Driscoll: Why hiring inefficiencies can cost you good job candidates

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It happens fast, doesn’t it? You’re so eager to take on that wonderful, highly qualified candidate through the next steps in the hiring process. And then it happens. One day, they’re eagerly interviewing and the next day, they’re gone, snapped up by another company.

You’re not alone in your frustrations with this. A recent study by Robert Half showed that some 33 percent of hiring managers lost good candidates in 2023 because the processes were too slow.  And another study by PWC showed that CEOs consider hiring as the third most inefficient process that occurs across their businesses and studies show that addressing these inefficiencies can help businesses improve employee retention and profit margin.

As you know, there’s a lot to consider with hiring inefficiency—not just the number of interviews—but a variety of other factors that can cause serious delays, including the technologies your company uses to source, evaluate and connect with candidates, salary issues, job requirements, bias in the hiring process, lack of distinctive company branding and remote work preferences and more.

When it comes to the number of interviews, some experts say that fewer is generally better these days. One human resources specialist told HuffPost that if a company doesn’t know who it wants to hire after five interview rounds, “it has a broken system.”

Other experts say the fewer interviews, the better. “Some managers think they can take all the time in the world to hire because their company is a hidden gem and people would be lucky to work for them, but top performers usually don’t tolerate companies that disrespect their time,” says Nick Gausling, managing director of Romy Group LLC, a business consulting firm in Houston, Tx.

“As a manager, your primary business value is making expedient decisions in a timely manner. If you’re at least 75 percent sure you have the right person, make the offer before they walk.”

Any position that pays less than six figures should not require more than one-to-two interviews, he says, and efficient companies sometimes even hire roles like Chief Experience Officer in two to three interviews. But the key, he says, is being clear on the skills your company needs in this role and what they are willing to prioritize and pay for.

“The interview process is not meant for you to figure out what you want in an employee using someone else’s time for free. If you haven’t done the work to at least mostly know what you’re looking for, you’re in no position to be soliciting interviews.”

Along the way, be sure to train your hiring managers to view labor as a marketplace and potential employees as their customers, Gausling says. “If you don’t give them a good experience, they’ll take their business elsewhere, potentially even your competitor.”

And the ripple effects could last for years. “Even those you don’t want to hire could undermine you years down the road if they aren’t treated with respect during your hiring process.”

Alison Stevens, senior director of HR Services at Paychex, Inc agrees, acknowledging that the “candidate experience” of six-to-seven interviews with your company might be costing you candidates.

A 2022 Paychex survey found that most candidates consider more than two interview rounds “excessive” and that 33 percent of those surveyed said that too many interview rounds “is a red flag.”

As an alternative to multiple interview rounds, you might consider leveraging a panel interview model if there are “multiple stakeholders” in the hiring decision and find ways to share candidate information digitally across the company without requiring multiple interviews, she says.

Another factor to evaluate, Stevens says, is how you’re using HR automation tools to increase efficiency in hiring and recruiting. Some employers integrate their application tracking process with LinkedIn or use other tools to streamline communications. Today, an increasing number of companies are leveraging AI for candidate screening and recruitment. In a 2024 Paychex survey, some 56 percent of HR professionals reported that AI tools successfully speed up candidate screening and recruitment.

But as you integrate more tools for efficiency, you have to carefully evaluate the other side of the technology issue as well. Just as it can speed up laborious screening and verification processes, technology can be a barrier, leaving at least some candidates disconnected from the hiring process.

“The more we rely on automation to sort through the vast number of candidates, the more we get separated from relationship-building,” said Craig Fisher, talent acquisition leader and advisor at TalentNet Media in Dallas in an April 2024 interview for Society of Human Resource Management.

“The relationship between candidates making their way through the process and hiring managers and recruiters is not as tight as it once was because of the shift to virtual and automated interactions.”

As you evaluate technologies, interviews, interactions and more in your hiring processes, take the opportunity to think about some creative strategies that your organization might not have thought of before to expedite hiring. Here are some ideas from Harvard Business Review:

• Rewrite job descriptions to focus on skills and specifications that matter the most for the work, rather than relying on the generic education or experience requirements that you always use.
• Offer “micro-internships: (short-term paid projects) or apprenticeships that reach new candidate pools and allow the company and job candidates to consider fit before going ahead with a fulltime hire.
• Identify candidates who match 70 to 80 percent of the most critical skills for the job and develop a learning plan to help them with the rest.
• Host hackathons to evaluate talent and facilitate the hiring of candidates.
• Consider new ways of identifying talent on social media platforms, including LinkedIn posts and layoff lists.
• Develop partnerships with educational and community institutions to offer work experiences and curricula to build a talent pipeline.

Kathleen Driscoll writes a monthly column, “Managers at Work,” for LIBN sister publication Rochester Business Journal. She can be reached at [email protected].