Across many industries, you can see and feel the pace of business picking up. The biggest challenge faced by many employers is that there’s so much work to do and not enough workers to do it. Companies are slowly but surely hiring again to address these needs.
OK, so what’s the hold up?
You would think that with the economy on the upswing that companies would be quick about hiring talented people. Well think again. The interviewing process has extended out even further as businesses sift through a deep and talented pool of candidates. Some companies are going through five or six rounds of interviews to find the right person.
Consider what The Wall Street Journal reported on this time-consuming trend:
“Managers invited between five and six candidates on average for second-round interviews last year, twice as many as in 2007, according to a survey of 1,500 recruiters at large companies by the Corporate Executive Board, a research organization.
“‘Nowadays, if managers speak to a really great candidate, instead of hiring him, they take it as an indication that there must be 10 even better people out there,’ says Todd Safferstone, director of CLC Recruiting, a unit of the Corporate Executive Board.”
Perhaps this trend is directly related to the importance of this first wave of new hires. As businesses rebuild their workforce, their new employees will be put into very strategic positions that will drive the direction of the organization for years to come. Maybe that is another reason the hiring process is taking so long.
Regardless of the reasons, it’s clear that there is frustration on both sides of the employer/employee fence. Companies need help and people want to work.
So, can we speed things up a little, please?
