The real cost behind motorsports recruitment

When hiring a candidate a business has to evaluate certain factors before employing them, such as interview technique, qualifications, skills and most important personality. 

As a global sport, hiring candidates from other countries is very common, and most racing teams will have staff from all over the world. Recruiting from other countries can be expensive, the cost of transportation and hotels alone are costly. The logistics of the whole operation will take time and money, but with the ultimate goal of finding the perfect candidate it will be all worth it. 

Formula 1 jobs understandably receive an overwhelming amount of applications for each position, the task of the team would be to examine the right candidates for an interview. Once a shortlist is created, then each candidate would be contacted. Transportation costs can vary depending on the locations of the business and candidates.

Cost beats convenience

Finding the right candidate is the main goal, so spending more money on the interview stage could be worthwhile in the long run. Employing the wrong candidate will cost the business more money than the amount spent on travel and logistical costs.

Recruitment has always been a balancing act, especially for a Formula 1 team. Most large businesses will have a huge budget to spend on recruitment, so travel costs and similar expenditures are not a worry. A business will have to weigh up the cost of recruitment with the overall output from the job.

Interview process

The purpose of an interview is to allow the employer to understand the candidate and to judge if they would be a good fit for the company.

A global company in Motorsport, such as Red Bull Racing, will have an HR department that will deal with every interviewee. Each interview will have a representative present from the relevant department, to analyse the candidate’s skills and overall performance.

An interview will usually last between 30 minutes and one hour, the interviewer will normally have a selection of questions to ask. These are designed to promote the applicant’s personality and challenge the applicant’s in a pressure situation. A typical recruitment process will include several interviews; this is to test the candidate’s in different scenarios. 

Qualifications & skills

Understanding a candidates skills and qualifications is vital for a comprehensive recruitment process, whether it be contacting previous employers or testing the candidate’s skills with a number of interview tests.

Qualifications give a candidate a comprehensive understanding of such topics, whilst the candidate’s skills will allow you to put that understanding into real world applications. The ideal candidate will be able to combine their qualifications and skills in an productive manner.