Indecision - whats it costing you?
As in most things success in hiring comes down to one thing more than any other: decision making.
The recruitment process is a chain of decisions; who you want, who to shortlist, who to interview, who to offer, and whether that offer gets accepted. Along the way there are another hundred smaller calls that shape the outcome.
In our experience we see lack of decisiveness as one of the key factors in a difficult recruitment process. Every extra step, every added stakeholder, every week of delay is actually a message about how your company actually operates.
"Rigour" Is Often Just Indecision in Disguise
When organisations stack interview stage on interview stage, pull in an ever-growing list of stakeholders, and stretch out decisions in pursuit of certainty, they call it rigour.
What you call rigour can often be perceived as lack of confidence in decision making.
Some firms have quietly crossed a line where additional input stops improving the decision and starts just deferring it. That delay erodes candidate confidence in you and in your employer brand.
The modern interview process has become something of a case study in how organisational uncertainty shows up as process. Remote work hasn't helped: instead of getting everyone in a room, you end up with an ever-multiplying string of Zoom calls, each one adding time without necessarily adding clarity.
The Competitive Advantage of Decisiveness
The organisations that attract and retain the strongest talent over the next decade won't be the ones with the most elaborate hiring processes. They'll be the ones that make clear decisions, quickly and consistently.
In an increasingly complex world, clarity may become one of the most important competitive advantages any organisation can have.
What To Do About It
Audit your hiring process. Map every stage and every stakeholder involved.
Remove unnecessary steps. If a stage doesn't materially change the decision, cut it.
Create clarity on ownership. One person should own the final call.
Embed it as strategy. Make decisiveness a cultural standard, not a one-off fix.
Communicate. Make it clear from the outset how many stages there will be.
Part of our role as recruiters is to offer support and guidance. We can audit your hiring process and help you to take out un-neccessary steps and make the process fit for todays environment.
Get in touch with @The Hasson Partnership and @SineadHasson or @CatherineVaughan to find out more.
@TheHassonPartnership specialises in the recruitment of research, data and insight professionals.