Hire slow and fire fast has been proven over the years to be far more effective than mass scale hiring where headcount is opened and there is a mad dash to fill the roles. The hire slow mentality is designed to avoid missteps in hiring and not taking the time to fully assess company needs married to candidate competencies.
This methodology had its time in recruiting but in today’s hyper-competitive world, interview deep, needs to replace hire slow.
What does interview deep mean and how does it replace hire slow?
Never have we seen the executive talent marketplace so competitive which means prioritizing and accelerating hiring is critical if you are to get the best talent. EVERY DAY COUNTS. The days you are not talking to your candidate are the days another recruiter or hiring manager is. Think about that. You are wrong to assume your company is so compelling that a candidate will wait for you. They can’t wait for you. You may not give them an offer so if they are smart, they are still listening to others.
Here’s how you accelerate and go deep at the same time:
Tighten up your process and have candidates meet only with key stakeholders: This was one of my most read posts about why a candidate chose one company over another. It is because the company she chose had the stakeholders going deep, meeting with her multiple times vs. having her meet with multiple team members. If you want team members to feel they are part of the process, schedule a group interview after you have gone deep as the hiring manager and are close to a final decision.
Use Video - This last year has given us all confidence in using video meetings to interview candidates. Video accelerates the hiring process cutting down on travel time and giving us the ability to have multiple meetings, where we dive deeper each time, with the same candidates. In-person meetings are still very relevant but should be used only in the final interview stages.
Clear calendars - Great candidates also have busy calendars. They typically have full-time jobs and families, just like you. Work to move non-urgent meetings around to accommodate candidate schedules vs. pushing 2nd and 3rd interviews out for weeks. You lose momentum on the conversation and risk another potential employer calling them in between. Consider how much comes off your plate, and how much your business accelerates, when this hire is in place. Stop pushing meetings out when very little matters more than hiring when it comes to scaling a business.
Incorporate a paid project - We are massive believers in having candidates do paid projects when hiring. It enables you to go deep. Don’t make the project too big or more than a week’s worth of work but do make sure the project incorporates what you most want the candidate to solve for.
With such a competitive market, we no longer have the luxury of hiring slow. Interview deep, hire fast, needs to be the new mantra.
