Recruitment and visitor experience might seem like distant disciplines, but they do have one big thing in common: they’re both about how you treat people.
Steve Gardam, Consultant and Cultural Enterprises Trustee, talks to David Hingley, Head of Arts, Heritage and Culture, Peridot Partners about why the behaviours that shape brilliant visitor experiences should also define how organisations welcome, support and say goodbye to their employees.
SG: David, you’ve built on a great career in visitor experience, moving into cultural and charity recruitment. What’s the connection between these disciplines for you?
DH: The connection for me is providing the best possible service to people, to an audience.
A synonym for visitor experience is ‘customer service’ – serving the ‘customers’, the people who are the audience for what an organisation has to offer.
The best visitor experience mindset is to anticipate and meet the needs of your audience, even beyond what they could imagine. I have often described my Visitor Experience roles being about imagining the worst day any visitor could have… then doing everything possible to never let that happen.
Now, in recruitment, I strongly encourage clients to treat all potential candidates as an audience, as the recipients or customers of the recruitment process, which is the start of any organisation’s offer to its staff. That also takes imagination… imagining the recruitment process from the position of the candidates.
SG: What’s the benefit in treating job candidates like an audience?
DH: Same principle as in visitor experience: treat your audience well, meet their needs, and they are more likely to act as you would want, and you are likely to welcome more of them.
Recruitment can be difficult on both sides. But the outcome that a recruiting organisation always wants is to find someone who solves a problem, makes them better. It’s good business sense to provide the very best ‘recruitment service’ to the audience of potential candidates, to increase your chances of finding the best person for the role. Perfunctory or thoughtless recruitment practice can put people off applying at all or choosing the other organisation they were applying to at the same time.
SG: So where do visible values come into this?
DH: Whether they are explicit or implicit, values shape an organisation’s culture. And culture in this context is about how an organisation behaves consistently, and how those behaviours feel to people inside and outside that organisation. To extend a familiar phrase… values breed behaviour, behaviour breeds habits, and habits breed character.Audiences, however defined, experience our organisation’s values in action. And in visitor experience, many cultural organisations are good at describing their values and using them to intentionally improve their customer service.
Defining values and making them visible in what you do shows an organisation taking its culture and reputation seriously. Values often evolve as an organisation recognises it needs to stay relevant and resilient. A simple example could be: an historic site decides it has a value to be ‘playful’… which then supports focus on providing play opportunities for visitors.
And yet… I see too many examples where an organisation makes its values visible in what it considers ‘audience-facing’ work, but is far less intentional or consistent in using those same values to serve its recruitment audience.
SG: What are examples of using values visibly in recruitment that aren’t just a paper exercise?
DH: A classic Visitor Experience audience-facing value is to be welcoming. And we all recognise a good welcome when we see one… so we can also easily notice when a welcome is under-considered, lacking in enthusiasm. A good welcome must be thoughtful, and realistic. Visiting audiences love it when they are given an honest inside tip, to make their day run smoother: ‘head to the far side of the site first, it’s quieter.’
In recruitment, check your welcome:
Is your job ad enthusiastic? Is that enthusiasm balanced with realism about the role? What’s the tone of voice?
Is your recruitment timeline honest? Have you set a deadline for a Monday rather than a Friday (because honestly, you won’t look at any applications received at the end of a week, but you could give candidates one more weekend to apply). Have you given clear interview dates – including second interviews – so both you and candidates can plan your diaries as soon as possible?
Have you made it easier for candidates to learn more before applying, like a video group call or FAQs? You can be welcoming in your considered use of pronouns, in the sincerity of how you offer alternative ways to apply, in describing the format of the interview (even providing questions) in advance.
SG: In visitor experience, it’s often said that the goodbye matters as much as the hello, for your organisation’s reputation and recommendations. Is that true in recruitment?
DH: Absolutely. When I think about my own positive experiences of visible values in recruitment, it’s often come from not getting the job but being treated brilliantly at that point anyway. That can turn a disappointed candidate into a strong advocate for your organisation.
You know this is why we’ve written this article together, but it’s got to be mentioned: I applied to be a trustee at the Roald Dahl Museum when you were Director there. I didn’t get the role (which I know had nothing to do with you). But you did personally write to me and gave me thoughtful feedback. I felt like my time and effort in applying was respected. I’ve often cited this as an example of the ‘recruitment goodbye’ showing values in action.
SG: Thanks David. It’s interesting, because at the Dahl Museum I feel we grew a strong staff culture that consistently produced the kind of behaviour you’re describing… but we hadn’t written it all down in one place within a list of stated values. Do you feel it is necessary to have organisational values written down?
DH: No… and yes. No – because a healthy organisational culture should become instinctive and not need to be spelled out in every detail. But yes – it is always a good idea to be explicit and intentional in how your organisation and everyone in it is should behave. Codes of Behaviour, when written in positive language, often exist as simple but powerful tools to help instil shared values across a Visitor Experience team. To get everyone on the same page, you usually need to write the page!
I say: if you have such a Code, take it and use it as a guide to serving your recruitment audience, just as much as your visiting audience. You don’t need something wholly new, you just need to use a tool from of your existing culture in different sphere, which strengthens the culture overall.
SG: Thanks David. This is all a simple, but powerful idea – to make inherent values visible through behaviour, including in recruitment. After all, every potential candidate could be a future colleague.
DH: That’s a great frame to use. Pay things forward, every chance you get. That’s a genuine values-led culture.
David Hingley has been in the arts, heritage, and culture sectors since 2010. A firm believer that ‘people make places’, his career has focussed on creating impactful, values-driven experiences delivered by passionate and engaged teams. Following senior roles at Historic Royal Palaces, The Landmark Trust and Tate, David now supports the recruitment of inspiring and thoughtful leaders across the sector.
Steve Gardam is a consultant, CEO, mentor and trustee of the Association for Cultural Enterprises. He held senior roles at the Postal Museum, Imperial War Museums, and London Transport Museum, before spending ten years as Director of the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Working across governance, strategy, learning, communications and commerce, Steve’s ‘helpful leadership’ approach translates complex to simple, helping organisations and individuals to make self-aware, intentional change for good. Steve is a Fellow on the Clore Leadership programme for 2026-27.
