Interviews are getting longer!
With a shortage of highly skilled, highly experienced candidates on the market, you might expect business would be keen to make quick appointments to secure the available talent.
But we’ve seen a trend over the last 12 months, that with some of the more established leisure operators, the interview process is actually becoming longer. Some candidates are even going through five or six stages including interviews, assessment centres and profiling over periods of up to six months.
There is an argument to say that employing a long and meticulous process engages candidates more effectively, gets them bought into the business and ensures that people really want to work for the business. Many operators will say that “if they want to work for us enough, they’ll wait.”
And that works in theory, but does it work when there is such competition for talent? We can talk from experience of candidates who have withdrawn from interview processes at the latter stages because another business has moved faster and made an offer.
Are businesses taking an arrogant approach and burying their heads in the sand? Placing all of your faith in your employer brand is a brave move in this climate.
Or do businesses need to change their recruitment strategy to reflect the current market?