Are You Frustrated Over Losing Qualified Candidates???
Employers
want to hire the best candidates.
When
qualified candidates walk away from your interview process one of two bad things
happen: You’re left with and you hire your
second tier candidates; or your hiring process drags on taking more time away
from your managers' functional roles to review more résumés and interview more
candidates; and, you still have an unfilled critical position for an extended
time. The one thing that should happen,
though seldom does, is to review what is causing that to happen. Some of the reasons you might hear from
candidates who drop out of the process could include variations of, “I got a
better offer;” “This company isn’t a fit for me;” “I'm looking for more of a
challenge;” ad infinitum.
You can ask yourself, or convene a meeting of your HR team to ask why
your company isn’t the one putting out the better offer; or is the one being
the better fit; or providing a more challenging environment? But are those the questions you really need
to ask? The simpler question is how can
a candidate possibly get a “better” offer if you haven’t even extended an
offer? Or find a “better” environment or
culture when they know so little about yours?
They can’t. And therein lies the
cause. You (your company) has not made
the offer; it has not told the candidate enough about the company.
I see two key reasons for why a candidate would withdraw prematurely from
the interview process. The process
itself and your hiring managers.
First, let’s talk about your hiring process. When selecting candidates you want to assess
whether they first meet your minimum mandatory requirements, right? Do they have the minimum education? Certifications? Years of field experience? Specific skill sets? Functional titles? Then you want to look at how close they come
to your preferences. The best of your
competitors on their résumés; the right schools; management, communications and
interpersonal skills; a strong work ethic; or experience training others. Your
recruiter or talent acquisition team pores through tens of dozens or more
résumés; they cull out the best of the best.
They pass through the channels, HR staff to HR manager to hiring manager
and possibly other members of the hiring manager’s team. They’re ranked. Let the interview games begin. A phone interview with HR; another with the
hiring manager; an face-to-face with a member of the hiring manager’s team,
perhaps more; then the hiring manager; and then her boss. During the process you’ve identified two
other potentials and you commence the same process. You now have three very strong candidates in
the pipeline. That’s great.
Or is
it? What
is wrong with this picture is that you have made getting the job harder than
doing the job. You have put in play
a program designed to fail both you and at least two of your three candidates,
possibly your best two and possibly all three.
Between scheduling and conducting a series of interviews and then with
the idea in mind to select only the top candidate which means waiting until
they’ve all been interviewed, adding in rescheduling due to conflicts or
absences, time off for vacations or business trips, you have started a six
month hiring process. It’s easy to
figure it out. Candidates, even passive
candidates who were not out there looking for a change, get anxious, concerned
about the company’s ability to make a decision, start looking elsewhere (or
deciding they already have a good thing so why change?) or frustrated or become
lacking in their own self-confidence, none of which you want in a new employee,
and none of which they want to deal with.
So when it’s time for the second interview what happens? Delays, excuses, hedging and finally dropping
out.
P.S. Having to start the process
over, looking at résumés, making selections, throwing employees’ schedules off,
taking valuable time from their day-to-day functions, delaying deadlines, plus,
plus. And that is not where it
ends. Do you honestly believe all three
of those candidates aren’t going to tell their colleagues and associates about
the bad experience they had when trying to get a job with your company. Now get the best of the best.
Unfortunately it’s not all avoidable.
It does take time to sift through résumés, screen candidates and
schedule and conduct interviews. It will invariably slow down work and
interrupt work flow. But it can be made
easier, no matter how large your company is and how much red tape you need to
slosh through. (Yes, I don’t mind ending
sentences with prepositions.) The very
first rule is that you need to be ready to make a decision. When you find a candidate you like, you are
confident can do the job, you see as a good fit within the organization and you
believe has the potential to make a valued contribution to the company,
accelerate her. Schedule her interview
quickly. If she’s local, bring her in
for her first interview, don’t waste her or your time with a phone call. If you like her, let her know, don’t keep her
hanging. Let her know you want her to
come back for a second interview. And when
she’s completed the process, if you still think at least as highly of her as
you did in the beginning of the process and your team agrees, PULL THE
TRIGGER! So what if there are others in
the pipeline. So what if she hasn’t had
all five interviews and two of the hiring manager’s team haven’t met the her
yet. They’ll meet her on her start
date. Just make the offer. You now have an employee who feels wanted,
not settled for, and who will repay that in her hard work to show she’s earned
the position.
