Sep 17, 2014 | Blog

4 Questions to Uncover Why You Aren’t Hearing “Yes”

Acquire the Right Talent

People decline job offers for numerous reasons. Many are beyond an organization’s control, but your hiring process isn’t one of them. If you’ve been rejected by candidates who could have made a positive impact on your organization, it’s time to look inward and examine your hiring process. You may need to make changes to this all-important talent acquisition workflow. We conducted an independent survey of 200 individuals who turned down a job offer in the last six months. About one-third agreed or strongly agreed that the reason they declined the job offer was primarily due to their experience during the hiring process. So even if you have focused on creating a superior hiring experience, it’s always a good idea to re-evaluate periodically with these types of questions:

  1. Did you take too long? If you were slow to get in touch with candidates, or the whole process dragged on longer than it should have, they may have simply lost interest in your company and accepted a job offer elsewhere.
  2. Did your interviewing team put their best foot forward? If candidates sit and wait for the interviewer to arrive or don’t come well-prepared, your team is making it easy for your candidate to run the other direction. According to a survey of active job seekers, 80% of candidates are left with a negative impression if the interviewer is more than ten minutes late1.  And in a separate survey, nearly 75% of job seekers said they can tell within the first few minutes if the interviewer is not well prepared2.
  3. Did you require candidates to participate in multiple rounds of interviews? Speed and efficiency are paramount when creating a positive interview experience. Many people view traveling to multiple interviews as a waste of time and resources. In fact, the tolerance for participation in multiple rounds of interviews is lower than you might expect. Research indicates that more than two-thirds of candidates will adopt a negative impression of your company if you bring them back for more than three rounds of interviews3.
  4. Do your interviewers know how to engage candidates? The people who conduct interviews need to walk in with a few defined goals beyond the obvious. They need to be your firm’s most polished representatives. They need to be skilled at creating a two-way interaction that leaves the candidate with an authentic vision of the work environment. Think of the interview as a new business pitch and make sure you are using your “A” team.

 

Become a Talent Magnet

Companies who want to be an employer of choice need to understand that in today’s economy, the interview process is a two-way street. Candidates with niche skills or a track record of high performance have many options for their next career move, and they are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them.  The sooner your hiring process reflects this new balance of power, the sooner you’ll start hearing “Yes.”

Notes

1.       Written by Montage and conducted using Google Consumer Surveys, October 2013.

2.       Written by Montage and conducted using Google Consumer Surveys, October 2013.

3.       Written by Montage and conducted using Google Consumer Surveys, October 2013.