Is Your Hiring Process “Scaring” People?

OK, “Scaring” might be a little intense, but some hiring processes aren’t that far off. With multiple interviews, lack of communication, and lengthy online applications processes – applicants will actually avoid filling out applications with companies if they’re too time consuming, cumbersome, or don’t receive a response within an appropriate time frame.

So why are these sloppy processes still common? Unfortunately, far too many recruiters and HR professionals alike think applicants will gladly endure the rigors of an intense hiring process if they truly want to work for their company. This can be a red-flag to applicants.

When you are evaluating your hiring process, keep these things in mind:

Keep applications short. Don’t make the mistake of “over-screening.”

If you were an applicant, would you honestly want to enter in over 5 pages worth of information, just to have the same questions asked of you in an interview? Be strategic when you’re asking your screening questions. List out a few critical qualifications that all applicants must meet before proceeding to an interview screening, but try not to use the online space to ask all of your questions. Having that human element in your screening process is beneficial to making sure you’re not weeding out potentially good candidates. Besides, the right questions will do its job and weed out unqualified applicants, without scaring off the good ones.

Redundant rounds of interviewing? Don’t do it.

It’s perfectly OK to have a candidate to come back for a second or third interview. But do not make the candidate come back a fourth or even fifth time if you can avoid it. Having the candidate come back multiple times (and worse, multiple days) only gives them the impression that you might not value their time. This gives the candidate a negative impression of the company, causing them to possibly retract their consideration, especially if they feel the company is being over-demanding. If you must have a series of individuals meet with your candidate, your best bet is to let your candidates know they will likely be at the company office all day for multiple interviews. By combining multiples interviews in to one day, it’s more efficient and decreases the overall length of the process.

Talk to your candidates.

The worst part of the interview process is the waiting period to see if the job will be offered or not. In some unfortunate cases, candidates can wait weeks before hiring managers come to a decision, and by that time it can be too late. It’s important to remember that candidates are likely interviewing elsewhere. If you wait a very long time before reaching out to extend an offer, or simply don’t keep them informed of what the next steps are – you can run the risk of losing them to another company. Unfortunately, in most cases, lack of communication is the result of time constraints. Despite communication and follow-up being a crucial step in the process, recruiters and HR departments find it difficult to follow up with each and every candidate – especially if they’re interviewing for other positions within the company.  A good solution would be to invest in an applicant tracking system. A good applicant tracking system will have communication and emailing features that lets you schedule and send automated emails to keep desired candidates in the loop.

As you settle on a hiring process that works best for your company, remember one critical thing: All applicants and candidates are either future employees, or future patrons. As a company, you always want to make sure you’re leaving the best impression for candidates and customers alike, as these are the people that will freely communicate experiences they’ve had with your company – good, or bad.