You want to add excellence to your already excellent team. Your hiring manager is tops at what he
does. He is up on every technical matter
that impacts his and his team’s performance.
He can do each of their jobs – and has – and he is ready to move up the
ladder. He does everything with absolute
perfection. Everything, that is, except –
maybe interview properly? Or train his
team how to interview.
Which brings us to the second rule:
TRAIN YOUR STAFF HOW TO INTERVIEW
FOLKS! Sure your interviewers know how to assess a
candidate’s technical ability to do the job.
That’s easy enough. They knows
not to ask questions to which they don’t know the answers. And then there’s the rest of it. Does the candidate look like he will
assimilate into your culture? Will she
be able to hit the ground running or will she require some training? Does she have leadership skills? Does he have a good work ethic? Is his or her prior performance
provable? Those might be a little harder
to assess than just the ability to do the job.
And then there’s the rest of it, a far more complex component to the
interview: The human factor. The connection between the hiring manager and
the candidate. The connection between
the candidate and the company. All based
on the hiring manager’s ability to convince the candidate that 1. This is the
right company for her; 2. This is the
right job for her; and 3. These are the
right people for her to work with. Also
easy? Maybe, but this important piece of
the interview, this very necessary message is not just conveyed with words or
mere hyperbole. It is conveyed in the
interview process and more importantly, by the interview process.
As a recruiter debriefing candidates after an interview, I’ve gotten
feedback of interviewers showing up late; being completely unprepared and even
forgetting the interview; and bring preoccupied on personal calls or irrelevant
matters for as much as more than half the allotted interview time while the
candidate just sat there staring at the walls.
Candidates have told me stories about interviewers who instead of
selling the company complained about why they were unhappy there or shared
inappropriate stories about the management of the company. I’ve
heard tales about interviewers, yes, interviewers, not candidates, who have
walked out during an interview, who’ve made disparaging and potentially
damaging comments about a candidate, his or her ethnicity, sexuality, age;
who’ve squandered a candidate’s precious time trying make a favorable impression
by patronizing those very same things, or discussing politics, religion, the
latest news, the weather, whatever. Tell
your interviewers, it’s all bad interviewing, people and if you want to target
top-tier talent, you need to clean up your act.
Almost everyone has been interviewed to get their current respective
positions, but that does not qualify them to interview others. Interviewing needs to be taught. And every lesson boils down to this: The
candidate will expect of you exactly what you expect of him. Let’s turn each of these points around:
· You
expect a candidate to be on time. So why
keep an candidate waiting in the lobby for ten minutes? And in conjunction with that, you expect a
candidate to respect your time, so respect hers as well. If you tell her the interview should take an
hour, plan your time so that it works out that way.
·
You expect a firm handshake. So
does your candidate. She won’t be
offended.
·
You expect your client to show up looking refreshed and ready to have a serious
discussion. Your candidate expects that
of you as well. If it’s late in the day,
take a short refreshment break. Make
sure your shirt is still tucked in and your hair is not in disarray.
·
You expect a candidate to have his cell phone off. Reciprocally, don’t take any calls or allow
yourself to be interrupted during the interview.
·
You expect a candidate to do his homework on the company – easy enough
with the internet as accessible as it is.
Did you take the time to thoroughly read your candidate’s résumé? What about her cover letter? Or the recruiter’s notes?
·
You
also expect your candidate to be prepared for the interview, to know her stuff,
to be alert and ready to respond to your questions, both technical and
subjective. In turn she will have
questions for you and expects you to as open and transparent with your
responses.
(A good tip: Before
you meet your candidates, go over their résumé one more time and prepare a list
of questions about their technical knowledge, professional experience and
career accomplishments. When specific
achievements are identified on a résumé, ask about how those achievements were
accomplished and what the (quantifiable if possible) beneficial result was to
the employer at the time. Give your
candidate an opportunity to shine.)
