Let’s face it...good people are hard to find. It is important for us to make sure that our hiring processes are not costing us extremely talented and dedicated personnel.
Whether we conduct the interviews ourselves, or delegate that responsibility to one of our managers, I think it is important for all of us to continually monitor our hiring practices to ensure quality. Let me share with you some of the situations that I have recently heard of prospective employees enduring.
First, be sure that the person doing the hiring knows the ins and outs of the company’s policies and procedures. Imagine that you go on an interview, let the person doing the hiring know that your main focus for taking the job is not necessarily the pay rate, but the hours and the health benefits offered by the company. Later, after accepting the job, you come to find out that your training is during hours you said you would be unavailable and the health insurance benefits that you were told started in two months, actually do not start for six months.
How many times have we all been on job interviews where we were told that a decision would be made by the end of the day and that if we did not hear from the person doing the hiring by the end of that day, we could assume that we did not get the job? I had my share of interviews back in the day and folks back then got back to you right away, but what I am hearing is that now-a-days, prospective employers are telling prospective employees this, not getting back to them at the end of the day, taking a few days to consider applicants without contacting them, then calling to offer jobs two to three days later.
Naturally, a prospective employee has other interviews and in each case, the prospective employee had taken another job by the time the person who told them to assume they did not get the job without a call by the end of the day called them back. In each case, the prospective employer lost the candidate that they felt was most qualified, simply because they did not follow through.
Keep in mind that even if you have not made a decision, if you have told prospective employees to assume they did not get the job if they do not hear from you by the end of the day, you should call and let them know you are still considering the candidates. Why would they do anything other than assume they did not get the job if they have not heard from you? All we are talking about here is professional courtesy. Make the calls in your last hour at the office, or on the way home, but do not leave people hanging...that’s just rude and translates into bad business.
Lastly, though it is important to take the time necessary to consider candidates for a position, we must also consider and understand that in many cases, the candidates are interviewing with other companies so though decisions should be thorough, we must take care not to drag out the interview process too long.
For example, one prospective employee went on a job interview on August 12th and was told that the employer was interested in hiring her, but that a second interview was required. Then, there is no word from the prospective employer until two weeks later, when on August 26th, the prospective employee is asked to come in for a second interview on August 28th, a full 16 days after the first interview. Naturally, the prospective employee had already been hired by someone else, again, a loss to the employer.
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