01 Feb Is Your Hiring Process Crippling Your Ability To Acquire Top Talent?
A Sr. Project Manager (Highway Design-Build) we recently placed emailed me the following message last week:
“Thank you Matt.
Definitely keep in touch.
You got me an amazing job in 5-days.
First interview was last Friday 1/15 and second interview was Monday 1/18.
Two days later (1/20), my offer letter was accepted.
Whatever YOU are doing, keep it up!”
As much as I’d like to take all the credit for this, the bulk of the credit goes to our client who was able to move swiftly.
Our client is no small firm, mind you, they are a 600 person consulting civil engineering firm.
Many firms tend to jump through hoops, battle red tape, and kick the can down the road before coming to a hiring decision.
The hiring manager and his team were prepared for the interviews. They actually reviewed the resume, came prepared with targeted questions, listened intently, and put forth the effort to share their feedback amongst themselves within just a few hours of each interview.
No waiting until the next staff meeting to review candidate interviews.
No looking at each others’ calendars only to determine they could not even swap notes for another 10 days.
No hesitation in tracking down references.
No putting the candidate on the backburner in order to buy time to compare to other potential candidates.
No half-hearted offer trying to save a few grand.
They liked what they saw and they pounced!
Why is this important? Well, when it comes to the successful recruitment of civil engineering professionals, we continue to find ourselves in a candidate driven market. Our candidate actually had three other firms who commenced their interview process around the same time as our client. As the other three firms dilly-dallied around, our client was taking action, crippling the competition’s ability to reel in the candidate.
Our client was firm, thoughtful, and decisive, and that made a strong impression on our candidate. The other firms were left in the dust. Now, a five day interview-to-acceptance is mostly unheard of, and this was probably our fastest placement in the 24 years I’ve been recruiting, but the message remains the same.
For those of you in hiring positions, I encourage you to evaluate the speed of your interview process so YOUR days of being left in the dust are in the rear view mirror.
No Comments