How to Speed Up the Interview Process and Still Land Top Talent

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September 2, 2022 Business

The modern job seeker is tech-oriented, proficient in social media, and aware of their value. Plus, many prefer a flexible schedule and know their skills are transferable to a different employer if things don’t work out with the first option.

Therefore, companies that want to attract top talent must find ways to impress a different generation of workers with a completely different way of thinking. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.

The lengthy hiring process that used to put candidates through several hoops is not efficient. Also, it’s costly and keeps HR and hiring managers busy with unproductive tasks. So why not try to speed up the process and adjust it to the current times?

Here are a few tips to help you get rid of old interview practices and land top talent from the pool of modern workers:

Connect with Various Online Platforms

Job seekers nowadays use various online platforms to stay up to date with the job market. They do so by following various social media groups, submitting to sites like Glassdoor or LinkedIn, or browsing job boards.

As a company looking for new talent, it helps to follow the same platforms. It’s also a good idea to get actively involved by posting job ads and/or content. However, you won’t be the only company to figure this out, so you’ll have to fight for access to the best talent.

So, if you’re looking for less competitive channels, you may want to look at platforms that help people prepare for interviews (like Exponent, where job seekers go to prepare for tech interviews). If you start a collaboration with this type of platform, you’ll have direct access to a specific talent pool.

Take Advantage of Online Channels

Zoom meetings, video interviews, and virtual job fairs were a solution to overcome the lockdowns and travel restrictions of the last couple of years, but they are still around now that things have settled down.

That’s because these systems allow candidates and businesses to speed up the interviewing process. Also, businesses that use these systems have access to a larger talent pool than those that continue with old interview practices.

Of course, these systems don’t apply to all industries, but many businesses avoid using them out of fear of looking impersonal. Still, the new generations of workers feel more comfortable starting with a virtual interview than with a face-to-face meeting.

Streamline the Hiring Process

You don’t need two face-to-face interviews three weeks apart to decide whether a candidate is good enough for the job (unless you’re looking for a high-management employee). In most cases, one virtual interview and one face-to-face meeting a few days apart should be enough.

The secret is to ask questions that let you assess the candidate’s way of thinking and skills from the first interview. Of course, this is different from one organization to another, but an open discussion is often the best approach.

This may require an adjustment of the hiring process and a reevaluation of the interview process to make sure it is up to date. Also, it helps to ask candidates for feedback to understand their point of view during the interview as well.

Things Have to Change

There is a lot of chatter online and in traditional media about people not wanting to work anymore and shrinking talent pools. However, this is not the reality you find in the job market. The modern job seeker is simply more careful when choosing their career and path.

Plus, nowadays, employees have more flexibility and freedom, which is why companies have to adapt.