Losing Talent to The Interview Process
Interestingly, the conversations I have had over the past few months have something in common: good talent isn't making it through the interview process.
Clients are consistently losing talent throughout the interview process, costing them time, money and speed to delivery.
I've highlighted some of the reasons why..
As a company, if your interview process is longer than 2 stages then it's too long. This isn't guidance, this is proven to be the case.
Firstly, good talent is difficult to get your hands on. The UK's unemployment rates are at the lowest they've been since 1974 at 3.5%, ONS 2022. So the majority of top tier talent are already in roles which means you have a two tier risk here; firstly, they can't get that amount of time off work to schedule in 3-4 interviews that may be 1-2 hours long each time and secondly, they have more chance of being poached by another competitor during your interview process.
You may also need to consider why your interview process is more than two stages and how you will overcome the possible risks. If you find yourself saying the reasoning isn't your choice then you need to action change because it will cause you to lose talent.
If you find yourself saying its because candidate X needs to showcase their skillset to a variety of different stakeholders e.g. ops manager, then hiring manager then CEO etc - you are putting the company on a pedestal and the candidate secondary to that.
You are saying that X candidate needs to impress all of said personnel when said personnel may have no working relationship with candidate X. Therefore, pleasing the company is more important that company pleasing the candidate.
Making candidate X feel just as valued is often more important. Getting HR or Operations to interview a candidate before the hiring manager only works when that hiring manager gives clear, guided and structured instructions as to what they want and don't want. If Ops or HR are making the decision based on what they feel is right for the company then that isn't effective. Meeting someone twice is enough of a guide of their abilities.
If you are recruiting for your team, it is your responsibility to ensure this process is short, structured and relevant to retaining the right talent. More than half of candidates are rejected at 1st stage interview.
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2. Your interview process involves templated questions
Some will argue that templated questions give everyone a fair chance at succeeding which is true; candidates get asked the same questions and the best answers can be measured.
However, templated questions don't take into account individual interview style and candidate specific roles. To further expand on this, everyone's interviewing styles may be different. Some people may be bubbly, sharing as much relevant information and set questions may not allow them to naturally expand on the important information they'd like to get across at interview.
Secondly, in reference to 'candidate specific roles' these types of structured set questions don't take into account the nuances of individual roles or does it allow candidates to showcase their best qualities.
Another reason why set questions aren't promising for the entirety of the interview are because they are often generic and they don't allow the interviewer to have much eye contact or freedom in their approach to being engaging. Think of it from a candidates point of view, every time they respond, the interviewer isn't engaged, they are ferociously scribbling the notes on the page. Its not comforting for the interviewee.
Equally candidates often come to an interview knowing the areas of their expertise that they want to highlight based on what they know of the role. These set questions may not allow them to do this which could be an unfair advantage.
3. Interviewers don't have experience.
It is imperative that if you are interviewing professionals, you have experience conducting good interviews - knowing what to do and what not to do.
For example, I once had a candidate undertake an interview which was relatively formal for the first half. Asking competency based questions and asking for examples of very specific things. In the middle of the interview, they asked her how she would fit a giraffe in a fridge and she was so put off by that question that she didn't recover. The interviewers loved her but she turned the job down as she felt at interview, the interviewers weren't taking it seriously.
You must have guidance on how to coach out answers from candidates. Talent often forget these candidates are nervous! Some roles are dream positions for these candidates so nerves will play a huge part.
Part 2 to follow!