As an employer, you want to hire the right person. As a result, you want to be careful. While there’s nothing wrong with being careful, especially when it comes to hiring, being careful can cause delays. And in terms of the interviewing and hiring process, delays can be costly.

There are two main ways that the hiring process can go wrong:

#1—You hire the wrong candidate.

Much has been written about the high costs associated with hiring the wrong person. It costs not just in terms of money, but also in terms of time, energy, and effort. (Of course, all of those things can also be converted into lost revenue.)

#2—The position remains open for too long.

This usually happens when an organization is attempting to hire the “perfect candidate.” As a result, they ignore good or great candidates who could eventually evolve into a near-perfect employee. Perfection does not exist. But the high costs associated with leaving a position open for too long DO exist.

So while there’s nothing wrong with being careful, there is something wrong with taking too long during the hiring process. You don’t want to go so fast that you hire the wrong person, but on the other hand, you don’t want to take so long that the position remains open for an extended period of time. Both could be disastrous in their own way.

Below are two reasons why a speedy and decisive hiring process can help your organization:

#1—It’s a candidates’ market.

We’ve written about this topic before. However, the same rules that applied then also apply now. In a candidates’ market, all candidates have more options and the best candidates have the most options and also the best options. Since that’s the case, your organization can’t afford a hiring process that drags out. Top candidates interview with two, three, and sometimes as many as four companies at the same time.

If you take too long, another organization may make an offer to your top choice before you get the chance to do so. Then that top choice is gone. And your second choice might be right behind them.

#2—Your employer brand (and reputation) is on the line.

Candidates are not the only ones who have something to prove during the hiring process. Your organization also has something to prove, namely that you’re the employer of choice in the marketplace. Along those same lines, candidates are not the only ones branding themselves, either. Your company is branding itself, as well, and that includes with all candidates in the hiring process, not just the ones that you’re considering for a particular position.

Or to put it another way: you want every candidate who goes through your process to have a positive experience during that process and have good things to say about your organization once the process is over. Regardless of whether or not you hired them.

A speedy hiring process can help your company. So can working with a search consultant who has experience identifying and recruiting the type of candidates that you want to hire. When you work with a search consultant, they know the top candidates in the marketplace. They know who would make a move and for what opportunity they would make that move.

An experienced search consultant in your niche can help make your organization’s hiring process short, speedy, and best of all, effective. That way, you’ll be able to hire your top choice before the competition does!

If you’re looking to hire exceptional candidates, then we invite you to connect with our team today and see what The Doepker Group can do for your organization.

We also invite you to click HERE to find out even more about the many services that we offer to employers.