We have noticed a trend in hiring recently that has surprised a few employers. During the recession, businesses added several steps to the process of hiring or just took more time in the process because they wanted to pick only the best. Now, some employers are losing out on the best employees by being too slow.
This problem is especially pronounced in a few skills that are in very short supply like technology, medical, and others. If you are recruiting a high demand skill, you still want to carefully review the candidates, but you also have to move quickly because the best of the best are gone in a hurry.
This means that you need to have a fully defined process that eliminates any unnecessary steps and allows you to move efficiently through that process. For example, if you are going to have two people interview the same person for the position, then either consolidate the interviews or schedule them back to back so the applicant does not have to return for a second interview.
Examine your screening process and make sure you get all the information you need to make a good decision but nothing more than that. If you take information to run a credit check but never really intend to run the check, then drop the form!
A parallel trend is that for some positions, we are seeing very limited qualified candidates available. This means longer recruiting periods for those positions, and the need for more creative ways to find candidates. That includes reaching out to networks to find candidates who are already working but open to making a change.
What this means is that you cannot take recruiting for granted, and assume you’ll immediately find that great candidate, or that you can take your time screening them once you do. A well defined, but efficient process is essential.