While Recruiting Time Kills All Deals

From a recruiter’s standpoint, a delay in the hiring process is the most common factor that prevents a successful hire. A delay can range from too much time between interviews, to postponement of getting an offer together, to putting a position “on hold”, etc. Below are a few things to avoid during the hiring process…

Extended time between interviews

If you have one interview with a person and you interested in moving forward, you should schedule the second interview within 48 hours. I am not saying the interview needs to take place within 48 hours, but it should be scheduled. Every day that goes by between a first interview and the scheduling of the second, a candidate will second guess how well things went. Their friends and family will ask if they have heard back, and the more time that goes by that they haven’t, they will start to convince themselves that they really weren’t that interested anyway… they will go into protection mode so to speak. And even if the company does finally call back, it shows a level of indecisiveness and disorganization on their part, so the candidate may decide this is not a company they want to work for in the first place.

Delay in making an offer

Depending on the position and situation, if the interview process is complete and you are interested in making an offer, a verbal offer should be extended within 5 days of the final interview. Should there be other candidates involved in the process causing the offer to take longer than the 5 day window, there should be clear communication and continued conversations with the candidate to keep the interest alive. Similarly to the interview example, the longer time that goes by after completing the process that a candidate does not receive an offer, the more chance of the “protection” mode kicking in and them deciding that they weren’t really that interested in the opportunity after all.

Lack of keeping in touch with a candidate throughout process as well as if the position is put on hold

As stated above, if there is going to be a delay between interviews due to uncontrollable circumstances, this should be something that is overly communicated with the candidate. Don’t assume that you can tell them initially that you won’t be making decisions for a couple of weeks and without further communication expect them to be interested and available at that time. You need to stay in contact with them throughout this time to reassure them that you are still interested. A quick phone call and/or email will go a long way. On the same note, if a position gets put on hold, remain in regular contact with any candidates that you had interest in. They may still be available when the position re-opens and you will have established some rapport with them. If they are not available, you will have left a good impression of the company and they may have referrals.

The bottom line, the more time that takes a company to move through the interview process, extend an offer, and set a start date, the less chance they have of landing their ideal candidate.

Time Kills All Deals Posted on March 21, 2013 by Allison Harrison