One of the biggest headlines in the hiring and recruitment space is “The Great Resignation is here!”  You’ve all seen it!  Heck, you’ve probably posted about it yourself.

I’ve been in recruiting for almost 25 years now, and this is truly one of the most culture-shifting times I’ve ever seen.  

Recruiting in these times is ever-challenging.  Candidates have multiple offers and some are working with multiple recruiters.  So, what can you do to give yourself the BEST chance to be successful?

Improve the interview process! 

I want to start out with an important statement. If the process you are currently following with your clients is getting you the results you want and getting the people hired that you need in a timely fashion, congratulations!  You can move on to the next article…

But, if you are like almost every other recruiter or company in almost every industry and you are struggling to hire, or if you lose the candidates you did find DURING the process, there are improvements that can be made!  I need to ask a favor of you though.  Can you forever remove the sentence ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ from your verbiage? Also remove ‘if we lose them, we lose them.’ We need to be willing to change without sacrificing the critical elements of decision-making in order to be successful in today’s market.

Here are a couple of real-world examples of hiring processes we have seen from some of the companies we have worked with.

Candidate is identified–candidate needs to apply into the applicant portal–candidate needs to take an assessment–candidate will have a phone screen with HR–candidate will have a zoom interview with Regional VP–candidate will have to meet the team at the comoany–candidate will have a zoom with someone in the same position as they’re interviewing for–candidate will have to fly to headquarters for several interviews–candidate will talk with President–decision will be made if they’ll be offered the job.  All of these steps take 30-45 days

Here’s a different real-world process:  Candidate is identified–candidate has a zoom interview with RVP–candidate has team interview at the community–candidate interviews with SVP–candidate interviews with company president–offer is made. All of these steps take 2 weeks.  

One last example for you: Candidate is identified and instantly sent assessment–candidate has a zoom with RVP/VP–Candidate has panel interview with regional team–candidate interviews with President & EVP via zoom–offer is made.  All of these steps are completed within 8 days

The point of sharing these examples is to illustrate that even if you have multiple steps, there is one MAGIC ingredient that makes the biggest difference.  SPEED in process!

Let’s break down each of the elements of creating an effective interview process:

The Interview Steps:  How many interviews are truly needed to decide if the prospective candidate is the right one for the job? 2-3-4-5-12? 

In my experience, 1 interview is too few!  If I were a candidate and after just one interview, I was offered the position, I might be a bit spooked. Are they just trying to find a ‘body’ and I qualify as one?  I realize there are some positions that only 1 interview is enough, but when discussing leadership positions, 1 interview just won’t cut it.  

The best way to determine how many steps are actually needed is to determine who really truly needs to be involved to make the decision. The magic can happen by combining some of the steps to ensure they can be done timely.

If you are willing to improve your interviewing process and are being objective in thought processes, is there any normal reason that you cannot complete your process in 7-10 days? 

Yes, there will be times when this won’t happen–someone is sick–the candidate has a vacation. But if you make the majority of your interviewing processes completed from identification to offer within 10 days, you will land more candidates than you will lose!  And, you can still keep the integrity of your decision-making!

Explain the Process:  It is one thing to have an effective process, it’s another thing to explain it to prospective candidates.  The clearer the process that will be completed in a timely fashion, the more likely the candidate will stay engaged.  When we work with our clients and work together to define an effective process, we explain that we will share this process with the ‘talent’ so they know what to expect.  This particularly helps with passive candidates–those not on the job boards actively looking for a new position.

Assessments:  They come in all shapes and sizes:  a 15 min personality/culture fit assessment completed online…a situational based questionnaire that illustrates how they would handle certain situations…all the way to the Grand Puba – an all day psychological assessment.

While I understand that there are real costs associated with these assessments, I am down on bended knee pleading with you to put the assessments upfront–or at worst after the 1st interview!  There is nothing worse than everyone involved getting all excited about an incredible candidate, the candidate becoming exciting about joining the team, then the final step is an assessment.  It comes back lukewarm or bad.  All of a sudden, the candidate is terrible, the interviews were a waste of time and you can’t believe anyone would hire them!

Here is a logical question for you:  Have you analyzed the retention results recently?  Have you analyzed if your retention has improved since instituting the assessment into your process?  I have had many conversations with company execs that can honestly say the assessment hasn’t really improved their retention.  Food for thought…

The Offer:  When you have a candidate at the final stage of the process, the next likely step is the offer.  Since you know that and I know that, is there any reason, everything that needs to be done to have the offer discussed and decided on internally by the final interview isn’t completed?  What is the best offer that can be made?  

Today’s market will not allow you to attempt to make a ‘low ball’ offer.  You need to EXPECT that this candidate is entertaining more than one offer.  So, you have one chance to make a big impression!

With many states and municipalities enacting laws that prohibit asking what a candidate is currently earning, it is about what is this candidate is worth to you in comparison to what you can budget for!  Make the best offer possible. This will impress the candidate, could stand out above competing offers, and let them know this is the ‘last and best’ offer so there isn’t negotiating.

I am back on my bending knee one more time…heck, I’m on both knees this time.  Please-pretty please–don’t just send an offer letter without it being verbally presented.  When you verbally present it, you can hear their excitement…or lack thereof; you can uncover any concerns, and you can feel confident in the likelihood of it being accepted.  Just sending an offer letter does none of this!  The written offer letter will never replace a live conversation.  It should be the formality part of the process, not the climax!

Let’s bring it all together!  Review your current interview process and determine where it can be improved so that it can be completed in a timely fashion, communicate this process with the candidates you are interested in, make the best offer you are able to and verbally present it, throughout the process perform the dance steps to show your interest (a thank you note is a great step in that dance) and land the candidates you want to have on your team.