Reasons Hiring Processes Feel Slow and Frustrating

My candidate has been waiting on an offer for 24 days and checks in daily with me. The firm is "working through its internal process. We finished round 2 interviews 24 days ago. You would think they have an offer out to another candidate and my candidate is in 2nd place, but I've confirmed this is not the case. Firms are moving slowly. Snail's pace. Firm A keeps posting multiple jobs but then the partners won't review resumes for months (I place here regularly so it's not a relationship issue). The internal recruiter says they can't get the partners attention. Firm B did the same thing but the partner has refused to review resumes for 12 weeks! Every single candidate (all T15) that I submitted has already cleared conflicts and started new jobs at much higher ranked firms. Firm C interviewed a candidate 3 times in person in January! Radio silence. Firm D interviewed a candidate for five hours 19 days ago. Radio silence. I'm finding some firms are posting jobs but then can't get hiring approval after extensive interviews have taken place. Other firms just have no urgency. For the record, I have placed at every single one of these firms in the last 3 years. I have relationships with these firms. If the firm posts a job, and changes their mind, take the job post down. If the firms interviews for 2 rounds and can't hire, that's fine. But they must communicate within 7-14 days max. Candidates are getting frustrated. Candidates think the recruiter isn't doing their job despite calling and emailing multiple times a week. Candidates start to question if the recruiter made up the job. Candidates are turned off by the firm's delays and lack of info. Partners are busy. I get it. I led talent for 8 years so I know there are lots of issues going on behind the scenes. But we must all do better. WHY? Candidates spend substantial time taking off of work to interview 2 and 3 rounds. Some Round 2s are 4-5 hours long for a junior associate. It's stressful trying to balance interviews and your real job. So, we've got to find a better way to get responses to candidates faster. 7-10 days is fine. 20 plus days is not. Besides emailing, calling and venting on LinkedIn, what can I do? 1. ME: Work with the law firms who move my candidates through timely. I love you Amanda! Amanda responds to every resume I send in 3 days. Yes, No or Maybe but 99% of the time it's yes or no in 72 hours. Amanda has control of her hiring partners and they have top notch internal processes to get feedback on resumes. 2. If a firm's recruiting manager or coordinator can't get the partner to review resumes within 2 weeks, you must escalate to your Chief of Talent. 3. Law Firms need to streamline their offer process. 21 days is too long. 4. Communicate with your search firm weekly. If a search firm has a candidate interviewing, a weekly update should be the norm.

A week ago I conducted a poll that asked “If you’ve been in a JOB SEARCH over the past 12 months, do you think the hiring process is taking the right amount of time?”   The poll received 330 votes & the results were as follows: 95% It’s taking too long.   4% It’s just right.  2% It’s too quick.   No surprises here—hiring companies never move quick enough in the eyes of most job seekers. If you’re unemployed, your goal is to land a great job as soon as possible. And while the hiring company should want to do likewise, it’s seldom at the pace that the job seeker would expect.     But maybe the add-on question is... WHY?   Here are a few reasons why I think hiring companies move slower than you would expect, keeping in mind these thoughts don’t apply to all positions across all industries, but I think these thoughts do have merit...   1. Many companies today are looking for people who are specialists instead of generalists. The value of being narrow & deep in experience (as opposed to being a “jack of all trades & a master of none”) can often make you a stronger candidate... but finding that “ideal specialist” often takes longer... which leads to #2.   2. The hiring company’s expectations are often ridiculously unreasonable. For example, they may have a laundry list of 12-15 key skills/achievements that candidates must have & if you don’t have all of them, you will be eliminated from consideration. I often hear from job seekers with extremely impressive backgrounds that they were a perfect fit for the position, yet somehow were ghosted or not given consideration.   3. Hiring the wrong candidate is very costly in terms of wasted time & money. Many firms take at 3-4 months to recruit/interview/hire the chosen candidate plus 2-3 months for that person to become truly productive... so when it doesn’t work out, there’s at least 6 months of wasted effort & they’re now starting the process all over again... that can be 9 months for little value. So, companies become extremely conservative with their candidate selections.   4. Let’s face it. A lot of hiring processes are broken and inefficient... & that’s even with the help of the ATS. But when 100 or more job seekers are responding to each good job opening, the inefficiencies become enormous.   So, in the Comments below, let me know your feedback &/or suggestions on how companies can improve the way they hire?   🔹 Register for my next “FREE JOB SEARCH Q&A SESSION” on Wed Aug 28th from 12:00-12:30 Central time. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS WEBINAR WITH YOUR NETWORK.    🔹 Check out my job search coaching services and the 20 webinar/workshop recordings on the NSENGinc website... membership is FREE and we have 1 member landing a new job every day.    🔹 Make sure to ring the bell 🔔 at the top of my profile to be notified whenever I post.   #jobsearch #jobcoach #joboffer #ono #gethired #opentowork #martygilbert

Your slow hiring process could be costing you the best candidates, think sprint vs marathon. (Okay let’s make it 800 meters because it’s not quite a sprint.) "You want quality? Then take your time!" Not Exactly.. Honestly....the leaders I've worked with both as internal HR and 3rd party recruiter don't "take their time" thinking it will increase quality. Here's what I've learned on my own and from leaders I've worked with.. 1. It's not about just moving faster - it's about doing the work before and having a system in place. 2. Get your team on the Same Page Before you start interviewing...this is possibly the biggest issue I see. ➡️ Hiring leader wants this… ➡️ the Hiring Leader Manager thinks X… ➡️ Each party interviews candidate, 'calibrate' to find out they are not calibrated on what they are looking for.. The job description is a laundry list of requirements sometimes from old JD's and now from AI If you list out the real requirements showing which ones are priorities and have that as part of selection process, it will save you a lot of time.  Yes...priorities may change as you get going but you have a foundation to work from. Here's what you can do..it's not easy I get it but if you take an hour upfront..you'll get hours if not days back in time.. 1. Get Ruthless with Your "Must-Haves" 🎯 Take a good look at your team. What skills do you actually need? I mean REALLY need. 🎯 Stop copying old job descriptions and get real. 🎯 Trust me - you don't need 15 requirements. Pick 3-6 that actually matter. Game changer! 2. Get Your Team on the Same Page - 🎯 If your team isn't aligned on what you're looking for... you're gonna waste time. 🎯 Nothing kills hiring speed like five different people wanting five different things. Hash it out first! 3. Create a Simple Rating System Look, we all have biases (yep, me too!). 🎯 Having a clear way to evaluate candidates keeps everyone honest and moving quick. 🎯 No more "gut feeling" hires that we regret later... I’ve seen leaders take months finding the right candidates. With some preparation you can get it to several weeks, spend less time and higher quality. What's the biggest factor impacting the speed/quality of hire? #Hiring #RealTalk #Leadership #Recruitment