6 Tips for Slower Hiring

By Matt Monge

It’s a tough spot for a recruiter or hiring manager. On one hand you really need to fill that position. Work is piling up, your team is falling further and further behind, customers are getting ticked, orders are getting backed up, lines are getting longer, and hold times are skyrocketing. If there were an award for the most ulcers per capita on a team, your team would win it. Tension is high; tempers are higher. Everyone is feeling overworked and underappreciated. You’re not the captain of a ship with tattered sails and skull-and-crossbones flags, and they’re not pirates; but you feel certain that if there were a plank, you’d be walking it. You need to fill that position.

So you’re tempted to make “the candidate must be able to successfully fog a mirror” the only job requirement. I mean literally–as long as a candidate didn’t murder someone in the waiting area before their interview, you’re going to hire him or her. That’s how desperate you are to get someone–anyone–in that seat.

On the other hand, you feel this faint tug at the rational part of your brain. Something about past experience showing you that fast hiring decisions have often resulted in the hiring of an employee who turned out not to be a good long-term fit. Ah, yes. It’s coming back to you now…

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