Last week one of our best candidates  took themselves out of the running for a job they really wanted, simply because an employer was taking too long to make a hiring decision.  Our candidate decided not to risk losing a good job by waiting for the next step in an overly drawn out hiring process.

Our client’s only response – “bummer”!

Unfortunately it happens all the time. 

Many employers don’t fully “get” the negative impact to their business for taking too long to hire – either by creating a cumbersome hiring process, or by taking too long to make the final decision.  Here’s some examples….

You can lose out on some really good candidates!

This is the obvious issue of a slow hiring process  – but an issue that needs highlighting in today’s marketplace, where the shelf life of a good candidate is calculated in hours – not days or weeks.  We’re seeing great candidates finding the job they wanted in 5-10 days – in some cases even before employers without the right recruiting technologies, know they’re available.

No matter how attractive your job posting, if you are not prepared to reach out and  interview a great candidate within 24 hours, your job opportunity is likely to get lost in the whirlwind of many faster moving competitors.

You may be systematically lowering the quality of the candidates available to hire.

We’ve all heard the phrase – slow to hire, quick to fire – but in this marketplace employers not sure this phrase holds true.    Hiring slowly just doesn’t work; making a commitment to develop rather than discard  an average or below average employee, may actually be the smarter way to keep from having too many jobs unfilled.

Employers who believe that by  “taking more time” they can  improve the quality of their hires, might want to consider reasons why the opposite may  be the case.

• The longer it takes to hire, the easier it is for those involved in the hiring process to get burned out and make a hiring decision for all the wrong reasons – mostly just to be “done with it”.
• The longer it takes to hire the more likely the best candidates will drop off, leaving only the less desirable candidates available for hire.
• The longer it takes to hire the more difficult it is to remember the “best” candidates or compare one to the other.

We never recommend that our clients eliminate steps in their hiring process, but we do recommend that it move quickly and efficiently.

A position going unfilled often means products are not produced, services are not delivered, revenues are lost.

You would be surprised to learn how many companies actually take months to hire – in most cases driven  by an inefficient or poorly executed recruiting process, but in others driven by the belief that an unfilled position actually saves them money, protecting their bottom line.

From the CEO’s perspective jobs that actually need to be filled but going unfilled almost always equates to dollars lost – each month, week or day the job goes unfilled.  The revenue losses are obvious.   In the hospital environment, for example,  if a facility doesn’t have the number of nurses it needs to care for patients they are required to refer those patients to another facility.  It doesn’t take a genius administrator to recognize that revenues suffer when a nurse opening goes unfilled

But even for jobs that are not direct revenue producers, smart leaders know that if that job goes unfilled there will be a added costs down the road to either catch up or re do work done incorrectly.

A lengthy hiring process is a costly process.  

The longer you take to hire, the more candidates you interview over a longer period of time, the more it costs your company to hire.   These are the hidden costs in the hiring process that can add up quickly – particularly if your hiring process has a lot of starts and stops.

A lengthy hiring process can impact your recruiting brand. 

With social media, and dedicated “review sites” ready to capture any candidate’s experience with your company, your hiring process is no longer a private affair.

If your slow hiring process is viewed by candidate’s as overly cautious or cumbersome, your company’s reputation as an employer or even as a business will be impacted.  We see it all the time – “If they are going to take that long to make a hiring decision, what will be like to work for them?”

And make no mistake, a series of bad reviews on glassdoor.com about how candidate’s experience your lengthy and /or frequently stalled hiring process will impact the type of candidates willing to come forward in the future.

Don’t forget the impact on CURRENT EMPLOYEES….

…..who are often the ones left to pick up the pieces when a job goes unfilled. Some of the comments we get from employees who are currently working but looking for a job change, reflects their concern about positions going unfilled.  Too much to do.  Not enough resources.  Ineffective management.

On the surface, the need to create a quick easy hiring process  might seem like a no brainer.  In reality, its not always that easy.  There are important steps in an effective hiring process that have to be done or you run the risk of a hiring mistake.  Most employers do their best to move quickly, but everyone’s busy.

This blog is written for employers who need a reminder of what’s at stake if their hiring process is periodically stalled.  Its also written for employers whose hiring process routinely takes more than  3-4 weeks.  How you recruit or the urgency you attach to the hiring process may need an adjustment.

If you’re an employer who is concerned that you don’t have the resources in place to hire quickly, we can help.  In addition to our full cycle recruiting services,  our HIRING HELP service option includes a menu of hiring tools or services that can help you speed up your hiring process while developing more confidence in your hiring decisions. 

To learn more contact us at partnerservices@pacestaffing.com or give us a call at 425-637-3312.

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PACE Staffing Network is one of the Puget Sound’s premier staffing /recruiting agencies and has been helping Northwest  employers find and hire the right employees for over 40 years.

A  3 time winner of the coveted “Best in Staffing” designation , PACE is ranked in the top 2% of staffing agencies nationwide based on annual surveys of customer satisfaction.

PACE services include temporary and contract staffing, temp to hire auditions, direct hire professional recruiting services, Employer of Record (payroll) services, and a large menu of candidate evaluation and reference check services our clients can purchase a la carte.

To learn more about how partnering with PACE will make a difference to how you find and hire employees,  contact us at 425-637-3312 or e mail our Partner Solutions  team  at partnerservices@pacestaffing.com.