Many businesses are finding it notoriously difficult to find good candidates for their vacancies in this current market. If they are successful in getting candidates to an interview, rather than tempting them to join the business, it is sadly often the case, negative interview experiences are putting good candidates off. This can lead to businesses feeling under pressure to recruit the wrong candidate!
Getting turned down when you are offering a great employee a job is never fun but in this tight market, it is an increasing fact of life. Losing good candidates to competitors is certainly not ideal and in a candidate driven market, it is more important than ever for businesses to get their recruitment and interview processes right and make a great first impression.
Why is this happening?
We often assume the candidate is at fault, not the interviewer. Of course, there are plenty of candidates with poor interview techniques out there, but recruiting managers are not perfect either. A lot of interviewers have poor interview techniques too and many of them don’t even know it.
Common feedback received from candidates for why they did not accept an offer include:
- unprepared interviews
- inexperienced interviewers
- interviewers coming across as distracted, or uninterested
- inadequate questioning and listening techniques
- feeling rushed, not listened to or given the opportunity to ask questions
- not selling or promoting the opportunity or company to make it appealing and attractive
So, it is a good idea to take a look at your own recruitment processes and think about your interview approach from the candidate’s perspective. Maybe ask the question, do the recruiting managers need further training?
So what?
Poor interviewing techniques can not only lead to bad candidate experiences and to top-talent dropping out of the process, it can also lead to negative employer branding. Ultimately, it can also lead to low-quality recruitment too, which is costly and time consuming for any business. A business loses more than time, money and effort by recruiting, on-boarding and training candidates who perhaps should not have been recruited in the first place. The business also has to deal with the havoc the “wrong” employee can create. It can be faced with problems when the individual incorrectly interacts with customers, for example; or can incur additional costs when they have to repeat procedures which were handled incompetently, which in turn puts pressure on other employees who must sort out the problems or pick up the slack. But the cost doesn’t stop there.
Consider the expense and hassle a business must face when they have to cut their losses and dismiss a candidate who turns out not to be right for the role. In the long run, it’s more difficult for a business to accommodate a poor performer than it is to invest in recruiting the right candidate.
This can directly impact on existing employees too as it can trigger low morale and engagement throughout a business, resulting in higher employee turnover rates and/or plummeting productivity levels.
What can you do to fix it?
If a business enhances the interviewing skills of their managers and revises their overall recruitment process to improve the candidate experience, they may just find instead of the dreaded “no”, the candidate of their dreams may well say “yes”.
If you would like to provide your managers with the training to give them the right skills and knowledge to interview successfully and stop more good candidates getting away, we are running interviewing skills workshops. Please visit www.emphasis.uk.com for further details and to book a space.
In addition, if you would like advice on your recruitment processes please contact hello@emphasis.uk.com
