Long Interviews and Low Ball Offers

When market conditions are under stress, as they currently appear to be, companies behave differently in their interview and offer strategies. We are seeing these different approaches on full display currently and while there is some (misguided) logic around why, these behaviors are almost always detrimental to the organizations who employ these tactics- often creating long-term and unintended negative ripples for the companies.

The reason organizations operate in this manner is because they are under the (incorrect) assumption that the market for top talent has changed. That prospective candidates, including accomplished performers, are not only open to new opportunities but are desperate for them. That assumption is wrong. The market for top talent is as tight as it has always been, and I would argue more difficult today because the market conditions have created an environment where candidates are far more cautious.

When operating under the impression that the market is soft and people are desperate, companies and hiring managers commonly make the three following mistakes; we are seeing an uptick on both.

1.??????An (unnecessarily) long interview process. I see this in just about every down market. Companies will drag out the hiring process and involve too many steps with too many people, most of whom will not influence the hiring decision.

Companies are running interview processes as if time is a luxury, expecting candidates will be available when they get around to them. A long, involved interview process is almost always viewed by candidates negatively- i.e., the company doesn’t know what the are looking for, the role isn’t important or worse, the candidate isn’t important, and that this is the way the company operates- not only do they interview slowly, they operate slowly with the inability to make a decision. Companies rarely think about the perception they create via the interview process they conduct.

?2.??????Low ball offers. This one seems to rear its head regularly but especially in a down market. This particular down market, however, is unique; companies are using this market condition to try to reel in comp plans that have gotten out of control over the last two or three years. If the offers were slightly lower that would be one thing, but we are seeing and being told about significantly low offers- even for people who are currently employed; offers that are $10,000 to $40,000 lower than candidates’ current base salaries. ?

A low ball offer is a high risk move for multiple reasons. First, they are almost always rejected and even if they are accepted, your new hire becomes an immediate flight risk to leave for an opportunity that pays more. Second, you create unnecessary reputational risk within your market space. Not only is your offer rejected, that candidate now goes and tells their friends/colleagues/co-workers (all in your space) about how you operate, and those things might include: you’re cheap, you don’t value your employees, you don’t pay market, you aren’t serious about acquiring great talent and thus you aren’t interested in being competitive in your space to say nothing of being the leader in your space, or any number of other things that can literally slow the growth of your company due to your inability to acquire the talent necessary to make it happen.

One other note on the low ball offers, we are seeing a disproportionate number of female candidates being presented with garbage offers right now. I have no idea why that is happening but I’m hearing that story often enough that it has my attention. I’m hoping it is a story that I stop hearing about sooner vs. later.

3. Terrible candidate communication. Down markets also bring out the worst in communication behaviors with candidates. While this trend has been more and more common over the last couple of years, in the current market, it is not uncommon for the best case scenario to be delayed or sporadic communication with candidates; worst case is a company going completely dark on candidates all together. No one is immune to the radio silence- I recently spoke with a four-time CEO who was being recruited to run another company who described that very thing happening to him mid-interview process.

Again, the unintended consequence is creating that perception with candidates, who may become your future employees, that organizationally communication is not valued.

A little good news though regarding these types of behaviors…you will likely see them start to subside as the market changes for the better in the next few months. We are seeing most of our clients and many of the companies we talk with preparing to ramp up and get back to hiring. For the next couple of months, companies will continue to restructure and recalibrate as they determine what people need to be in what right roles. We are likely to see some additional layoffs and more selective hiring as this transition winds down. However, starting in the late Spring we should expect to see things change as companies once again get serious about putting their best foot forward in hiring to be fully ramped and prepared for 2024.