Why Do We Take So Long to Hire?

I have said this comment so many times in my LinkedIn articles…

“Why do you/we take so long to hire someone?”? We insist on them coming into interview, after a phone interview and a virtual interview.? Then we have you come in to do a presentation or do another interview.? Then we might ask you to take an assessment test.? Then we have all the information needed to make the decision to either hire you or someone else.

And then we wait…

Why do we do that?? If we know what the job market is, (more jobs than qualified people), wouldn’t we want to make sure that if we have a viable candidate we did everything we could to get them in the door as a hired Team Member as quickly as possible?? And to take them out of the clutches of another company wanting their services as well?

How can we speed this up and get the candidate we need to get?? Unfortunately, it requires assistance from more people than just you.? And with that in mind, here are some opportunities:

• Who is the entire hiring team?? Who is going to interview?? Who needs to see the resume?? Who needs to have a chat with the candidate?? Who needs to make the final decision?? Get all of those decisions rectified before even posting the job.
• When does this job need to be filled?? ASAP?? Don’t go with that answer.? Get the hiring team to decide on a concrete date that everyone agrees with, and everyone is held accountable to.? And ensure that the time it will take to backgrounds, drug screenings, DMV screenings, reference checks (if any of these are needed) is factored into that time.
• Ensure your team Leader, Finance Leader, maybe even head of your company is onboard and is aware of hiring for this position, along with a pre-accepted wage scale.? Of course, this depends on the size and present financial condition of your company.? I promise you, if you are in dire straits, your company head will want their hands in all of these situations.
• Lastly, strongly consider another potential five days of waiting as the candidate reviews the job offer, possibly counteroffers, along with a weekend mixed in there.? This is just a fact of life.

You know the potential delays.? You educate the hiring team on this.? Ensure everyone knows.? Because if you don’t, the “We don’t want to be included” group will start to say that they aren’t getting any new candidates.? It’s the popular go-to when you don’t want to be involved in the hiring process…but definitely want to complain about the length of time it’s taking.