Too Many Interviews? Why You Really May Be Losing Executive Candidates

How many interviews are too many? Additionally, what is the interviewing timeline and how many people are involved in the decision? Slow hiring processes damage your recruiting and leave you with less effective candidates.

Here’s why you may be losing executive candidates in your hiring process.

Too many interviews. For mid-level management positions, three interviews is standard in most professions. Typically, there is the phone-screening interview, usually conducted by human resources or a recruiter. The second interview is usually the meet and greet with the hiring manager and perhaps one or two other stakeholders. The third interview usually means you have made the final cut and there could be a job offer soon.

For technical candidates, in addition to the standard three-interview process, there often is a skill-assessment test. Some companies also encourage team or peer review as well as a leadership meet and greet.

The problem with the typical three-plus interview system is you are stretching the hiring process from one to two weeks to three to eight weeks. If your top candidate is interviewing with you, you can bet they are interviewing elsewhere too. Often the top candidate will receive and accept another offer just as you’re planning on calling them back for interview two or three.

The simple solution is to use the resources of an experienced recruiting company like ASB Resources. Let the recruiter do all the screening, including phone, technical skills and employment verification. Your recruiter can narrow the candidate pool to a handful of qualified executives, allowing your company to condense your hiring process to one or two interviews.

Too many people involved. Employee buy-in is important, but often it is at the expense of dragging an executive candidate to a ‘team’ interview, when everyone at the table knows their opinion doesn’t really matter. Be honest with yourself and with your company, if the ultimate decision is up to the CEO or VP, leave the team out of the interviews. You can get a second opinion from a fellow executive who will interact with your candidate.

Stop asking for free consulting. Don’t ask your top candidate to provide a six-month business plan or a list of prospects they will contact in the first three months. This is not ethical and your company will quickly get a bad reputation for trying to get free consulting.

Too long of a timeline. It’s interesting how some companies think a slow hiring process will produce a better candidate pool. The opposite actually happens. The top candidates come and go quickly. The candidates that can wait three months, are not the top candidates – or they would have gotten another job by then.

Slow Hiring Damages Your Brand.

The appearance of slow decision-making damages your hiring results because many top prospects and candidates view the long time it takes a firm to reach a hiring decision as systematic of your corporate culture. Most top talent executives are fast and accurate decision makers, it is highly likely they will view slow hiring decisions as an indicator that once on the job, business decisions will be made just as slowly.

Fast Track Your Executive Recruitment

Now is the time to partner with a recruiting agency like ASB Resources to reduce the standard three interviews to one or two very strategic meetings. Contact our staffing experts today!