How fast is your hiring process? Many businesses have a legacy hiring process that moves glacially slow. It can take months to gather candidates, schedule four or five rounds of interviews, and then belabor the final decision. No one has that kind of time, especially not someone who is earnestly looking for a new job.
Slow hiring can have an overall negative impact on recruiting and business results. According to Dr. John Sullivan, slow hiring can cause companies to lose most of their candidates who are in high demand during the late stages of the recruitment process. Why? Because someone else hired them faster.
Slow Hiring By the Numbers: Candidates Disappear When You Do
Most professionals don’t have a crystal ball to see where your company is in the hiring process. If you don’t contact them, they assume you’ve hired someone else. Even if your company is slow to deliberate, professionals have lives and jobs to consider. They likely have applied to dozens of companies and will only focus on those that get back to them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve interviewed or if the match is perfect when the employer fails to maintain a connection.
Let’s look at some statistics that may shed light on the problem:
- 57% of 1000 surveyed workers are most frustrated when waiting to hear back after interviews are complete.
- 25% of candidates lose interest if they don’t hear from an employer after one week
- 46% of candidates lose interest if two weeks pass without an update after an interview
- 39% of candidates will begin pursuing other opportunities when they receive radio silence.
This isn’t the fault of the candidates. They need to move forward with their job search and cannot wait forever. Especially with no updates to help them know how long their wait might be.
Losses That Occur During a Long Interview Process
When candidates disengage from recruitment, it’s not just a lost opportunity. the company also loses in productivity, resources, and revenue. In fact, a poor hiring process can even damage your company’s reputation.
Reduced Revenue and Productivity
Not only are you short-staffed during a slow hiring process, but scheduling dozens of interveiws also pulls your valuable managers and team members away from their jobs again and again, often without result as candidates find other opportunities.
Higher Recruiting Costs – In Managers, Time, and Money
The slower your recruiting process, the more it costs. Companies that lose candidates must spend more on job advertisements and candidate prospecting. Companies that hold an excessive number of interviews waste their managers’ valuable time. This can raise your overall recruiting costs to unreasonable levels.
Damage to Company Reputation
Lastly, your image as a slow decision-maker can cause you to lose many top prospects. Employer reputation matters. Soon your GlassDoor reviews will fill with reports of unsatisfying and time-wasting recruitment attempts, and great candidates may not even bother to apply.
Slow Hiring =/= Quality Hires
The final consideration is that hiring slowly does not necessarily improve the quality of your hires. A slow process doesn’t mean you will pick the best person, and more likely will lose your access to high-quality candidates whose desirability inspire faster hiring by another business. With an extended hiring process, most if not all of your top candidates will likely drop out, while the decision process is not guaranteed to improve simply by going slower.
Hiring in Preparation for 2024 Staffing
These challenges in addition to this now being the 4th quarter, will have a very negative impact on your company’s ability to hire the best people and get them in place for 2024. The slower you hire, the less likely you will be ready for the next milestone where being fully staffed is essential.
The time to start hiring efficiently is now. When it comes to hiring, it’s better late than never. If your team is not in place for 2024, you may be on the other end of this hiring process, and Mprove Sales can help.
Contact us for tools, strategies, and services that can accelerate your hiring process so you can secure high-value team members before the new business year begins.
James M. (Jim) Hale
303-697-6416
Excellent People…Superior Results
