Meet Lee Kjos, Founder of Outelier Talent
Tell us a bit about yourself, your interests, and your passions.
I’m originally from the UK, and have always been an avid traveler; in my early 20s, I spent a year and a half backpacking around Central and South America, and a separate amount of time seeing other areas of the world. I’ve always loved resorts, always loved hotels, just love hospitality, unique spaces and experiences in general.
I’m very passionate about music, art, and am driven visually. I love Hospitality and hotels because whatever the space is, it is a clear creative channel for designers and Architects to bring people together and offer experiences. I did a lot of things in my life that led into this career, and I was determined to find what I felt was my place in the world, and desperately wanted a career that involved some sort of creativity despite not being a musician nor an artist. Then a few opportunities within recruitment came by and all of my previous skill sets applied: I love finding exceptional people for exceptional companies.
What is your background and what led to creating Outelier Talent?
At first I had an entry level job as a trainee recruitment consultant at one of the big corporate Recruitment companies in the UK. It allowed me to gather amazing experiences and ignited a passion in terms of client and candidate facing roles. I recruited financial professionals in Southwest London and eventually went on to oversee the whole of the South of England. I loved the fact that I was meeting really influential people across the verticals, and, over the course of three or four years, worked with companies from juggernauts such as Tesco and Vodafone to small startups, playing a part in their growth. I loved the job of finding amazing people for amazing companies and vice-versa, but things are very transactional in large recruitment agencies. At that point, I got really connected with the CEO of one of the hotel clients who had a very unique take on hospitality and kept in touch while going through a journey with another company, which led me to the point where I was ready to go out on my own.
I started by taking on one exciting client and doing what I love, and doing it very well, so things snowballed from there until I had three fantastic clients that I was helping scale their businesses. I grew my portfolio of clients to a healthy amount and took on a few people that could help in various operational parts of the business. Instead of the traditional model of just getting consultants inside the business, I remained very much the headhunter. I have no real wishes to grow a multimillion dollar company. I love what I do, and do it very well for myself, i really enjoy the candidates and the work with the clients, and get to experience the most cutting edge hotel concepts and learn the intricacies of hotel operations.
What’s your unique perspective, your USP?
We hire the most exceptional talent typically for super luxury, luxury, and lifestyle hotel companies, and they’re companies with an identity. It’s not just about getting CVs to clients, but about going beyond that and really getting to know the candidates below the surface – what led them to where they are, their passions, their dislikes. And similarly, getting to know clients on a deep and personal level, gathering understanding of why their companies are different. It’s about not treating clients as just another hotel company, but really comprehending the mechanics of a business and the type of people they need in order to grow. We only offer long-term success whereas the traditional recruitment model typically goes “here’s a CV, so give me a large percentage of the annual salary with not much service”. We offer exceptionally long guarantee periods in case it does go wrong, the lowest fees, and a level of service which get’s to know the intricacies of a business need, and what a candidate is looking for.
What are some brands you work with? How have you helped them?
We work with Habitas, for example, with its 3D printed, modular designed, sustainable and low impact hotels, where you can very quickly build a strong ADR out of the properties. A lot of the work wasn’t just demand led, but mostly looking at the market, talking to people and anticipating weaknesses in the business. We recommended meetups, the developing of relationships, and developed deep level partnering with founders and CEOs. We spent two months in Saudi Arabia building Habitas Alula with on-the-ground, ExCo, and corporate-level recruiting.
With Ennismore, we do some typical hires and really get to know the hiring managers and understand what they need. But then we also work with smaller independent and boutique brands well.
What sort of projects do you find the most interesting?
Design leadership searches are always exciting! For example Head, Director or Chief Design Officers, as they oversee architecture design, interior design, branding and related areas. A big part of their role is finding out how to get the brand message and story into the properties, and maintaining it throughout, as well as incorporating unique qualities of wherever the properties are located geographically.
I love recruiting for Operational leadership positions such as General Managers, Food and Beverage Directors as well as Corporate Directors of Operations. They can be very technical roles to hire for because all properties and brands have specific requirements, and none are the same. A huge part of these jobs is also personality, so it goes beyond searching on Linkedin or going through CV websites, I really need to get to know candidates personally. They’re the ones setting the culinary, drink, and service strategy for hotels or groups of hotels, making them unique. There are so many nuances in these positions that need to be matched precisely, but then also a bit of magic that can only come through from personality and culture-fit.
I have been working on a lot of Head of Sustainability positions the last 8-12 months, and see this as a huge new area for the future. Not just people who can help companies green-wash, but people that are passionate and almost nerdy about making every part of an operation and company as sustainable as possible.
How do you identify potentially exceptional candidates?
Most importantly, I’d say, it’s gut feel, but also being in the job long enough, you develop a real intuition and sixth sense, which comes from processes. There’s a general saying that it takes recruiters 6 or 7 seconds to determine whether a candidate is suitable enough for a role, and that’s unfortunately largely true. It is impossible to guage someone just on their CV, which is why I take a lot of time to understand people, get to know them. The role of internal talent is to review CV’s, and the reason there is still a need for agents is so people do not get lost in the cracks. I speak to so many amazing people that apply to jobs online and do not get even an acknowledgement.
Traits I always look for are longevity in positions and similar industry experience (unless, of course, the client wants someone from a different industry for a fresh perspective). Now, that’s not necessarily vital, as there are always situations out of people’s control, wrong moves that they need to undo, toxic environments and such, but definitely some sort of good past performance is an indicator.
Education isn’t necessarily important for a lot of positions, although it is important for some professional jobs such as legal or finance, where candidates may need to be qualified, but most of the time nothing beats good practical experience. Apart from good hands-on experience, people with a good track record in certain situations, or experience in environments that match the hiring client’s, are always what I try to find. Similar business models, or similar ways in which companies are set up or operate.
Finally, we can’t just present CVs without the due diligence and background checks, so there’s an incredible amount of “invisible work”, time, energy, and money being spent upfront by us to ensure quality candidates. And of course, finding the right company fit for the candidates is equally important, therefore nothing beats meeting and getting to know people!