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The Truth About Hiring Slow and Firing Fast

There is a buzz phrase that’s been going around the business world lately that you may have heard. Hire slow and fire fast. The truth about hiring slow and firing fast is that it should actually be hire strategically and fire fast. hire slow fire fast, hiring process

A well thought and planned hiring process is key to the success of your recruitment efforts.

However, if the execution of your hiring process takes too long, chances are high that your top choice of candidates will reject your offer. 

Candidates are increasingly evaluating their overall experience with a company during the hiring process. When it comes to how long it should take to receive an offer after an interview, candidates and companies are at odds. According to a recent study, job candidates expect an offer one to two weeks after an interview. The reality is that it takes an average of five weeks.

Dragging out the hiring process may give candidates a negative impression of your company and your culture. This could be a factor in the nearly 16% increase in job candidates rejecting job offers.  Or it could be as simple as your top choice accepting a position somewhere else. If you recognize them as a great candidate, your competition probably will too. 

How to hire strategically

There are steps during the hiring process you can take to ensure you are attracting the best job candidates and are keeping them engaged throughout the process. The first step is to have a process in place. Seems like a no-brainer but if you are hiring from a place of panic, this step often gets left out. You need to know the steps you are going to take to screen and evaluate candidates and your timeline before you post your job ad.

Speaking of your job posting, are you still using the traditional impersonal grocery list of hard skills and requirements? In the same way you use your advertising to attract your ideal clients, you need to use your job posting to attract the ideal candidates. Make it informative! According to CareerBuilder, candidates still overwhelmingly want to know about salary (74%) and a whopping 82% want to know where they would fit in the team and the organization as a whole.

Your amazing job posting is out there and you’re getting quality candidates but what do you do next? Our first piece of advice is to keep the lines of communication open from the start. Again according to CareerBuilder, the number one frustration of job seekers is that employers don’t respond. Even if it’s a rejection email, they still want acknowledgment. 

For the candidates that you are interested in, it’s important to let them know right away and what the next steps in the process will be. A best practice is to follow-up within three business days after every touchpoint. This will help keep the candidate engaged in the process. For more tips on keeping your candidates engaged, check out our blog “Don’t Keep Your Candidates Guessing.”

As to what the next step of screening should be, we highly recommend a one way video interview. The great thing about one way video interviews is that candidates can complete them when it’s convenient and in an environment that is comfortable to them. For employers, one way video interviews can reveal a candidate’s personality and whether or not they would be a good culture fit. They can also be shared and reviewed by multiple team members. Again, when it’s convenient. Everyone saves time.

Another great time saver is to use a phone interview. The benefits of a phone interview are similar to a one way video interview as far as convenience and flexibility.  If you’re scheduling phone interviews, be flexible with your time as well and consider conducting them outside of normal business hours. A candidate that is currently employed may not be able to find the time or the privacy for a phone interview during the day. You can learn more of our top tips for conducting a phone interview in our blog “Make Phone Interviews Work for You.” 

If you don’t want to lose your best candidates during the hiring process:

  • Progress through your hiring process as fast as possible while still doing your due diligence.
  • Communicate with your candidates consistently. We recommend within three business days of every touchpoint.
  • Be flexible both with your time and with the methods you use to evaluate candidates.

Are you too busy running your business to worry about hiring? We can work with you to formulate a hiring process, create a dynamic job posting to attract the perfect candidates, and carry out candidate screening like video and phone interviews. Learn more about how AHA! Business Consulting can help with all your hiring needs.

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