Recruiters and hiring managers know better than anyone what it’s like to get through a multi-step hiring process. In a perfect world the right candidate is found and hired after the first interview – but that’s not reality. Pre-screening, research, references, interviews, and onboarding all take a bit of time. But what aspects of the process should be simplified or eliminated?

We posted a question to our Twitter audience recently and think the responses are great. It’s time to rethink the hiring process and simplify the candidate experience.

Over complicating the interview process

Hiring processes differ based on company culture, department needs, and the must-have skills within a role. Prescribing a number of rounds should be done with the end goal in mind for each step. Each step should be reasonable in terms of time and include the relevant data required to advance the right people to the next round.

Just because one company has 7 rounds of phone calls, video interviews, automated assessments, take-home projects, panel interviews, and the final cultural fit conversation does not mean that’s what your company should do. We asked Twitter how many interviews should there be and here’s what they said!

@Momo69HRM, “Ghosting and Multiple rounds of interviews.”

@GabrielaBrownFL, “7 rounds of interviews and 8 “pre-work” projects.”

@ResourceMax, “Self-directed video interviews. My clients report feeling like they are talking to the Wizard of Oz and it is unsettling. Send a questionnaire if you want to screen someone and don’t have a person available to interact with a candidate.”

@CrystalRNichols, “Six rounds of interviews.”

@JeffreyWShapiro, “Lack of specifics on the comp. Cover letters (unless the writing is part of the job), 4th, 5th, 6th round interviews. Reference checks.”

I can’t prescribe what’s right for your company, but the term KISS – Keep It Simple St***d applies here. If your hiring team believes the process is too long but can’t sacrifice quality technical conversations, rely on outsourcing your interviews through a great company like ours! Our clients keep ownership on initial sourcing and HR screens and final culture fit decisions. Our expert interviewers assess candidates based on a role/stack match to the roles that you’re trying to fill. We help eliminate multiple interview rounds by asking the right questions the first time around and incorporating small work samples into the live conversation.

Projects and assessments

@williamslyd, “Pre-work projects and reference checks.”

@ShelleyRowe71, “Assessments that ask the same question repeatedly. On a scale of… most likely, least likely. Pick the best scenario out of the options, even if you would not do any of them.”

People don’t want to work for free. Why else did they apply for the job? Giving take-home assignments causes frustration. If you need to do an assessment, have it done while you’re interviewing them in real-time. Set the expectation ahead of time so you don’t catch them off guard and feel like they’re being set up to fail. Let your candidates know that you want to measure their strengths and effectiveness and set realistic goals that they won’t be afraid to achieve during the interview.

@RealSeanatella, “Hour-long assessments with instant rejection notices sent out upon submission or no courtesy call for the time investment.”

Be respectful of your candidate’s time. Just like the impression they give in an interview about the type of employee they might be, the same goes for your company during the hiring process.

Did you know that we also offer a free tool that helps you perform assessments in real-time? There’s no need for multiple rounds of interviews and assessments when you can do it live. Watch your candidate’s code live so you can avoid the back and forth of sending out tests and waiting to get them back. It’s a great way to weed out candidates that don’t possess the skills you’re looking for.

Ghosting, discrimination, and lack of info about compensation

@shiftyes, “Being dodgy af about pay/compensation. Just post it, right upfront.”

@NeilMatthams, “Yep. Would add asking for current/past compensation at offer stage.”

@IzzyQuinnWrites, “ Ageism.”

@CollaborationHR, “Employer’s post and pray, then teases candidate by short-listing them, only to dehumanize by ghosting, leaving the candidate to finally get a response by blowing the employer up with negative social media posts!”

@DeborahCaruso_, “Ghosting for 2 months then sliding into your emails like no time has passed.”

Be sure to follow us and the people mentioned in this article! And let us know your thoughts on what things employers are doing that need to be adjusted to help improve hiring!

Candidate experience is always a hot topic in HR, and deservedly so. It encompasses every touchpoint across the entire recruiting process, starting from the first interaction, human or digital, and continues through onboarding. The experience your company designs and delivers can be the difference between landing a top candidate and losing them to a competitor.

Given there are many touchpoints by various parties during the hiring process, we’ve outlined some of the most significant areas that impact candidate experience in technical hiring and how you can improve them.

