How do you know when your interview process is too much?
A screening call with a recruiter. A video interview with the hiring manager. A series of interviews with company leaders and peers. Another interview with the hiring manager. Is it just me or are interview processes getting longer and, frankly, excessive? Here are my guiding principles for designing an interview process, whether I’m filling an entry-level or a C-Suite position.
1) Design the interview process BEFORE you start gathering candidates. If you “make it up” as you go, steps can get added, extending the process unnecessarily.
2) Value the candidates’ time. Recognize that they likely have a full-time job, and you will only hire one person at the end of the process. Limit the number of times you bring them in to interview. For entry-level jobs, one trip is appropriate. Three should be the maximum for the highest-level roles.
3) Ensure your process captures what the organization needs to make a decision as well as what the candidate needs. This can include:
An interview with key decision maker(s)
A tour of the work environment
A work preview for the role, if needed. This should be limited and not require more than 30 minutes of preparation time for the candidate. For example, for a training job, an assignment might be to prepare a 15-minute training on a basic task. Make the expected time investment clear to the candidates. Asking for a presentation on the company or a request I saw recently that asked candidates for a full-year marketing plan is excessive in nearly all instances. If you must ask for a time-intensive preview, make it a paid exercise.
4) Keep the interviewers to decision-makers. Including others can confuse the process and make it harder to reach a consensus.
5) Condense the timeline to keep the process moving. With advance planning, you can adjust for other commitments (peak business times, vacations, etc.) and manage the selection process around those events without stretching it out.
Above all, never lose sight of the impressions of your process that candidates walk away with. In today’s social-media-driven world, candidates have multiple avenues to share the good and the bad. When you design a process that puts respect for the candidate at its center, you won’t go viral for the wrong reasons!