If you’ve ever been a job seeker, you likely remember how uncertain the job search process can feel. Candidates have to navigate a lot of unknowns, from whether or not they’ll get an initial response to how the interview process will be structured.
One factor that’s especially hard to predict in 2024? The amount of time an interview process will take.
Forbes reports that the average job search can take anywhere from two to six months, according to data from career experts and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They note, however, that an executive search often takes even longer — anywhere from four months to a year.
For candidates, much of this time is spent in interviews. While it’s reasonable to expect several rounds of interviews for a leadership role, there IS a point of diminishing returns.
One leadership candidate told HR Magazine that she had gone through an interview process that was more than nine rounds long. “Three interviews turned into six, which turned into nine, and by the end of it, a marathon of 13 stages,” she told the magazine. “I didn’t get the job. But by then, I didn’t want it.”
When an interview process is overly drawn out, organizations risk losing great candidates to time. Today, we’ll look at a few of the reasons interview processes can run long, and what organizations can do to expedite the hiring process.
What contributes to an overly-long interview process?
- Caution – HR departments want to be sure they are hiring the right leadership candidate. Because leaders play such an important role in an organization, an abundance of caution is usually taken when vetting potential candidates.
- Lack of Resources – When an HR department is stretched thin by other responsibilities, time can get away from them. The amount of back-and-forth that goes into scheduling interviews can lead to lag times and overly drawn-out interview rounds that take weeks for a busy team to schedule, instead of a few days.
- Complicated Processes – Sometimes, an organization may have an overly structured interview process that slows things down. Usually, the intentions behind this process are good. It indicates a desire to thoroughly vet candidates and allow them to meet multiple members of the team. But if candidates are fatigued by their fourth or fifth round of interviews, they may drop out of the process all together.
What can organizations do to shorten the interview process?
Some slowness is inevitable when you’re hiring — finding a quality candidate takes time. However, there are a few things organizations can do to streamline their process if they are losing good candidates to other opportunities.
1. Review data from past hiring searches. It’s often only in retrospect that we can see a situation clearly. In a famous 2016 study, Google cut its 12-step interview process down to 4 steps after finding that “four interviews were enough to predict whether someone should be hired at Google with 86 percent accuracy.” In other words, make sure each round of interviews is significantly contributing to the process. If your team tends to be sure about someone after three or four interviews, as opposed to five or six, it may be time to cut down on your process.
2. Ask for support. It’s not always possible for HR departments to increase their bandwidth — but it’s still worth asking the question. Is it possible that your team might benefit from another full time recruiting employee? Can your team pause projects in other areas to focus most of their energy on hiring for a month or two? Even small shifts that create space for current talent searches can significantly cut down on lag time for candidates.
3. Work with an outside partner. If you’re unable to hire additional internal help, external partnership may be the best solution. An independent recruiter can help facilitate interview scheduling and follow-ups with candidates. More importantly, they provide an impartial, outside view on how long your interview process is taking compared to other organizations. This gives your team key insights into how competitive you are in the market so that you can stay engaged with quality candidates.
Your team is putting so much time, energy and effort into finding the best next candidate for your organization. The last thing you want, after spending all that time and effort, is to lose a candidate to timing. The next time you need to fill a critical position, consider ways to make the interview process both thorough and time-effective for everyone involved.
For more insights around healthcare leadership, subscribe to Lauren’s LinkedIn newsletter, Leading in Healthcare. Lauren Bencekovich is the founder and Managing Director of Lauren Recruiting Group, a boutique healthcare recruiting firm that matches healthcare executive candidates with hospitals and health organizations. Looking for an outstanding C-Suite candidate? Visit our contact page to schedule a 30-minute intro call with one of our team members. We look forward to connecting and matching you with a top-tier candidate!