·
·
You expect a candidate to address his weaknesses are and how he’s
working to improve himself. So if
there’s a lawsuit filed against the company, a regulatory injunction or
negative press, why let him find out about it in an uncontrolled environment? Tell him what problems the company is facing
and what the company is doing about it to ensure its longevity and desirability
as a place to work.
·
Industries can be very small communities. You would expect your candidate to not name
people or air dirty laundry about his current or former employers. Unless you just want your candidate to not
only not join your firm but to engage in office gossip about your company
whether he’s hired or not, don’t discuss private issues about your company that
are not relevant to his interview, his being hired, or his ability to perform
his job if he is hired.
·
Reciprocally to the last item, you would expect your employee to sell
himself. As would he expect you to sell
the company. And the job. And the team.
And the support he can expect as a member of the team.
·
You want your candidate to be open minded about why your company is the
best place for her to work. Do you have
any preconceived notions about your candidate?
Or about the ideal candidate?
Don’t have. Ask her to tell you a
little about herself and show her you are open minded as well.
·
You expect your candidate to want to know more about the company’s
vision and growth. Keep in mind that he
wants to share his immediate and career goals with you as well. They should mesh well.
·
You want your candidate to be enthusiastic as you tell her about the
company, her job, the people she’ll be working with and her potential
there. She wants some enthusiastic
feedback when you identify specific skills and experience of hers that is much
needed in the company.
·
You want a candidate who is focused during the interview and who listens
carefully to what you are telling him about the company, the job or the
workplace. It’s only respectful to
reciprocate and listen attentively as he highlights his accomplishments or asks
pertinent questions.
·
You wouldn’t expect your candidate to ask about compensation during the
first interview. Nor would he expect you
to ask how much he’s currently earning or how much he’s expecting to earn in
this new position, especially without knowing all of your expectations. Unless, of course, you have explained all of
your expectations and you are prepared to make an offer.
·
You would expect your candidate to have some final questions, perhaps
even concerns, at the end of the interview.
Ask about them and be prepared to take another moment to address
them. You would expect no less if you
had some concerns about the candidate that needed further clarification.
·
You cannot assume your candidate is eager to go to work with you just
because she met with you once and seemed positive. Nor can you assume your candidate believes
you are eager to hire her. This
information has to be conveyed. Start by
finding out what she thought about the interview, if she thinks she likes the
company, if the job sounds like what she’s looking for and if she feels
qualified to step into that position. In
return, she wants to know how you think the interview went, if you liked her
and would like to have her come back for a second interview, and what you think
the timing on that would be.
·
This list can go on. You would
not expect your candidate to waste time with small talk; connote phoniness or
insincerity; mirror your actions or attempt to speak like you in apathetic
attempt to show empathy; to have poor posture, display angry or standoffish
body language or emit a negative aura; make stupid facial expressions such as
pretending to think; ask close-ended (yes or no) questions. Well neither would your candidate expect any
of that from you.
·
Finally, you would not want to be waiting for a response that is a long
time in coming. So don’t delay in
conveying interest to an employee. It’s
not fair to keep him hanging. It’s not
fair to the already over-worked employees who busting their butts to fill the
responsibilities of a vacancy. It’s not
fair to your employer who will come in over-time and over-budget on a project,
or who will have to pay longer for less experienced temps or who might lose
valued customers because they are not being properly serviced. It’s not fair to fair to you when the
candidate believes you’ve lost interest in him and moves on to other
opportunities and you have to start all over.
And (I know I said it) it’s not fair to the candidate.
Remember,
the best candidates
are likely to be looking at multiple opportunities, of which your firm is only
one. You don’t need to interview everyone.
When you find Ms. or Mr. Right, cut through the corporate s**t and
put the hiring process for that person on the front burner. Delays, necessary or not, and send the wrong
message. And time can be a mortal enemy
of the hiring process. So when you’ve
got the shot?
Pull the
trigger!
A favorite
quote of mine by Leo Rosten:
“First-rate
people hire first-rate people; second rate people hire third-rate people.”
