Why Your Competition is Hiring the Candidates You Want
Your competition is outshining your dated hiring process—here’s why and what you should do about it.
The hiring landscape has transformed. Jobs are no longer in demand—talent is. The hiring process is now driven by candidates who are asking for shorter timelines and driving greater competition across open positions. To stay ahead, companies need to improve their own hiring cycles to put the needs of potential candidates first.
As a company, are you struggling to catch the eye of skilled candidates to fit your specific roles? Are your best candidates dropping off mid-way through your hiring process? Are you consistently extending job offers that are being turned down by qualified job seekers? Don’t fall victim to a broken hiring process. Get ahead of your competition by focusing on making your hiring experience better for your candidates.
How are the companies of the future succeeding at this? We’ve compiled three insights we’ve learned from forward-thinking companies who are transforming their hiring culture.
Expediting the hiring timeline.
A multi-interview process is the norm for many organizations and a great way to get input from many parts of your team on the fit of a potential candidate. But, sometimes having your perfect candidate meet with multiple panels of people over a series of weeks can backfire—especially when the person you want to hire is actively looking for positions at multiple organizations. (It’s true! We’ve seen that oftentimes a candidate accepts a position from the first company to produce a solid offer.) You don’t want to lose your top candidate simply because you couldn’t finish your hiring process by the time they needed an offer. Keep your process concise to keep you out of a bidding war with another company. Little changes to your interviewing cadence, like hosting multiple interviews in one day, could put you in the lead for the best talent. The bottom line? If you discover a candidate that impresses you at every turn, this is your best chance to get them on board before your competition. Our team at VanderHouwen is working with a successful, multibillion-dollar international company who is leading the way in the world of hiring through trusted partnerships and a clear definition of the hiring process. Upon recommendation from our team (who has deep insight into the type of candidates that will fit in their organization), initial interviews are held in-person with the company’s hiring team. If the candidate meets the requirements and wows the team, they’ll immediately pull in the senior manager to complete the second interview. Then, a final interview is hosted over the phone with the director and a final decision is made. By being concise and deliberate about when candidates move on to the next rounds of interviews and how, their team has cut their hiring cycle down to one and a half weeks, getting the right people in the right places, fast.Being selective about the hiring team.
When your company is consistently having offers being turned down by potential new hires, it’s easy to assume that your pay range was too low, your benefits didn’t fit their lifestyle, or your position wasn’t one they saw themselves in. We’ve found that sometimes this might not be the full story—the candidate’s reaction may actually be stemmed from the people they meet throughout the interview process. Make sure you are thinking about who is on your interview panel and prepare them so they are fully aligned on the role you are looking to fill. Don’t let a negative perspective or an unclear message paint the wrong picture for a potential new hire. It’s on you and your team to court your candidate through the process! One of VanderHouwen’s clients was running into issues with their interviewing team when one of the hiring managers was given a different job description than everybody else. The manager couldn’t reconcile the skills needed to fit the position well and it showed during the interview with their top candidate. While it was a small mistake on the company’s end, this error gave the impression that their company was unorganized and, as a result, the candidate withdrew themselves from consideration. Before hosting interviews, make sure you have a meeting with all the decision-makers involved in the hiring process to make sure they’re on the same page with the role you need to fill, the proposed timeline, your thought process behind the new hire, and even the published job description.Focusing on their employer brand.
More and more companies are making the effort to define and showcase their unique employer brand to stand out in a sea of hiring companies. What makes working at your company unique? Do you offer amazing benefits? Do you foster a collaborative working environment? Does your leadership team supply clear career roadmaps and trajectories to all employees? With tools like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, job seekers are constantly on the hunt to get a look at life at your company. As an employer, be open and honest about your company culture, how your employees work, and what makes your team successful. (Taking control of your Glassdoor profile and hiring a recruiter are two good places to start!) We have seen this shift in our work as well. Our recruiting team at VanderHouwen is working with a company that has a reputation for being very traditional, antiquated, and slow-paced. Most of their hiring happens as their employees retire and their team knows they need to transform the way people see their company brand and employee culture to appeal to a younger demographic of job seekers. They reached out to our team at VanderHouwen to be their brand salesperson when it came to talent. Through our partnership, we’ve gotten deep insight into the way they work and their employee culture, which has given our team the ability to intricately understand what personalities thrive in their organizations, find strong talent to seamlessly fit into their culture, and speak confidently about why they’re such a great place to work—even when the information isn’t listed publicly on sites like Glassdoor or LinkedIn. When you make it simple for your potential candidates to jump through the required hiring hoops, it’s more likely that they will accept your job offer. Start making the hiring process work for your company by focusing on potential candidates and their experience, from the length of the hiring process to the people on the interviewing team, to your company’s overall reputation.Not sure where to start? Reach out to VanderHouwen today for deep expertise in the hiring landscape!
