Mr. Manny Jerr had been trying to fill his Sr. Manager position for several weeks. HR had been sending resumes his way from the job that was posted online and then screened through their ATS (Applicant Tracking System). Manny had interviewed a few people but nothing was hitting the mark. Finally, HR and Mr. Manny Jerr reached out to a few Talent Agency’s to see if they could find a better fit, set 3 meetings with potential vendors and explained the requirement to them.
After a few days he started to receive resumes and profiles to review. Finally, after reviewing another 15 candidates, he selected the top 7 for a phone interview. Ms. Candi Date was one of the applicants that was selected and the interviews were then coordinated by HR over the following week. Each phone screen lasted 30-45 minutes and Mr. Manny Jerr asked questions on each candidate’s previous experience, management style and what systems they have worked with. He also explained he was looking for a Sr. Manager that could “get their hands dirty.” Ms. Candi Date came out of the interview as his top candidate with her experience matching exactly what he was looking for. More than anything, Mr. Manny Jerr loved her enthusiasm, can-do attitude and approach to management.
The vendors were contacted by HR on the following Monday to schedule the face-to-face interviews. Per HR’s request, Manny was required to bring in his top 3 candidates for a half-day interview to meet with the team, HR, and Manny’s boss; Mrs. Vee Pea.
The face-to-face interviews where scheduled over a two-week period, again having Manny’s top candidate going first; Ms. Candi Date. During the 4 hour interview, Candi was able to sit with a few of the team members, toured the facility with HR, spent over 90 minutes with Mr. Manny Jerr and 30 minutes with Mrs. Vee Pea. Manny also learned that Ms. Candi Date had applied for this position a few weeks back directly but never received a response from the job posting. Leaving the interview Mr. Manny Jerr still felt that Candi was the right fit for his position but needed to conduct the other interviews over the next several days.
After the final interview, which was over a week and a half after Ms. Candi Date’s interview, the team set time aside on the following Monday to debrief and select a candidate. Interestingly, everyone except Mrs. Vee Pea thought Candi was the best choice. Because they could not come to a consensus, they agreed to look at one additional candidate the following week. They contacted the vendors and gave them an update that it would be one more week before they made their final decision.
Finally, 6 weeks after contacting the vendors the team did conclude that Ms. Candi Date would be the best fit and requested an offer be made. Unfortunately, Ms. Candi Date had received 2 other offers during this interview process and because it was going to take Mr. Manny Jerr and the team another week to make a decision she had already accepted another offer.
Frustrated and feeling defeated, Manny was left with a difficult decision; start the process over again or go with his second choice. Rather than starting again or going with his second choice, Manny decided to ask himself the following questions before doing any further:
- What could he have done better in the process?
- How can they speed up the hiring process to make a decision faster?
- Who really needs to be involved in the hiring process if this position reports solely to him?
- Why didn’t he know Ms. Candi Date was entertaining other offers? Who was responsible for communicating this to him?
- If Ms. Candi Date was the top candidate, why didn’t he get sent her resume initially from the job posting? Was the ATS really working if it was screening out his top choice? Who else did he miss?
- Everything he loved about Ms. Candi Date couldn’t be written on a resume, so why was he still spending so much time reviewing them?
- If he hadn’t been required to interview 3 candidates face to face he would have offer Ms. Candi Date the job on the spot, so why was this a requirement?
- If candidates are getting multiple offers then it’s a “job seekers” market and how was the organization going to adjust their hiring practice for all positions going forward?
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