How can you speed up your recruiting interview process without sacrificing quality?

Planning ahead before you start the recruitment is how you speed up the process without sacrificing the process. 1. Start with a clear job analysis 2. Build the candidate persona 3. Craft the job posting (note that I did not call it a job description). 4. Attach the compensation structure (supported by data and not a gut feeling). 5. Design the interview question set. 6. Map out the process from screening to job offer. 7. Select a desired fill-by date so you can clearly set candidate expectations (this date is a goal - never make a hire just to meet this date). 8. Open the recruitment process and market the opportunity A clearly defined roadmap allows you to focus on finding the best candidate!

There's a lot of HR speak on hiring criteria when hiring managers haven't been well coached on looking for what the business needs now and for tomorrow

Sitting down with the Hiring Manager or hiring team to define exact criteria is so important because it can be referenced at every step of the way right from the application. It also keeps everyone on track to be in alignment during the interview process, and can be a huge help on speeding up the feedback piece!

To speed up the recruitment process, you need to be one step ahead at all times. 1. Have a clear job description to allow the recruiters to know what they are looking for and for candidates to know what they kind of role they are exploring. 2. Clearly mention the years of experience required to perform the job, this will help you in narrowing down the relevant profiles. 3. Mention the salary range or the ballpark range for the role; this will help you receive the profiles of those who are interested and relevant according to the salary range provided and help you in save time of a recruiter and candidate both. 4. Showcase your culture and benefits in the role to attract the relevant pool of candidates.

"Defining your hiring criteria" is such soft language, couched in layers of HR speak. It pretends that we still live/work in a factory/office from the 1950's, where jobs are "defined" and candidates are measured against them. That's not how the world works. Tech is changing too fast to "define" the job with any credibility. Companies change too fast to trust what goes on the JD. Instead, define what the job needs to accomplish rather than the tasks YOU associate with it. Then the hiring criteria will be "who will be best able to solve this problem?" which is how businesses actually think.

The selection process should also include all people involved in recruiting with a clear criteria for each candidate. Avoid any bias/ unconscious bias by removing personal information and select on the information they provide only. Keep these records securely under data protection to provide feedback to the candidates.

Currently at the moment I am using Metaview, to transcribe the interview process. I could not recommend this tool anymore. It captures the key parts of the interview and you can get a summary to send over to the hiring manager. This allows you to concentrate on the interviewee, saves you missing any key information!

The screening processes should be made easier for people yet efficient for recruitment to be carried out effectively in a timely manner. You can use pre-defined questionnaires in the application forms to screen relevant candidates, use an Applicant Tracking System to automate tasks and develop useful reports, and include cross-functional interviewers to be a part of the interviews.

As the first line of contact with most inbound candidates, I find myself spending a good part of the call talking about the role and company. I realized that this was a major time-suck and now before the call, I direct the candidate to additional job info, company info, and market info that I urge them to review before our call so that we can spend more time focused on them and their questions. This has worked well and I am pushing to be a standard best practice.

Before recruiting starts, I have templates and automation tools set up to speed the process. Templates for my outreach that are customized but yet can be used at mass when I do my outreach. I also set up templates for almost all my email communications when it comes to scheduling, responses and rejections/next steps. Final tip is having a scheduling link. This is such a HUGE time saver when it comes to scheduling and saving you all the headache of back and forth responses.

If you're going with multiple interviews you MUST ensure they aren't duplicated/repeated. A great way to ensure this is get the questions from each group or person doing the interview ahead of time. Review them and call any repeated ones out. Even better, suggest those involved in the interview get together and assign different goals to ensure all aspects are covered and that the interview process, even having multiple interviews, can be seen as a positive candidate experience.

I have heard people complaining to a lot of recruiters: "Why would you carry out 5 interviews for an entry level job?" "Why would you want us to be in the office in the initial interview?" Well, that makes sense. How about creating panels for interviews and rotating them for different job roles - this way you can cut down the 5-step interview process o just 1-2 at max. This will save time, resources, assets, and speed up the hiring process.

This is one of the best ways to speed up the process. Limit the number of rounds, the faster you come to a decision. You can choose to add more information or make each interview longer, or you can train the interviewers to become more efficient in what they're looking for.

Most organizations require more than one interview and they increase as the role becomes more senior .... this is typically an unavoidable truth. BUT, ensuring everyone isn't asking the same question over and over is where we need to focus. There's zero need for every interview to start with "Tell me about yourself" and to take up 10-15 minutes at the beginning. There shouldn't be a repeating of what the organization does or what the role entails. That can be done in the first interview then each stage requires different questions and a different focus!

This is an output, not a rule. If you define what and who you are looking for with depth and meaning, if you're crystal clear about your work culture (culture defined as "the decisions made and actions taken when no authority is in the room to determine them"), you don't need to "limit" the number of interviews. You'll know that the person can do the job and wants what you're offering.

