Dear Barb:
Is it me, or are clients taking forever to make a hiring decision. I just lost two candidates who had completed final interviews because my client didn’t make a decision. One took another offer and one got a promotion at their current job. I don’t think these employers realize what we go through to find top talent.
Sharon S., Omaha, NB
Dear Sharon:
Employers don’t care what you go through to find top talent. At best, when you provide written expectations to them, you show them what they can expect of you. You then show them what you need from them if you are going to succeed in attracting the top talent they want to hire, always stressing the benefits to them.
Time always kills deals, but delays are often caused by one of the following:
- Another issue at work is now their top priority, not this hire.
- Your candidates are okay, they are still interviewing others.
- The target date to fill is a different time frame than yours.
- The final person wants additional credentials not listed on your job order.
- Additional referrals of candidates have delayed the process.
You can avoid most of these by doing the following when you write an order:
- Obtain a specific target date to hire;
- Email a copy of your job order to every person in the interviewing process to get their approval. (Fifty percent of the time, our clients make changes, often major ones.);
- Back fill candidates that are eliminated and keep working the search until you close the placement.
When you send in a rock star it’s interesting how often the interview process is actually shorter than anticipated. Focus on what you can do different to alleviate this problem in the future. If you had continued to work this search, you would not be starting from scratch. You would have additional candidates to submit.
Barbara J. Bruno, CPC, CTS