Start with accurate job descriptions that tell a story

Although this step happens well in advance of the interview, accurate and clear job descriptions set the stage for success from the outset. The best descriptions outline clear goals and measurements, without a lot of buzzwords which can be a turnoff (particularly to many tech candidates). Be clear on both present and future expectations for the role, painting a picture of what is expected upon hiring as well as potential for growth.

A winning job description goes beyond roles and responsibilities to tell a compelling story of what the job entails, the work involved, and the team environment. According to Katrina Kibben, “the most important thing you can do in any job posting is to translate the skills required into everyday activities.”

Reduce data entry time for candidates

Recruiters and candidates frequently end up spending a lot of time entering information into applicant tracking systems (ATS). Using an ATS with a well functioning resume parser can increase efficiency by quickly entering unstructured data from a resume into your database and enabling advanced searches. It also improves the experience of the candidate by automatically filling forms that previously required manual effort, resulting in a lower bounce rate and more registrations. So the next time your company shops for the best ATS, make sure to evaluate the resume parsing functionality actually automates data entry for your candidates.

Streamline the hiring process

It’s important to be clear on the timeline and steps in your hiring process, and communicate that to everyone involved as well as the candidate. Time to hire is a key factor in landing competitive candidates, so it’s critical to reduce delays wherever possible.

Recruiters need to function as project managers, keeping the entire process moving forward across multiple teams. Appropriate intermediary steps and deadlines with owners should be set by working backward from the date the candidate needs to be hired. Key to accomplishing this is creating accountability between the hiring team and the recruiting team. The process starts with the intake with the hiring manager on requirements, and taking a strategic approach to the intake process can streamline the entire search.

Fast track the top candidates

The recruiter should be knowledgeable about available methodologies and have a productive relationship with the hiring manager, who should articulate their hiring needs accurately. For efficiency, the process should be designed so only the most qualified candidates are seen by the hiring manager, and top candidates should be fast-tracked. This means that technical screening should be performed before the candidate reaches the hiring manager. Appropriate knockout questions can weed out inappropriate candidates early in the process, and accurate scoring ensures the right candidates move forward.

Consider prequalifying a tech candidate’s relevant skills experience with an interviews-as-a-service partner (such as eTeki), to reduce the wait time between submittal and when the qualified IT professional actually meets with the hiring team.

For more tips on how to accelerate technical screening, see this article.

Use clear and frequent communication

Frequent and consistent communication is essential. Be clear about the next steps, and let candidates know about any delays or deviations from the schedule as soon as possible. While delays are often unavoidable, transparency from your side will go a long way in continuing a strong relationship between you and the candidate. Ghosting them can ruin the goodwill created during the entire recruiting process, so be sure to communicate, whether the news is positive or negative, in a timely manner.

The information that you communicate to the candidate can reveal a lot about your organization and provides another opportunity to showcase your company as well as filtering out candidates who may not be the best fit. The best recruiters are open about salary ranges but don’t pin down fixed numbers, which can save a lot of time by making sure a candidate’s salary expectations are in alignment with the organization.

Make scheduling smooth and efficient

Disorganized scheduling sends a bad message to candidates about what to expect when dealing with an organization. It’s important to be accommodating and to respect the candidate’s time. Tech interviews should be driven by when the candidate is available, not by the bottlenecks often caused by internal interviewing capacity. Avoiding the lengthy back and forth exchange which is so common becomes more feasible when partnering with a deep pool of experienced subject matter experts.

Use great interviewers with appropriate skill sets

Bad interviewers can be a huge turnoff to candidates. Good interviewers are prepared and represent the hiring organization positively. It’s important to ensure internal interviewers have been trained appropriately. Do not assume that because interviewers are experienced, they will be good. Ongoing training is key even for your more experienced interviewers, to ensure they ask the right questions and consistently represent the organization in an accurate way.

It’s important to ensure that each interviewer is evaluating appropriate skills and not stepping outside their own area of expertise. Even experienced hiring teams frequently find this to be a challenge when it comes to evaluating skills in new and emerging technologies.

If you don’t have appropriate subject matter expertise in house, consider using an interview service with a deep pool of expert technical interviewers that are currently working in the field.

Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it

If your hiring team has gaps in any of these areas, don’t hesitate to look for additional support, whether it be from internal teams or external partners. In addition to providing expert interviewers with deep technical skills, eTeki’s interview-as-a-service platform facilitates a tight, streamlined process that will positively reflect on your organization.