Hiring with Confidence

In recent times, the hiring landscape has undergone a significant transformation. A Financial Times article titled ‘Bosses Regain The Upper Hand in Hiring’ highlighted the increasingly stringent selection processes that employers are adopting amid cost pressures as well as economic and political uncertainty.

The FT suggests that where once around three candidates were interviewed before a hiring decision was made, now the number is about seven, and can often go above ten. This shift clearly indicates that employers are prioritizing accuracy (hiring the best candidate) over speed (filling a vacancy as quickly as possible), ensuring they maintain productivity and avoid costly staff turnover.

Hays’ Chief Executive Dirk Hahn is quoted in the article, saying that “Confidence in the market is just not there. Clients are more selective and if they want to hire, they want to find exactly the right person. The process is taking much longer.”

It is argued that heightened scrutiny in the hiring process is placing more power back in the hands of hiring managers and leading to longer time-to-hire with reports of elongated processes, multiple interview stages and ‘project work’ that many are in more frank terms as ‘unpaid labor’.

As a result, talented candidates are dropping out of lengthy programs as they become disengaged, receive job offers elsewhere, or decide to focus their efforts on less time-intensive applications for other roles. Indeed, our research has found that, when candidates have to spend over 60 minutes on a process, recruiters can lose up to 50% of their applicants.