Speed or Nothing: Hiring Managers Need to Act Fast or Lose Their Candidates

One year ago, we found ourselves writing a lot about just how low unemployment rates had gone in the United States. It had been fifty years since the rate of unemployment aid applications was as low as it was in January 2019. This was representative of a phenomenon I like to call “the gator jaw,” in which the gap between open jobs versus unemployed workers was so wide it looked like the wide-open mouth of a hungry alligator. For employers in any industry, including the outdoors and active lifestyle industry where Highline Outdoor Group operates, that meant it was going to be harder than ever to stand out from the competition and attract executive talent. With so few people looking and so many opportunities, it was truly a candidate’s market.

Now, at the start of 2020, I’d love to be able to say things have changed in the favor of hiring managers desperate for their next great hire. But based on what I’ve witnessed over the past year, the exact opposite is true. Unemployment remains low, and candidates at every level, not just in the C-suite, are exhibiting behavior we haven’t seen since before the market crash of 2008. Candidates in today’s hiring market know they have options, and it’s taking a lot more to convince them to make a change, or to choose one employer over another.

The Problem: Lost Momentum in Scheduling Interviews

We’ve published several articles lately with the sole purpose of helping hiring managers in this incredible industry improve their hiring processes to land their top choice at the end of an exhaustive search. We’ve touched on everything from building a truly remarkable candidate experience to combatting the allure of a last-minute counteroffer.

But here’s the thing: Those strategies mean nothing if you aren’t prepared to fully capture the imagination and attention of your candidates. An efficient hiring process is built on momentum, and you simply cannot afford to let your momentum wane after you’re made contact with candidates.

Case in point, I recently watched a hiring manager seriously struggle to progress candidates towards final interviews and it all came down to scheduling. After four weeks of candidate flow to identify who they’d like to speak with for initial interviews, they realized they would need to get a number of executives in the office at the same time in the coming weeks for on-site interviews. But, as is often the case with executive schedules, finding that magic time proved more difficult than expected. For many candidates who had made the first cut, there was a 30 to 40 day waiting period by the time interviews could be scheduled.

It’s a candidate’s market, after all, and those 30 days made all the difference. It was plenty of time for some candidates to get in and interview with other companies before taking new positions. Others lost interest altogether. The result? Another month at least before a vital position could be filled as attractive candidates continued to slip away.

The Solution: Start Scheduling Five Weeks Out

Fortunately, this all-too-common issue of lost momentum is one that can be remedied easily. The best advice I can give is this: The moment you begin a search, start blocking out time for interviews. Start five weeks out and work backwards from there as you structure your hiring process. Coordinate with any stakeholders who will need to be present for an interview and block off a Monday or Friday (easier for candidates to coordinate travel!) five weeks into the future. That will give you three weeks to engage and review potential candidates, conduct phone interviews, and invite your top choices in for their interview. The best-case scenario? Your best candidate makes it in just a week or two after a successful phone interview and you close the deal fast. Worst case? You don’t have enough time to nail down your final batch of candidates and some executives suddenly get a free hour or two in their schedule. I don’t know any executive who would complain about that.

If you’re planning for a new hire in early 2020—executive or otherwise—this is the best possible time to put a plan like this into motion. With a new year underway, most of the candidates you’ll want to talk to will have received their annual bonus. Within 45 days of the new year, it’s likely they will also have vested any long-term incentives they’re waiting for. It’s the best possible time for you to attract a high-performing leader with the lowest likelihood that you’ll have to make your offer competitive with a future bonus or incentive. Rather than waiting until May or any later in the year, moving forward now will help you secure spots on stakeholder schedules before they start filling up—and it’ll save you money on your offer.

Be Prepared to Act Fast

All this discussion about momentum and tricky scheduling boils down to the urgent need for hiring managers to pull the trigger as soon as they’re ready to make a hire. Gone are the days when any hire comes down to a single interviewer—but that doesn’t mean you should compromise your process by forcing 18 stakeholders into a room for an interview. Whether you’re looking to hire a new VP or a design engineer, the best favor you can give yourself is the flexibility to pinpoint exactly who needs to be involved in an interview, preemptively block out schedules, and move your favorite candidate straight from a phone interview to an on-site interview to an offer letter.

—Tony O’Neill, President

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About the Author: Tony O’Neill is the Founder and President of Highline Outdoor Group — the purpose-driven executive search firm for forward- thinking outdoor industry and sporting goods companies and brands.

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