Lengthy hiring processes can work against employers

Posted by Andrew on November 25, 2016

Companies are being warned to get their act together and make a quick decision about hiring top-skilled candidates or risk losing them. We couldn't agree more with this - the candidate market is so strong that even relatively entry level candidates often have multiple offers in front of them. While that isn't a reason to short-circuit your due diligence processes when hiring staff, employers need to be aware that they cannot sit on their hands and wait.

The latest Robert Half survey shows at least 61 per cent of businesses have lost a qualified candidate to another opportunity, thanks to a lengthy hiring process.

Spokeswoman Megan Alexander said it's a candidates market and businesses that don't have a slick hiring process are losing quality candidates to other firms.

She said if firms have their hiring process sorted it should take no more than 10 days to make a decision.

"Those organisations that make it up as they go along or change the process half way through, introducing new steps as they go along the process, that alienates the candidates, and then they lose those candidates, and then they have to start again."

Six in 10 human resources managers say they've experienced losing out on candidates because of the lengthy hiring process.

The study also shows that more than half of the 100 respondents say the hiring process has increased in the past three years.

The main reason given for the extra time taken are more involvement from internal stakeholders, increased candidate expectations, qualified candidates becoming more challenging to find and the interview process.

"As many top candidates are in contention for several roles, some aren't willing to wait too long before accepting an offer," Ms Alexander said. 

She said employers naturally have high standards when hiring new employees, but looking for top-level performers who have all the need-to-have as well as the nice-to-have skills could hinder the recruitment process.

Instead, companies needed to focus on a candidate who had the must-have skills and then develop the nice-to-have skills through professional training programmes.

Tips to make the process more efficient:
* Agree on the budget before interviewing candidates
* Confirm the job description
* Set a time limit on the interview process
* Make it a team effort
* Consider hiring temporary help.

This article first appeared on the Newstalk ZB website.