Our whole firm has been trying to tell companies and hiring managers for the past ninemonths, maybe more, that you’re going to lose good candidates and you take too long to decide. Most hiring companies and authorities often have a tendency to think that it’s “recruiters speak.” They have a tendency to think that we’re just telling them to make a decision and move faster on our candidates.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve seen eight recessions and it works this way every single time. After the recession more or less ends and there are a lot fewer candidates on the marketplace hiring companies still have big egos and think, “Well, that won’t happen to us… We’re such a good company everybody will want to go to work here…. and besides, we don’t want to make a mistake and we have to keep these umpteen steps in the interviewing process because, well, it’s us and we’re special.”
This goes on for about six months until folks start losing people right and left because other companies are hiring them faster. Last month, for instance I worked with an organization that bragged about cutting their process down to 10 business days. They told me when we started that they could interview and hire within 10 days. Of course they lied. The person that made this promise didn’t take into account some of the interviewing and hiring authorities having to go on vacation, get sick, travel and all the things that happen to people. They found a candidate they were absolutely in love with and while they were trying to get everyone in the queue to interview the guy, he got interviewed and hired by another firm within three days. They simply told us they can’t move that fast. Okay, but you lose good people this way.
This whole message can be summed up by this email that I got from the client today. I wrote and reminded them that if they dragged their feet too long they would lose a candidate and here is what he wrote back:
“Thanks Tony, this is book, our new normal…most candidates have multiple offers and we’re seeing coin flips. And, yes, we’ve lost a couple that way.”
I can’t say it any better than that! You don’t just have to listen to me!
