Recruiting Has Changed — Here are 6 Ways to Readjust Your Interview Strategy Now

The market has shifted dramatically in just a few months. And with the current battle for talent in full swing, employers must embrace new ways of both hiring and retaining talent. One area that employers can examine and make an immediate impact is the hiring process — specifically, their interview strategy.

Not only is it difficult enough to find eager job seekers — many TA teams and recruiters are experiencing unusually high drop-out rates during the interview process, often due to competitive offers.

To stay ahead of the competition and fill roles faster, here are 6 effective tips recruiters and hiring managers can implement today!

1. Examine Your Data to Pinpoint the Problem

Data can tell us a lot about the experiences we’re delivering to talent. In the hiring process, we can discover details like which job boards are sending the most candidates to a career site, and which content pages are the most popular.

After noticing a considerable increase in candidates leaving our interview process in just one week, our global recruiting team knew it was time to take action. This trend came well before final interviews were completed, and we noticed candidates were leaving our process early to accept other jobs.

So what did we do to fix this? We looked at our internal reporting and honed in on metrics such as time-to-hire and interview-to-hire. This enabled us to pinpoint areas in our hiring process where we could make adjustments — such as improving communication with hiring managers, getting creative with interview scheduling, and more (all of which is covered later in this post).

And we’re already seeing results!

2. Discuss Recent Trends with Hiring Managers

Constant communication is key — especially when connecting with hiring managers who are looking to fill roles fast!

Keep your hiring managers up-to-date on the current labor market so they understand why acquiring talent might be difficult now. You should also share recent recruiting metrics, as well as how your team is adjusting to overcome any challenges they may be experiencing. By remaining transparent and honest, you can find ways to better work together and even get creative in ramping up efforts to meet talent needs.

In this way, your recruiters become responsible for more than filling requisitions — they’re acting as talent advisors who can provide guidance to hiring managers and find resolutions faster. By engaging in weekly discussions with their hiring teams about the best ways to achieve results in a timely and efficient manner, they can collaborate to bring stronger outcomes without jeopardizing quality.

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3. Explore Alternative Scheduling Options

Not only is it important for recruiters to adjust their calendars for candidate interviews, it's equally important that hiring managers make extra accommodations during heightened hiring frenzies.

By encouraging off-hour interviews, such as before the day begins or after hours, you increase the likelihood that candidates will move through the hiring process faster — and ultimately, join your company if it’s the right fit. As a last resort, hiring managers should also consider weekend interviews if they're available.

Another tactic to try is blocking weekly interview times with your hiring managers. This will ensure that you always have an open spot on their calendar to schedule interviews. After all, timing is everything in the search for talent!

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4. Make the Candidate Experience Transparent

It often becomes second nature for recruiters to review the hiring experience with their candidates, outlining all of the steps in the interview process. However, in an environment where candidates are quick to take other offers, we must rethink this strategy.

Ensure candidates are aware of your timeline and receive confirmation from them every step of the way. Consider using automation to schedule interviews, which also saves time and enables candidates to move through the process swiftly.

Today’s candidates are used to immediate feedback — being transparent and over-communicating will ensure more candidates remain engaged.

5. Re-evaluate the Interview Hiring Team

Is having multiple interviews necessary to make a hiring decision? Can you eliminate certain interviews and still evaluate the skills that are necessary for the job?

Zoom/video meeting fatigue is real, and it affects candidates who spend countless hours interviewing. The fewer interviews your candidates have to attend, the more likely they’ll complete the entire interview process.

If your team cannot eliminate interviews to make hiring decisions, consider hosting panel interviews instead. By having multiple hiring managers and/or interviewers on a single panel interview, everyone saves time, while making the process more efficient.

6. Implement Candidate Experience Surveys

If you have been putting off candidate experience (CX) surveys, now might be a good time to consider implementing one.

A CX survey will reveal the highs and lows of your hiring process, and provide opportunities for everyone to learn from past experiences. It can be as simple as creating questionnaires and collecting the data in a Google Form, or conducting surveys through online tools such as SurveyMonkey.

You can then use this data to tweak your process and interview strategies so they're as seamless as possible. Ensuring your candidates have a smooth transition from one phase of the hiring process to the next makes it more likely that they’ll see the entire experience through.

The current talent crisis is affecting companies of all sizes — and employers can be proactive and adjust their existing interview strategies to come out on top. The one constant in recruiting is that no matter what the market bears, there will always be job seekers. Being agile and adapting to change will make your team stronger — and in the best position to win the battle for talent.