I might be biased here but I’ve always thought it strange when companies invest heavily into customer experience and satisfaction but then neglect to reply personally to their candidates, qualified or not. Most candidates are (or have the potential to become customers) champions of your product. Their experiences should be of equal importance to a company’s customers.
There’s a great need for high-impact hiring processes, and that requires a ton of planning and structure to ensure timeliness and consistency. Garnish that with transparency, creativity and a dash of fun, and you’ve got not only a good process on your side but a great experience on the candidate’s side as well.
To break it down, I think it helps to start with setting up specific, measurable and timely goals, formulated upon understanding your hiring manager’s non-negotiables, desirables, timeline, etc., and upon identifying characteristics of existing high performers. This information makes it easy to craft a clear, descriptive and culturally relevant job posting, which is crucial for attracting active applicants. Of course, having resources and a strategy for sourcing passive leads is also key (and ATS software companies such as Greenhouse and Lever do a great job at helping with this). Upon providing the hiring manager with a curated pool of QCs, you’ll then need a structured and standardized interview process (which might differ slightly from role to role).
The purpose of having “structure” is to ensure that the interviewer is always prepared, has an arsenal of powerful questions that both inspire and challenge your candidates, and gets answers to and alignment on what the hiring manager is looking for. The “standardization” part allows for apple-to-apple comparisons among applicants and ensures that every candidate walks away knowing what to expect and when. It also sees to it that you, the interviewer, are aligned with and are representative of your company’s purpose, mission, and values.
I like to think of the structuring and standardizing portion of the hiring process as being akin to running in start-up mode. It starts with a rough structure (or minimal viable product) that gets built upon, executed, evaluated, iterated, and then executed and improved upon again and again.
It’s neverending and always improving.
The final pieces of a high-impact hiring process are transparency and fun! Anyone who has ever applied for a job knows all too well the feelings of anxiety and doubt that creep in from having slipped into a black hole, where no reply or feedback is ever given from the company. Having a timeline laid out and shared with applicants so they know what to expect and when could turn the hiring process and candidate experience on its head.
The last (and my personal favorite) element is fun — the often overlooked yet integral piece to the puzzle of hiring. The hiring process should always leave space for variability in creativity and fun. Tossing in an occasional surprise and delight (whether it’s inviting them in for a chat over free lunch or during happy hour Fridays, or handwriting a thank you note for coming in) speaks volumes about who you are as a company and keeps qualified candidates engaged and inspired to join.
Note: I welcome any thoughts, ideas, and suggestions for improvement! You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, as well as LinkedIn. Thank you for reading to the end.
