Hiring Managers – The Importance of Booking an Interview

There is no doubt about it, these days we are all extremely busy with our day-to-day grind.  Things come up, presentations are due and invoices need to be sent out.  But when you decide that it is time to make a new hire, you need to be sure that you can set aside a specific amount of time to meet candidates.  Once you have begun the process, there are a number of reasons why it is so important to conduct an interview sooner rather than later.

If too much time passes, we all look bad.  Depending on where you are at with the process, candidates might already know your company name.  Even if you are Google, the longer they have to wait, the sooner they will start thinking that you are not interested in them.  It would be a shame to lose an all-star candidate because they took another opportunity!  They also might loose faith in the recruiter that has presented their profile and will question whether the position that they were headhunted for even exists.

They are active in their search.  When a candidate decides to make the next move in their career, they will often explore multiple options.  Even candidates that were specifically headhunted for a role (and might not be looking) will begin to explore other options - especially if the recruiter has sparked the “new opportunity” bug in them.  Some candidates might have other potential offers and will consider them even if your company is at the top of their list (people will often make the mistake of settling for the next best thing).

We lose the “buzz factor".  The longer the process takes, the sooner the excitement will fizzle out.  As recruiters, it is part of our job to make sure candidates are well informed, interested and excited about the opportunities we have for them.  This is even more important when it comes to headhunting since the candidate probably wasn’t thinking about making a move until they were presented with a specific opportunity.

In the end, the process of bringing on the right talent consists of each side playing a crucial part.  For the recruiter, it’s presenting a hiring manager with candidates that meet and even supersede all expectations.  For the hiring manager, it’s about meeting those individual as soon as possible to show that not only are you interested, but you recognize that the candidate’s time is equally as precious.