As the economy recovers and hiring picks up, we are seeing candidates decline opportunities.
Sometimes they decline because they don’t like the company. Other times they decline because of the commute. The reasons vary, and even sometimes they decline because there are multiple offers at the same time. Hiring is picking up.
More often than not it is because the hiring company does not make hiring decisions with a sense of urgency. Few things waste invested time as not urgently hiring good people. Not making that connection results in compounding delays and more missed business objectives.
If you read no further, the point here is that when you find a (one) person that fits your hiring criteria, make the offer, get them on your team quickly, so they can support achieving your company’s goals. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t find reasons to delay. Good people that fit your specific requirements take time to find, will not wait forever, and are often scarce. Read on to learn more.
There is a clear difference between a sense of urgency and operational haste. Urgency defines market leadership and competitive advantage in a company.
Your recruiter is your partner, and your company’s advocate. There is, however, a limit to how long a candidate will stay available. This is a decision-making factor that drives urgency and should align decision makers to make effective decisions swiftly.
We can’t fault a candidate for accepting the job offer she has in hand over one that might not happen.
Candidate’s perspective: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.“
Candidates need an income to support their expenses and feed their families. It’s disappointing when we get the call from a candidate telling us they have received another offer. Every party has invested a lot to get this candidate to this point.
Sometimes it’s worth reviewing that effort:
- First, as a client you have developed your organizational development plan and budget.
- Then you have gone through the process to open a hiring requisition.
- Typically, the finance department must approve the requisition.
- Engaging with the right recruiter comes next, reviewing assignment contracts and fee structures.
- If your recruiter is like us, they spend dozens of hours working for you.
- Your recruiter discusses the role’s skill, experience, and training requirements with the hiring manager.
- Job competency is not enough, to find the best candidate, so they meet with human resources.
- Your recruiter writes a recruitment plan for your assignment to complement the job description.
- The recruitment plan documents behavioral and cultural fit characteristics as well as performance skills
- Candidates are screened, call after call, to find the short list of 1, 2 or 3 that fit what your company needs.
- The candidates names are submitted, candidates are prepped, and interviews are scheduled.
- The interview process invests the coordinated time of human resources, hiring managers, and the candidate.
- Often, the candidate takes time off work from her/his current job, costing them a vacation day ($).
- If there’s a call-back, a second interview investment is made.
When you look at these steps all in one list, it’s clear that there is a lot of effort going into the process from every party including:
- Human resources
- Finance and accounting
- Hiring Manager(s)
- Other interviewers
- Account managers at your search firms
- Recruiters
- Support people to set all this up
Urgency aligns decision making process to accelerate forward progress toward achieving corporate goals. Haste is making decisions too early. The saying goes: “Haste makes waste.” We are not advocating haste or waste. But at the same time lack of urgency can result in waste in terms of the effort invested to find the candidate that accepts another offer at another company – if urgency is not applied.
Companies that focus with a sense of urgency, are increasing their competitive advantage in their market with urgency. Companies that don’t recognize the value and potential waste of time and effort invested in the list above are the laggards behind the competitors that are defining the future with their urgency.
Each company is different in terms of decision making urgency, of course. Exceptional companies hire candidates quickly, making the decision to hire based on the individual candidate. That is, if all the steps above have been performed, and the candidate is a fit, they hire.
Other companies will find a candidate that fits, demonstrate how excited they are about the candidate, then ask for others to compare her to. There is a high probability that this client will lose their first choice candidate.
Barton Professional Placement offers consulting and training on the hiring process and best use of your company’s time and investment in the process. We can train your people on competency modeling, interviewing, and even the decision process. Call us today to learn more about how we can help your organization implement a sense of urgency around building the bench-strength in your organization.
