Your Long Interview Process Is Damaging Your Hiring Plan

France is one of the countries where the recruitment process takes the longest. According to a study by Glassdoor, France ranks n°2, following Brazil in the barometer of the longest recruitment process.

When entering the interview process, candidates often ask, “How long is the hiring process at your organization?” and have a reason to do so. Filling vacancies in the technology sector is taking longer than ever, with the average to fill a position taking 49 days.

Yes, companies prefer to take their time and be sure of their choice before recruiting. However, it could well harm them.

This blog will discuss the risks associated with a lengthy recruitment process and suggest ways to speed it up.

‍

The risks you’re taking

Excessive delays are sometimes a red flag for candidates. A job seeker may interpret a long wait as a negative sign from the company and start other recruitment processes!

‍
1 - Missing out on the best candidates
‍
The number one risk of taking too long to recruit is missing out on the best-qualified candidates for the job. And the longer the recruitment process takes, the greater the risk of seeing the top candidate looking for a new job elsewhere.
‍
‍
2 - Tarnishing your reputation

A lengthy recruitment process might have a rather negative impact. In terms of candidate experience, you are sending non-reassuring signals. In addition to losing candidates, it can give your company a bad image. Taking more than a month to choose reflects a failure in your decision-making chain. This could demotivate potential talents who do not want their professional development slowed down by a slow and indecisive organization. The recruitment process says a lot about the company culture.

Also, based on their negative experience, the candidate will give you a lousy referral that might cause you some remarkable job seekers in the future.

‍
3 - Increasing the hiring cost

What is certain is that the more extended recruitment lasts, the more the cost per hire increases and can lead to a significant shortfall if the recruitment fails at the end of the process. A recruitment process that drags on induces a loss of time and, therefore, a financial loss.
‍

So, are your hiring processes too long?

Here are some of our suggestions to have successful job interviews.

First, try to tighten the time between the interviews with an HR hiring manager. Or any decision maker in your establishment. The candidate who waits too long risks stressing out and having a negative image of your company.
If you cannot reduce the deadlines of your hiring decisions, follow up with the candidates and inform them to reassure them.
‍
You can also turn to your applicant pool before relaunching the wheel of a recruitment campaign. That will save you a crazy amount of time, from initial screening of the applications to social media background checks.
‍
I also think that this multitude of steps could be avoided by a more precise definition of your needs and expectations of the profile before posting a job opening. A job description in line with your missions is essential because vague or misleading descriptions precipitate recruitment errors. In the end, what you need is relatively simple: a structured process with clear objectives.
‍
Keep in mind that candidates are becoming more demanding, especially the new generations who have grown up with the Internet and expect everything to go faster. And companies should stay up to date with their hiring strategies to avoid unnecessary dealbreakers.

‍

Our 15-day process to recruit top talent.

1 - First call: Sell your company and your plan
‍
‍It’s not enough to know how to sell a position to a candidate; you also need to market your business. Since many applicants are passive job seekers, they won’t leave their current job if they don’t perceive compelling reasons to take a new position. It would help if you clarified to applicants why they should choose to work for you.
Moreover, candidates want to feel like they’re a part of a strategy and that their work affects how the business develops and achieves its objectives. Let them know about your expectations and your leadership style.


2 - Interviews with your peers
‍
‍Meeting the team interviews is used by employers because they provide them and their team the chance to assess if the possible candidate will be an excellent cultural fit or not. It also allows the candidate to determine the dynamics of the group and the team members they would be working with if recruited.
‍

3 - Homework
‍
‍Anything you offer a candidate to complete outside of your actual interviews is referred to as a take-home assignment. It entails particular preparation tasks you might ask a candidate to complete before an interview or set of interviews.
Take-home assignments also provide you with some freedom and reflection time. As an interviewer, I appreciate it because I see a person at their best rather than perhaps a frazzled version of them trying to answer interview questions on the spot.
‍

4 - Meeting founders
‍
‍Phone call? Check. Meeting the team? Check. A good homework? Also check!
This means you are confident that the examined individual can perform the job.
So it is time to determine whether they will join the organization or not. I advise you to check the candidate’s level of enthusiasm for joining the company. You want someone who wants to join the organization and believes in it, not only to fit a random role.
It’s a broader meeting, no technical questions, just making sure the candidate understands your mission and see if this person can work remotely, to see if they have that will to perform well under those circumstances.

The consequences of a too long recruitment process can have considerable repercussions for companies.

Indeed, between each stage of recruitment, minutes, hours, and precious days follow when your potential job candidate gets tired and starts to look for other job postings.

We at Stakha pride ourselves on our 4-step recruitment process, which takes 15 days. And let me assure you, we haven’t been disappointed with our choices!
If you are looking for better hires, our recruiters will be happy to help!

‍