Headline, November 12 2021/ ''' '' WORRYSOME - PROCESSES - JOBS '' '''

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PROCESSES - JOBS '' '''

John Sullivan, a Silicon Valley-based HR thought leader, says companies should nail down a hire-by date from the start of the recruitment process, because the best candidates only transition the job market briefly. And, as Conley’s experience shows, drawn-out interview processes can impact negatively on candidates’ interest in the role.

According to a survey from global staffing firm Robert Half, 62% of US professionals say they lose interest in a job if they don’t hear back from the employer within two weeks – or 10 business days – after the initial interview. That number jumps to 77% if there is no status update within three weeks. 

Paul McDonald, a Los Angeles-based senior executive director at Robert Half, says that the average time-to-hire in the US has ebbed and flowed in recent months. It was elongated for much of 2020 and early 2021 due to the pandemic when companies were often “breadcrumbing” – or stringing along – candidates. Now, he says, it’s become more consolidated: If anyone is still breadcrumbing today, “they’re risking losing candidates because there are so many opportunities [for them]”.

Not only that, they may also be tarnishing their reputation. Some 26% of respondents to the Robert Half survey said they would leave a negative comment anonymously on review sites if they felt like they were being strung along, potentially harming the chances for the company to attract top talent down the road.

Of course, companies may not be stringing candidates along on purpose. Final approval for recruitment may be delayed because of shifting bottom lines or unforeseen circumstances beyond the company’s control – potentially moving the recruitment goalposts. If valid reasons aren’t communicated clearly, however, that may be a red flag for jobseekers.

McDonald says that if a company is indecisive, it can provide a candidate with crucial insight into its culture. “If the decision-making process is this difficult for the organisation – if they’re not able to pull the trigger after three or four interviews and you’ve done everything asked of you and they’re still unsure – then that’s a key indicator of what it might be like to work for that organisation and those managers,” he says.

These complicated processes are actually making quality candidates go elsewhere – Mike Conley

Interview fatigue affects both candidates and managers, so McDonald says candidates shouldn’t be afraid to ask for more details about the motivation for additional rounds, especially if it will be tricky for them to take more time off from their current job. “If you have to bow out, bow out gracefully,” he adds.

‘Building bad processes’

That’s exactly what Conley, the job-seeker in Indiana, did. He never published the name of the company on his LinkedIn post, and his considerate commentary ultimately paved the way for a silver lining.

A LinkedIn user who saw the post referred him to the CEO of a start-up helping students enter the workforce. After four interviews, he landed a job in early July as its VP of Software Engineering (both a higher position and pay grade than he’d targeted just a few weeks prior). Thanks to the attention, Conley is also making a podcast about hiring practices and has been offered some consulting gigs to help companies avoid interview processes like the ones he experienced.

Conley says he wishes he had been bold enough to take a stand earlier in his job search, “but it took me a while to value myself to get to the point I’m at now”. After all the hoops he’s jumped through in recent months, however, he still believes companies are trying their best.

“They’re really worried about picking the right candidates, but in building in that worry, they’re building a process that doesn’t allow them to get to the candidates they thought they were going after,” he says. “These complicated processes are actually making quality candidates go elsewhere.”

The World Students Society thanks author Mark Johanson [BBC].

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