Is Your Long Hiring Process Costing You Talent?
Any recruiter knows that there are real consequences for recruiting in a shallow or hasty way. But there may be just as many consequences for dragging your heels while you analyze the pros and cons of every candidate you meet. The simple fact is that a long hiring process can jeopardize your efforts to find the right candidate this time, and every time after it. Here’s how:
Holes in a Workforce Only Get Bigger
You are hiring for a reason, either because you need to replace someone, or you need to grow to meet new demands; either way, the longer that vacancy goes unfilled, the greater the stress that gets put on your existing workforce. By the time you do hire someone, they might be surrounded by burned out coworkers and scrambling to catch up on neglected projects. That is not an effective onboarding strategy and only contributes to higher turnover.
The Way You Recruit is Part of Your Image
Don’t expect your recruitment strategies are private knowledge. Considering how freely information flows these days, you can bet people are talking about your overly long recruitment process and how it made them feel disrespected. As that reputation grows and spreads, it will discourage talented IT professionals from even considering you as an employer. After a while, you could find that candidate pools have become conspicuously mediocre.
Top It Talent is in High Demand
Job seekers don’t have the luxury of waiting weeks or months to hear back from you. Many of them are spending upwards of eight hours a day on their job search, and they are deeply invested in finding something as quickly as possible. If you meet a good candidate but wait too long to make him/her an offer, you could easily find that she has accepted an offer elsewhere by the time you are ready to take action.
IT Recruiting is Competitive
Top IT professionals are often weighing multiple job offers as soon as they hit the job market. If your hiring process is taking too long, it is an easy decision for them to go elsewhere. Waiting too long also makes it much more likely you will get into a bidding war because top candidates can often counter your offer with another offer they already have. If a candidate can make a positive impact at your company, act fast and bring them into the fold.
One way to streamline your recruitment efforts is to start the process with a small number of very qualified candidates. That way you can cut straight to the final decision. Working with a specialized staffing firm can shrink the size of your candidate pool while improving its overall quality. If you feel like you could be hiring better, contact the team at CultureFit.
