Yes, this is a dramatic headline designed to catch your eye, but it pretty much sums up the recruitment market at the moment.
We need employers to REALLY sit up and take notice. The race is on, and employers who are slow to change their thinking and their processes are missing out.
In recruitment terms, things have changed, considerably in recent times and it’s getting harder! We’ve been talking about a ‘candidate driven market’ for the last few years, but the message is slow to get through to employers. Or, perhaps it’s the understanding of what it means that is missing.
Unemployment is at a record low across the UK but particularly in the South – job opportunities are high – meaning that candidates can pick and choose the best opportunities – they are in the driving seat. So, it is up to employers to be the most attractive they can be. Not only in terms of their offer and package, but also in terms of their processes; right from the outset of advertising a job, through to making that all important job offer.
In January 2019 there were a record 24 million full time jobs advertised in the UK and only 1.37 million unemployed – this is 68,000 less people than a year ago.
Smarten up the interview process
So, in this article, we’re identifying areas within the interview process where we think employers need to smarten up their thinking;
Ok, so we’ve leapt over several stages of the recruitment process to get to this point, but let’s just assume for now that all the hard work of writing a great JD, advertising, screening, sifting and shortlisting has been done and et voila here we are with a list of candidates ready and waiting for an interview… (if only it were that easy!)
Our advice for employers when it comes to planning their interview process is this…
- Identify your real business needs, determine what meeting those needs successfully, actually looks like.
- Avoid wasting time with lengthy processes that are unnecessarily time consuming – candidates will not stick around for this, someone else is likely to be putting them through a far slicker process, that is more attractive and less time consuming. Speed and professionalism are critical here.
- Don’t throw in a surprise, be transparent about the process they will go through up front, so they can choose to enter the process or not. Your job is not to trick them to see if they can take it, your job is to identify if this person is the right fit for your business.
- Think about your business culture, your interview process should mirror it completely, so the candidate is buying into a true presentation, not a false start.
- Research your candidate – you expect them to do the same about your company, so it’s pertinent for you to do the same with them. Spend time with their CV, follow their career path and read between the lines. View their LinkedIn profiles – do their values and interests align with your companies? Know as much as possible ahead of time, this shows due diligence, but also allows you to have a great conversation at interview with someone that you barely know.
- Employers who are flexible and accommodating to the availability of the candidate have more success that those who aren’t. Rigidity in terms of interview days and times restricts your pool of available talent. Remember this candidate is probably already in a job role, so will find it tricky to get time off at short notice. Consider before and after hours interviews to widen your audience.
- Structured questions are essential, it’s reasonable to assume you will use a set of specific questions for each candidate you will see, however, the best interviewers listen hard to answers, and pick up markers for further probing questions. So, be prepared to go a little off piste. A long list of tedious questions can switch an applicant off. Make the interview a conversation, not an examination.
- The interview is about them not you, keep the conversation 90% them, 10% you (less if you can manage it).
- Be clear about next steps in the process, when and how long any next stage interview will take place and what will be expected, tell them in advance if tests are required, don’t surprise candidates with this on the day.
- Follow up with every candidate, failing to do so is rude and unprofessional. Candidates won’t complain to you about this, but they will complain about you to others. This has a negative effect on your brand reputation.
To summarise, candidates want employers to be authentic, to show integrity and to be completely transparent. An efficient process is an absolute must (employers must speed up the process), with personal and functional communication (make sure your online processes are slick and not onerous).
A recent Hays report shows these interesting statistics:
- Cumulatively, 71% of applicants would consider abandoning their application if the process took longer than 15 minutes. Employers on and offline processes are too long, deterring candidates from completing their applications
- Applicants rate editing and submitting their CV as 90% important whereas employers’ rate this at only 41%
- 63% of candidates say the people and culture of an organisation is the single most important consideration when deciding whether to apply or not
- 61% of applicants have been discouraged from applying to a job after reading negative reviews online
- Poorly organised interviews is the reason for a low satisfaction rating at the decision stage
An article by Helen Stacey – Aspire Jobs
Aspire Jobs is a boutique recruitment agency, serving Dorset, Hampshire and further afield, run by founder Helen Stacey. Helen would be happy to discuss any aspect of her article and can be contacted by email helen@aspirejobs.co.uk