Shoddy interviews waste time and money

Jo Faragher

Despite many sectors being concerned about skills shortages and going all out to attract the best candidates, it seems that hiring managers could be letting them down.

According to a new study from CV-Library, the majority of UK job hunters have been subject to unprofessional behaviour during a job interview. This ranges from the annoying but innocuous, such as being late, to the more worrying, such as asking discriminatory questions or even a drunk interviewer. One per cent said they had seen an interviewer fall asleep at their interview.

Perhaps strangest of all is that almost two-thirds of candidates surveyed would still consider accepting a job despite an interviewer behaving inappropriately. Indeed, a third were later offered a job, and more than half accepted the position.

But just because recruitment is competitive doesn’t mean candidates should accept shoddy behaviour from hiring managers. And employers aren’t just making mistakes at interview either. Here are some other common mistakes they make during the hiring process:

Radio silence Perhaps someone in HR has gone on holiday, or someone wants to interview your chosen candidate just to ‘rubber-stamp’ the appointment. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep the candidate informed. If they really want to work for you, they’ll wait – but you need to let them know what’s happening.

Making it impersonal In situations where you have hundreds (even thousands) of people applying, it makes sense to automate an email response to let them know their application status. But as a rule of thumb, anyone who has made the effort to come to a face-to-face interview should receive some feedback over the phone.

Not giving them the opportunity to feed back With sites such as Glassdoor becoming more prevalent, potential recruits can easily spread the word about a poor experience via the web and social media. And if you don’t give candidates any opportunity to ask questions or give feedback (whether they get the job or not), that’s where they’ll share their disapproval.

Making mistakes at any point in the hiring process, particularly once someone has reached interview stage, costs time and money. The investment in finding a great candidate is worth nothing if they have a bad experience.