The Value of Velocity when hiring

Have you stopped to consider your hiring process and why you seem to miss out on some of the professionals that you want to hire? What happens when a professional with unique skills is brought to your attention for an open position? Do you quickly schedule a meeting? How many interviews do you require before making an offer? What is the length of time that the professional must tolerate?

In this economy, professionals are being aggressively recruited by your competitors and their companies are every bit as aggressive to retain them. Your process tells them quite a bit about how you will address their needs as an employee moving forward. If your process is cumbersome, requires numerous meetings and drags on for weeks or more you will lose many people.

Here are some examples. 

We introduced George to company G on 10/11/2016. It took over two weeks (until 10/26) for the company to interview George. George was highly motivated to make a change and had some self-imposed deadlines due to travel and holidays. George had a second meeting with company G on 11/7.  He left that interview with a lot of enthusiasm as he had 5 friends/past coworkers working there.   Company G made an offer on 12/9/2016, nearly 2 months after the initial introduction and over 1 month after the last interview. The professional rejected the offer after having been ready to accept an offer on 11/8. What happened? Momentum was lost. He was with his current firm for 10 years. He was comfortable and the initial reason for considering a change in the first place was no longer as glaring. 

We introduced Larry to Company L on 10/7/2016. The first interview was scheduled for 10/17. The process included 7 more meetings over 5 more months. An offer was finally made but, Larry elected to stay with his current company. Is it any wonder? 

With decades of experience recruiting and hiring top professionals I have learned that excessive deliberations does not improve the quality of the hires we make. Interviewing large numbers of candidates doesn’t improve our chances either. Here are some tips that you should consider.

1.       Clearly identify what skills, education, and personal characteristics are important to you

2.      Understand that you will never find anyone that is a 100% match for what you have identified.

3.      Commit to a process internally. 

a.      How fast will you review a resume and schedule the initial interview?

b.     Who will take part in that meeting?

c.      What will happen after that meeting?

                                                              i.     Debrief internal decision makers

                                                            ii.     2nd meeting

                                                           iii.     Timeframe for all of this?

d.     When will an offer be made after satisfying your internal process?

4.      Live to your commitments to your organization for the process.

Some words to live by when hiring.

If a candidate possesses 70% or more of what you identified as your requirements, hire them.

In today’s competitive market place professionals are not “lookjng to change.” You need to give them an overwhelming reason to leave a position that they are very satisfied with and come to work for you.

Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

Time kills all deals.