Over my many years of onboarding hundreds of candidates, I have been able to see what it takes to have a successful interview process culminate from beginning to end. The ultimate goal for a hiring manager is to identify and onboard, what they believe, is the best suited person for a role on their team.
However, before we get into a successful strategy, we need to highlight the real-life challenges facing many hiring managers. It is not at all uncommon for bottlenecks in the hiring process to develop. These bottlenecks can take the shape of jobs being placed on hold; additional people being injected into the interview process as well as last-minute addition of candidates. All which have the potential effect of prolonging or even temporarily halting the hiring process. Many folks reading this article may have been on one side or the other of a similar situation!
A real-life and common enough challenge for a hiring manager is when they have identified a strong candidate that they want to bring on the team but other forces slow down or even temporarily halt the process. Naturally, a candidate who is put off by this type of situation will begin to have second thoughts about the organization or the role. They may think if things stall out that “maybe that is the universe telling me something”. Or they may hang in there for a short amount of time before they throw up their hands and move on, hedging their bets and taking another offer that was their “second choice”. Worst of all, some candidates may decide to pull out of consideration altogether for the role at hand leaving them with a poor impression of the organization. All kinds of things can go through a candidate’s mind if a hiring process is prolonged or stalled. It’s just human nature.
I have also seen firsthand when a hiring manager “allows” obstacles in the hiring process to impede their communication with a candidate by expecting HR to “handle it” or expect the candidate to keep following up with them without any proactive communication on their part. Or they simply expect a recruiter to be the communication conduit. None of these approaches are optimal. Being “busy” is a real-life issue but a poor excuse. So, in such a a case, what is a hiring manager to do?
Over the years working in the recruiting field, the most impactful thing that I have seen result in keeping a candidate engaged is the implementation of a systematic communication plan by the hiring manager. In the case where a hiring process is slowed down dramatically because the role was put on a temporary pause or halted, it is crucial that a hiring authority engage directly with the candidate. How best to engage? I have seen many different approaches, and all work well. They include things like weekly or bi monthly phone calls or Zoom meetings with the candidate. I have seen hiring managers continue the “interview process” unofficially by having the candidate meet for lunch or coffee with them and with others on the team. Informal meetings like this help provide a sense of comfort and continuity when the candidate is onboarded. Additional strategies include the successful use of text messages and emails peppered into a scheduled outreach sequence. Most important is for the hiring authority to try and put themselves in the shoes of the prospective candidate. Letting the prospective (preferred) candidate know that they are high on the list and continue to provide updates on timing and next steps in the process will absolutely win a candidate’s confidence and patience. It does seem simple but so many things can get in the way of facilitating ongoing, positive and forward-looking communication. In the worst-case scenario, a position is closed or a hiring manager will lose a candidate based on timing. However, I have also seen many times when a candidate will take away a favorable opinion of both the organization and the manager based on the consistent communication and ultimately end up on the team, even years later. The good news is, the extra effort to stay engaged, communicate and keep prospective candidates informed has no downside and will likely yield you, your team and organization positive results all around. Good luck and happy hiring!
