Your Guide To Streamlining The Interview Process To Attract The Best Talent

A question for hiring managers: How long is your interview process? It’s crucial that you get it right to attract the best people. 

Did you know that a quarter of job seeker applicants drop out at the interview stage?

You could be missing out on hiring great talent because of your interview process 

It’s the perfect time to hire, yet even in this employer-led market, 43% of businesses are struggling to hire, and 36% can’t fill their vacancies in under a month. 

Where do businesses usually go wrong in their interview process?

• Too many interview rounds
• Repetitive interviews
• No transparency with salaries
• Taking too long to give feedback 

These are all red flags for candidates. 

If you can’t organise a few interviews properly, what will it be like trying to get a big project across the line?

People will lose interest or will crack on with other opportunities. 

Here's how hiring managers can stay on track with their interview process 

Uh oh! Here comes some self-promotion. Building a relationship with a recruiter whom you trust will save you time and stress. They will:

• Send you a small shortlist of pre-screened talent who align with your values
• Schedule interviews
• Coach applicants throughout the process
• Keep applicants updated and engaged
• Manage offer negotiations, ensuring your salary is competitive
• Guide candidates through onboarding as they settle in

What’s not to love?

Anyway, for whoever’s still reading, let’s start with the basics. 

You only need a couple of interviews unless it's a senior hire.

• 2 rounds for junior to middle-management roles
• 3 rounds for senior leadership hires as there's usually a meeting with the c-suite

Internal hiring options

Complete an internal search before you look externally. It’s frustrating for candidates if they commit time and effort to go through an interview process, maybe even complete a task, before finding out you’ve gone with an internal hiring option. This could also save you the time, stress and cost of advertising externally. 

Interview scheduling

In your recruitment briefing, block out times in all interviewers’ diaries. The week after next should be enough time to get a shortlist.

Online vs In-person

Online interviews have been around since Covid. They keep things moving, but you need to have the right balance. Having a Zoom meeting with someone to see if you’re on the same page saves everyone time, but this should be followed up with an in-person meeting unless the applicant has accessibility issues. Getting someone into the office builds rapport, gets buy-in, and allows them to meet the team and check out the commute. This will also reduce dropout rates when onboarding. 

Being proactive and checking in about accessibility is a win-win as it’s the right thing to do, but it also reflects a welcoming and inclusive culture.

Interview questions

Asking the right questions to get what you need the first time around keeps your process punchy. A blend of conversational and behavioural questions is a good approach. You’ll know the key skills and experience that you need, but AI can help you standardise the process and avoid unconscious biases. Enter the job description into Gemini or ChatGPT and prompt it to produce 10-15 interview questions and refine the results. You can go one step further and use the applicant’s profile (bearing in mind their data privacy) to generate personalised questions.

If you want to go the whole nine yards, AI apps like hirevue can tailor interviews in real-time and provide recommendations, reports and insights. 

Tasks during your interview process

Tasks are the perfect way to gauge creativity and practical skills and get commitment from applicants. They can also leave a sour taste if not done properly.  

Feedback & Offers during your interview process

Regular and transparent feedback is all people want. I think candidates can swallow not hearing back from a job application, but if they’ve taken the time to interview, then it's crucial to give them personalised feedback.

Final Round -> Verbal Offer -> Contract

The time it takes for this stage of your interview process is critical. People having to wait days (or even weeks in some cases!) to get an offer or a contract is a nightmare. There are only so many check-ins a recruiter can do before candidates get cold feet. 

Having the salary signed off before you advertise and offering a contract that’s ‘pending reference checks’ saves valuable time. HR or the Talent Acquisition team should prioritise making the back-end contract process as streamlined as possible. 

Sometimes, you can do everything right, and there are still delays. If so, you need to manage the candidates’ expectations. Be transparent, give realistic timescales and check in directly to show you haven’t forgotten about them. Small gestures like this can keep them engaged.  

Let's sum it up

Having a concise interview structure is essential to attract the best talent to your business. 

• Consider all internal options before you start
• Be transparent with salaries upfront
• Plan who needs to attend and block out timeslots
• Follow up quickly and give personalised, constructive feedback
• Streamline back-end contract processes with HR and Finance
• Incorporate technology and AI tools throughout 

Utilising tech is now a key factor, although it’s a balancing act.

A trend I hate is virtual or pre-recorded interviews with a chatbot. Maybe it’s the Englishman in me, but I can’t think of anything more awkward than that. How will that build rapport or get candidates excited about your business? 

“Let AI do the grunt work and speed up your processes, but leave the actual interview to humans. AI can't build rapport or beat humans at spotting emotional intelligence, cultural fit and potential… yet.”

I’ve been recruiting for 10 years and sit on Aquent’s Marketing & Analytics team. If you have any other questions or dystopian fears about AI, I’d love to have a chat. Connect with me here on LinkedIn.

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