I am not sure any job seekers reading this blog want to hear about this, but I guess it cannot hurt to have multiple perspectives on various employment related topics. Having spent a significant amount of time in recruiting, headhunting, human resources, and as a hiring manager, I am very aware as to why companies often lose out on great candidates. I have seen it happen numerous times, and in many instances, it was completely avoidable. On behalf of candidates trying to get hired more quickly, staffing professionals trying to fill requirements, and recruiters trying to get someone placed, here are a few things that come to mind in terms of getting things done.
1. Act quickly – It is a good rule of thumb that the easier it was to find a candidate the faster you need to follow up. Let’s say you pay for a resume database and you see an outstanding candidate. If the candidate is outstanding with valuable skills in the marketplace, you better believe there are other companies that will be interested in this same person. You need to act NOW. If too much time goes by before you call, interview, and make an offer, you will be competing with everyone else for this candidate and your odds of successfully hiring this person will be greatly diminished.
The same can be said for job postings. If you get a great candidate that applied to a job posting, it was a fairly easy way in which you found them. After all, posting a job does not require much effort. So if this great candidate has applied to your job and company, what do you think the odds are that this person also applied to other companies, such as your competitors? It is very likely. You need to move fast if you want a good chance at hiring this person.
If a passive job seeker was found the good old fashioned headhunting way, by research and a phone call, you may not have to act as quickly. This would not be considered an easy find as compared to job postings and resume databases. Don't be too casual with them, however, because you want to get candidates moving while they are hot.
2. Do not wait for someone else to do something, especially if you are a hiring manager. If a great candidate was sent to you by your staffing department, an external recruiter, or maybe from a referral by one of your team members, you should not wait for someone else to be involved in the process. Pick up the phone or send an email yourself to this candidate right away. Hiring and recruiting is probably part of your job description as a manager.
3. Interviews – I am all for a collaborative effort in hiring a new team member, but sometimes it is interviews gone wild. Hiring managers often set up a series of interviews throughout the course of a day, or two days, with multiple team members. That may seem reasonable enough, but the problem occurs when you need consensus from every Tom, Dick, Harry, and Sally on your team in order to proceed with a candidate. You are running a huge risk trying to get five to 10 plus people to completely agree on a candidate. My suggestion is to have two or three of your top people at most interview perspective candidates, including yourself, and really put them through a thorough quality interview. You do not need an endless number of team members to meet every candidate.
Also regarding interviews, do not drag them out over a course of several days and weeks. It is not going to result in a better hire and you will be facing the likely prospect that some other company will hire this person while you are dilly dallying. Keep the number of people who interview candidates, and the total number of interviews, to a reasonable amount. Sorry to say, but it has been shown that hiring is a crap shoot, so don't believe that the more people that meet candidates, and the more times you interview them, the better your chances are for a good hire. It doesn't work that way.
4. Job Offers – There are often two issues with job offers. One is deciding on whether you are going to make an offer to someone, and the other is the procedure for getting it approved. It happens all of the time that days and sometimes weeks go by while hiring managers are trying to decide if they want to hire someone. Make a decision. Also, if I had a nickel for every time a candidate was lost as a result of an offer approval taking upwards of a week or more, I would have a lot of nickels. If you have read anything above, you know what can and will happen. You have just allowed time for other companies to get involved with this person. Big mistake.
You might think you could add a third factor regarding offers, such as getting them accepted. It has been my experience that you can beat someone up until you are blue in the face to accept an offer, but the bottom line is, people are going to do what they do regardless of what you tell them. This is not to to say you shouldn't make a good effort to get it closed, but realize, you are not going to change anyone's thinking. Give the candidate no more than 3-5 days to make a decision, and then move on.
A wise and very successful headhunter once taught me an invaluable lesson when it comes to hiring and recruiting. TIME KILLS ALL DEALS.
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