with a stint leading HR across the Southeast for Wyndham in between. We talk with Toby about what hospitality culture looks like at the front desk, how Predictive Index shapes interviews without deciding them, and how one shelter volunteer day became a nine-week job readiness program that put graduates on Omni's payroll. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 Why the candidate who feels most like you may be the wrong hire. 03:05 A homemade training session that doubled as a job interview and launched an HR career. 06:32 What brought a two-time boomerang back to Omni in the middle of COVID. 10:01 Where company culture actually shows up, and it is not on the posters. 12:27 Using a behavioral assessment to shape interview questions instead of making the hiring call. 16:48 What a team map reveals when a group has plenty of big ideas and no follow-through. 22:21 How a shelter volunteer day turned into a nine-week job readiness program. 28:11 The one interview question that gets candidates talking like themselves. Thank you for listening to "Hire Learning with Oz Rashid." Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn:   / ozrashid  . To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com. RESOURCES MENTIONED Omni Hotels & Resorts website: https://www.omnihotels.com The Predictive Index, the behavioral assessment Omni uses to structure interviews and build teams: https://www.predictiveindex.com “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges, the book that shifted Toby's mindset this year: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id120... “The Gap and The Gain” by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, a book on measuring progress backward: https://connect.strategiccoach.com/st... “The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+” by Suze Orman, the retirement investing book Toby is reading now: https://www.suzeorman.com/products/Th... ChatGPT, the tool Toby uses to design spaces and style outfits: https://chatgpt.com #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #WorkforceTrends