Sometimes it may seem as though the hiring process takes longer than it should. And this can be a real problem when the job candidates have the upper hand—anything that prolongs the process means there is a greater chance your ideal candidate will have another offer by the time you’re ready to proceed.
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So, what can be done to speed up the recruiting and hiring process? There are a lot of ways this can be accomplished. One such option is to improve the interview process. Interviews are time-consuming—not just the interview itself but also all of the time it takes to coordinate schedules, travel (in some cases), and then repeat the process for every interviewee. It can be a bottleneck, especially if one or more interviews have to be scheduled later than others—you won’t be able to have real news for the first interviewees, who may then end up with other offers in the meantime.
Alternatives to the In-Person Interview
Let’s take a look at some of the various alternatives that could be considered:
- Video interviews. This could reduce scheduling issues because there’s no need for either side to have to factor in travel time. A video interview could still be done live, with both sides on video simultaneously. Or it could be set up for the interviewee to answer preset questions on video and then send the result to the employer to review. If choosing the latter option, note that there are even apps to facilitate the process.
- Skip straight to assessments. While this step may or may not negate the need for an in-person interview, the idea is to shake up the recruiting process by going to assessment testing immediately rather than waiting until you have a candidate (or shortlist) in mind. This stage may include skills-based tests, logic tests, behavioral tests, personality tests, etc. The potential benefit here is that the employer may discover that there are more qualified candidates for the role than it would have thought; some applicants may excel at all of the necessary assessments, even though those same individuals may have been overlooked if the traditional recruiting path had been followed.
- Project-based assessments. In lieu of an interview, for some roles, it may be appropriate to ask candidates to provide a completed project, the requirements of which are created and detailed in advance by the hiring company. This shows the individual’s skills up front and tells you a lot about the applicant by how he or she approaches the entire project. (This can be applied in various ways for different types of roles.)
- Dinner interview. While this is not exactly negating the interview altogether, meeting a candidate over a meal instead of for a formal workday interview can yield entirely different insights. It may also be easier to schedule because it doesn’t require interrupting the workday. Meeting someone for a meal shows the interviewer how that person interacts with others, such as the restaurant employees, and how that person manages a social situation, which can give more info about his or her personality. More than one company representative could attend. (Be sure to be clear up front that the organization is paying for the meal.)
- Café interview. This option is much like the dinner interview above but even less formal. These types of meetings are meant to be an icebreaker—they let you know more about the candidate’s personality up front and can be a good supplement to other items on this list.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Advisor—we’ll take a look at even more in-person interview alternatives and options.