Recruitment issue: effective hiring processes

Let’s be honest: recruitment issues exist. And (sometimes) hiring processes can become a mess.

How many people do you know who have complained about not hearing back for ages after a first interview (aka hiring process taking too long), being rejected at the very end for something that should have been clear to the company from the beginning or having to interview with 9 different people before being told that “the position is being re-evaluated right now”? – ouch

Why is effective recruitment important?
Well, how you hire strongly reflects on your team/company and word spreads fast. In a nutshell, your reputation as an employer could be easily damaged. And we don’t want that, right?

Over the past two and a half years, I’ve seen several hiring problems in action and I want to help out anyone who’s planning to hire in the future to avoid a negative candidate experience with a few concrete and actionable steps to take when you start the journey to hire someone for your team.

Of course, more established companies have processes and SOPs in place for that, but these processes aren’t necessarily good. We’ve seen terrible processes with large established companies and fantastic ones with start-ups – and vice versa.
So this article really is for everyone who wants to optimize their hiring in the future.

We will discuss three common issues that prevent companies from having an effective hiring process. We will see the root causes of these problems and present a solution. Plus – this’s a real bonus – we will take a look at the job description and discover how to attract more of the right applicants at the very end.

We all have been there. Your – difficult and time/resource consuming – hiring process that’s not taking you anywhere closer to your dream candidates. Why?

• Candidates losing interest or dropping out 
• Candidates getting confused
• Candidates asking themselves – and we don’t blame them – “Why did I do this interview?”

Some common recruitment  issues causing these inconvenient outcomes:

• undefined process – so you miss a clear, structured and strategic hiring plan – don’t worry, we are here for you;
• misalignment in job description, interview or even role researched;
• repetitive, scripted, flat interviews – aka, the right people pass on your opportunities because the interviews aren’t varied enough.

Let’s see what leads to these issues and how to improve your hiring process and make talent crave to work in your team.

Time kills all deals: the longer a process, the more candidates will drop out – and the higher the hiring cost will be.

That is a mantra that every hiring manager should know – and unfortunately even a lot who do know are not following through in practice.

The longer it takes for a candidate to be hired the more unlikely it becomes that they will take the job. A common reason is that the longer it takes a company to make an offer the more the candidate feels that there is a lack of interest. Another reason is that in many cases, candidates interview with 2-3 employers at a time and if the competition simply has a faster interview process it’s first come first served. This is especially true for exceptionally talented individuals that you may target to hire.

A classic case of internal misalignment that makes your hiring process painfully non-efficient. You interview for a job but the job description not only differs strongly to what you’re being told in the interview, it also changes depending on whom you talk to! This shows that there is no consensus internally. Few candidates will be willing to throw themselves into such an environment. Especially top talent will be extremely wary of such teams.

This will also turn off candidates quickly. How would you feel if this happened to you? Bored? Unappreciated? Annoyed?
I’ve had candidates tell me that they feel not taken seriously and especially more experienced candidates will be quick to call this out for what it is: a waste of time.

What is the underlying problem? Mostly, it’s a lack of planning, more specifically, the lack of a (drumroll)…hiring plan! You see, the whole point of this article was to show how much impact a hiring plan can have on the efficiency of your process and thus, (again) on the experience your candidates have.

I won’t give a full guide here on how to write a captivating job description, there’re a lot of good resources out there already. This is our solution: When you’ve written down the capabilities and skills you want from a candidate, ask yourself “How can this person grow in the role we have defined?” – if you can’t come up with any good answers, you should seriously consider reevaluating your requirements.

So, how to transform a messy hiring process in a damn-good candidate experience leading to high quality hires?

The lack of a hiring plan is the key reason why some hiring processes take sooo long and the candidate experience is not optimal. That is, a maximum one page summary that includes three key points to give anyone involved in the interviews a high level overview – that will shrink your hiring process length like spinach in the pan.

1. Why are we hiring this position?

Many people immediately jump to writing a job description and detail what kind of person they want before they really lay out why they need to hire someone. 

Think about why this role is needed in your organization right now and what its purpose is within the team, the company and what part the role fulfills in reaching the goals and the vision of the company. This will help you immensely to define all further points in the hiring plan and ensure what you’re looking for is aligned to what you really need.

Let’s pause a minute. Just because you know what this looks like in your head does not mean you have effectively communicated this to your team, your boss and the organization at large. Write it down!

Wrap up your effective hiring plan: A go-to basic template

We almost have an award winning hiring plan ready to solve all your recruitment issues.
Wait. You are wondering about the core soft skills, right?

You can add those too. What qualities or character traits do you want the ideal candidate to possess? Think about the responsibilities, the existing team, the organization and define what kind of person would fit in. E.g: “Highly detail oriented individual”
While there are “universal” soft skills needed for every job¹ and basic employability skills you should consider, try to be as specific as possible while picking yours.

I recommend a separate section marked as “soft requirements”. I’ll explain why.
The responsibilities and the HARD requirements are the perfect basis for the job description you can post online. Soft requirements such as “strong team player”, “detail orientedness” do not belong in a public job description.

Most people will associate themselves with whatever soft requirements you write in the job description and it muddies what is actually crucial to be considered for the job at the base level. That is why I recommend keeping them separate. Share the full description internally and use only the hard requirements externally.

Finally, your hiring plan should include a short table that looks something like this:

Defining the order of interviews, what should be assessed and what timeline you are aiming for is absolutely crucial if you want to keep processes efficient and consistent.

By defining who will speak to the candidate in which order and specifying what they should assess, you will not only give a clear direction to interviewers but will also ensure that each step of the interview has a concrete and defined purpose. It will also remove a lot of stress for you! Rather than having to decide what should happen next after every interview, it will all be laid out from the beginning, letting you put your mind to other things.

With this, you have a hiring plan! Discussing this document in a 15-30 minute kick off meeting will let you see if any of the participating stakeholders have other opinions and support their preparation for the interviews they will take part in.

Are you ready to take a step forward to solve your recruitment problems and increase your hiring efficiency? We know: doing all the work is hard.

That’s why you can count on headcount. Contact us and let’s see if we can find your next biotech, pharma, medical devices or digital health talent!

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