Competitive Hiring

The difficulty to secure top talent has become the most challenging it’s ever been. Some of the compounding variables include demand is up, supply is down, increased salaries and remote/work from home is in high demand. Companies based in other regions of the U.S. that can offer higher salaries with work from home models are attracting talent in markets they couldn’t compete in before. The gap between the companies that are adapting and those doing the same thing seems to be widening too. This quote puts it into perspective, “If You Always Do What You've Always Done, You'll Always Get What You've Always Got.”?~ Henry Ford.

Winning organizations are streamlining their hiring process and conducting interviews over a shorter period. You can continue to do the same amount of vetting as before but do it over fewer days. This benefits everyone involved but most importantly the candidate feels their time is being respected and is assured their potential new employer knows who they want and are ready to hire. Here’s an analogy to put this into perspective. On the ABC television show “Shark Tank”, for the first several seasons each Shark took turns conducting a brief interview of the business owner pitching their company. At the end of the interviews there could be 0-5 offers from the Sharks and the business owner would oscillate from Shark to Shark trying to pick the best offer. Several years ago, Mark Cuban adapted his approach. Once his questions are answered and he knows if he wants to invest, he extends an offer on the spot with the following caveat, “My offer is contingent on you accepting right now. If you talk to the other Sharks my offer expires”. Mark continues to vet the opportunity to his standards but doesn’t wait around for the others to jump in.

Consider the following data to help quantify this topic. Over the past 12-months at OnDeck Recruiting the average time-to-offer from the first interview was 5.6 days. Those that received offers in this period accepted. All the offers from my clients that were declined fall into two categories. 1) The offers were extended at 22.6 days (4X longer). 2) The offers were lower than the candidate’s asking salary.

It’s time to listen to the candidates because it’s true they do have multiple offers, their time is valuable, and they know what their worth is. Streamline your interviewing process and extend an offer in six days or less. When you decide to hire, close the deal and put your best offer on the table. Instead of thinking about the extra cost of paying more than you budgeted, consider the lost revenue you’ll begin to recapture by filling the vacancy.