In a competitive market, world class candidates can pursue more opportunities, which means your interview process must prevent candidate fall out. Here are the top three reasons why candidates withdraw from the interview process, especially in a hot market:
- Extended Interview Timelines: A long interview process increases the risk of candidates receiving other offers. If the candidate waits and risks losing an existing offer, you will have to negotiate against the other offer should you decide to hire the candidate. Also, an elongated timeline can give the impression that an organization is not committed to growing and/or cannot make decisions.
- Disconnect Between Decision-Makers: When interviewers position an opportunity differently to candidates, candidates may infer instability within a company and be concerned about differing expectations for the position.
- Poor Interview Experience: A distracted, unprepared, or unengaging interviewer can give a poor impression of an organization. Candidates will be concerned about what it would be like working for the organization in the future.
10 Tips to Prevent Candidate Fallout During the Interview Process
- Keep you interview timeline to 15 days or less.
- Define the position’s goals prior to interviewing.
- Align your decision makers’ expectations up front to give candidates a clear and consistent explanation of the position.
- Prepare interview questions prior to interviewing.
- Turn off your cellphone when interviewing.
- Sell the opportunity to candidates as much as you would like to be sold on their candidacy.
- Give candidates the ability to ask questions. Answer all of questions asked of you.
- Be clear about the position’s compensation package and the candidate’s expectations.
- When you are ready, extend an offer in writing within 24 hours of the final interview.
- Give candidates a firm deadline to sign and return the offer letter.
Measuring Internal Drive: Will Your Candidate Be Driven to Succeed?
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make during the interview process is confusing a candidate’s energy for internal drive. As candidates will present the best impression of themselves during interviews, it is easy to mistake personality and energy for drive. While asking questions relative to historic performance can give you data on a candidate’s past performance, internal drive can also be measured even more concretely. When evaluating drive for our clients, we use an assessment which measures three traits which identify if a candidate will be driven for success: assertiveness, responsiveness, and intensity.
If you would like to use this as part of your evaluation process or would like to evaluate your existing team for drive, please connect with us.