Structured interviews can work perfectly for all kinds of interviews. Well, all you need to do is to have panel interviews and the members of the panel should have a set of interview questions to avoid repetitive, unnecessary, and biased questions being asked from candidates. We did this one for one of our tech companies and it yielded great results. The interviewers were trained and candidates were hired 37% quicker than usual.

I've structured interviews many times with tech startups and had to prepare hiring managers (new and old) to interviewing. Here are my key take-aways: - Have each panel focus on different areas of the candidate such as: behavioral questions, presentation based, deep dive in their skills or technical and culture fit. - Create sample questions for each interviewer or they can create their own. The key is consistency with the same set of questions so you can compare candidates!

Interviews are just one way to select the best candidates, however not everyone performs well in these. Be creative think of other ways to get the best from people - presentations, written exercises, team working exercises etc. Think about what is really needed in the role and create some selection processes which allow candidates to show these skills. If you are interviewing my top tip is to make the candidate as relaxed as possible - be relaxed yourself, use open body language, eye contact, nod and smile to show your are listening, use exploratory questions to get deeper information, and thank everyone at the end for taking the time to apply - let them know when they will get feedback.

Let's get real: a subpar interview question is like ordering water in a world-class winery – a wasted opportunity. The crux? Not just what you're asking, but how you're asking. If we're playing in the major leagues of talent acquisition, we need to swing for the fences every single time. Competency-based? Behavioral-based? Sure, they're the big guns in our arsenal. But it's not about just checking boxes. It's about drilling deep. When you toss out a question, imagine you're on a treasure hunt – you're looking for that glint of gold that showcases their mettle, their mojo. Throw in open-ended queries, nudge with follow-ups, prod with probing questions. Your goal? To not just hear, but to truly understand.

Your questions should be thoughtful and help you to learn as much about the candidate as possible. Consider yourself a detective, and ask probing questions to get more details. It should be more of a conversation rather than an interrogation of questions. When people are comfortable, they tend to share more with you.

This is a must. Both ways - recruiter and candidate. Providing timely feedback to candidates can help you in proceeding ahead with other candidates or maybe grasp a few referrals from those candidates. But, here's the main thing: provide candidates with a quality feedback so that they get a chance to work on their weaknesses and bring out the best of themselves in the future.

No brainer! And not just timely but quality feedback. Going back to a candidate in one day and rejecting them with "you're not right at this time for this role" is nonsense.

What most candidates do not realize is that we recruiters are at the mercy of the hiring manager providing timely feedback. If the company does not prioritize hiring, hiring managers will not feel pressured. It makes for a difficult situation, but I always push as hard as I can for timely feedback. It's the only way the process works well.

Timely feedback is important to keep the interview process going internally but, also to let the candidates know the next steps, what to expect, and if they are moving forward. Ghosting candidates and not having timely feedback can impact your ability to hire top talent. You are also representing your company and making a positive impact, regardless of whether the candidate is hired, speaks to your reputation and how you operate.

Communication with the hiring manager and business partners is so important. As recruiters and talent partners, we need to routinely check in with hiring managers and share updates on the progress of the positions and any roadblocks you may be running into. Are the candidates you are screening outside of the compensation range? If so by how much? Are we noticing any trends? Are we getting any applicants, if not, why and what can we do to gain more attraction? These are all conversations that should be had early with the hiring managers. It has drastically reduced time to fill everywhere I have been!

To chop down a tree, it's better to use 2 sharp axes than 10 dull ones. A good digital prescreen and behavioral interview will get the job done better and faster.

This is an area where you need to spend the time and what you input into the process is what you get out. If you don’t find time to do all these things the cost in the long term could be astronomical. Time and time again I have seen people recruited into roles which are not suitable for them or the business. As a result performance has to be managed, and the impact of management time is far more than spending the time at recruitment stage. It also has rippling effect on other people in the team which can be really damaging. Take the time to get this right. Follow the great advice given in these sections and you will get the best candidate.

Make tasks and assessments as similar to the real job as possible, that way the candidate can also get a sense of the role before committing fully. A key thing to consider is that it doesn't take too long to prepare for.

Why is the job open? why no internal promotion or transfer to fill? Tell me about the team, the role this person will have in relation to others. What is the deadline to fill and why? Reconcile all of the above with a profile that will meet the need and will find the role a positive step up. Set the spec such that several candidates can be provided within the needed time frame. That’s’who’. Next how. What is the process to select? One person you’re mentoring does first interviews, coached by you. Then one or two of the team. Critical - what does the candidate going on with other companies, why looking, what they will take. Set aside time to interview 4-6 candidates concurrently. Pick primary and second. Make good offer. 💥

Setting SLA's with those in the process and then constant communication with those involved is the first and foremost avenues to speed up hiring.