Your Hiring Process is Losing Top Candidates - Here’s How to Fix It
This week in the Holistic Recruiter #026
👋 TA leaders, recruiters, and hiring managers—welcome back to The Holistic Recruiter Club! Thanks to all of you who are reading this each week I see you :) Now don’t be shy to get involved in the comments ;) And welcome to all the new readers!!
Anyway, last week, we tackled hiring metrics that actually matter (and no, “Quality of Hire” wasn’t on the list).
This week, we’re talking about something we all know is a problem but rarely fix:
Hiring processes that drag on for no reason.
More steps don’t mean better hires.
Faster hiring doesn’t mean worse hiring.
The best candidates don’t wait.
And yet… hiring timelines have doubled in the last decade.
This edition is all about how to streamline hiring without losing quality.
And lastly, I’m introducing question time. I’m inviting you to ask questions and I will feature answers in the following Newsletter! I can anonymise you if you prefer ;) But feel free to ask anything!
📝 What’s Happened This Week?
French lessons are going well 2nd session in and I feel good. I have a good foundation of A2 so I really need to work on getting to B1! Learning anoither language is so hard when you are in your 30’s and me haha
And of all the effort I put into sharing good content on LinkedIn that age-old fact that personal stories resonate more is never more true than this example below!
📽️ Recruitment Campaigns You May Not Have Seen Before
The EasyJet "Maverick" Campaign
In 2022, easyJet launched "Calling All Mavericks," a recruitment campaign designed to challenge gender stereotypes in the aviation space. It has inspriation from Top Gun: Maverick, where they they recreated iconic fighter pilot scenes, but with young girls in the lead roles.
Why Did I Like This?
I mean I have a daughter and I love seeing companies showing there are many paths not just traditional ones! From the campaign perspective, They used cultural relevance, aligning the campaign with Top Gun: Maverick made it highly shareable and relatable.
It also tackled a real industry issue, increasing female representation in aviation and finding a way to plug the deficit of new pilots coming through.
I also found out: -
Only 6% of pilots worldwide are women—easyJet wanted to change that.
This also wasn’t just marketing bullshit. EasyJet set a target to recruit over 1,000 new pilots within five years and re-opened their training programs to make it happen.
🧐 Want more details on creative recruitment campaigns? Let me know, and I’ll feature more case studies in a future edition!
Turning Research Into Actions: 7 Part Series of The Most Effective Hiring Process. Part 5/7
Optimising the Length of the Process
Over the past 4 weeks, we’ve been building the “ultimate evidence-based hiring” process step by step:
📌 Week 1: The history of hiring and selection
📌 Week 2: What actually predicts job performance (spoiler alert! Structured interviews and job-specific assessments win).
📌 Week 3: How to design a hiring process that balances efficiency, fairness, and candidate experience.
📌 Week4: Metrics That Actually Matter
💡 Fun Fact: The best companies hire faster AND better.
If your process takes 45+ days, you’re losing candidates.
If your interview process has 5+ steps, you’re adding unnecessary friction.
If hiring managers are stalling, you need better SLAs & automation.
Here’s how to fine tune your hiring without damaging the quality.
I thought we could use an example of where a process that used to be quick got very long. My hypothesis is that tech companies over engineered the hiring process as they are not recruitment specialists: So lets try this:
In 2018, it took 21 days to fill a role.
In 2024, it takes 44+ days.
Why?
❌ Too many approvals.
❌ Too many interviews.
❌ Too much “we should meet one more person” syndrome.
And what’s the result? More lost candidates, more ghosting, and more frustration.
Does this resonate?
Either way let’s dig deeper into this example.
Try This Three Step Hiring Process Challenge
Step 1: Audit Your Process
Here is a lite version you can try yourself.
Map Out Every Step: Document each phase of your hiring process, from job posting to the final offer.
Evaluate Predictive Validity: Identify which stages effectively assess candidate success potential.
Analyse Dropout Points: Use your ATS data to pinpoint where candidates are exiting the process.
Warnings If your process includes more than four interview rounds for mid-level positions, you're likely losing candidates unnecessarily.
A survey by ThriveMap found that 47% of candidates are deterred by lengthy pre-hire assessments.
I have a basic template for this you could follow - or if you need deep work on this, its exactly how I have helped companies in the past.
john@holisticrecruiter.club
Step 2: Cut the Hiring Fat and Keep What Works
Look at the Screening Calls: Assess if multiple screening interviews are essential.
Enforce Quick Feedback: Implement a 48-hour turnaround time for interview evaluations to prevent delays.
Expedite Offer Approvals: Pre-approve salary ranges to eliminate bottlenecks during the offer stage.
💡 Top Tip: Test these adjustments on a role with multiple openings to measure effectiveness.
Step 3: Get Real Feedback and Actually Use It
A disproportionate amount of companies I have worked and talk to assume their hiring process is just great and having great success like our friend Borat!
Until they actually ask candidates. Or ACTUALLY listening to their feedback.
So how do we stop guessing and start fixing. Oh and this isn’t an NPS question! Its feedback loops.
💡 Ask after every interview: Send a quick survey—“On a scale of 1-10, how was your hiring experience?” Bonus: Ask “What’s one thing we could do better?”
💡 Track where candidates are ghosting you: If people keep dropping off after round three, that’s a big flashing sign that your process is too long.
💡 Compare yourself to competitors: Are you way slower at hiring? Are candidates rejecting your offers at a high rate? You need to know why.
💡 As you conducted an audit you should have your recruitment experience mapped out so think about other ways to gather feedback. On the job description, via text, an AI that calls them? No idea is a bad idea.
💡 My Top Tip: Don’t just collect feedback its pointless unless, you act on it. If multiple candidates tell you the same thing (“The process was too slow,” “I didn’t know what to expect,” “The assessment felt pointless”), it’s time to fix it.
What’s the worst hiring experience you’ve ever been through as a candidate? Reply and let me know!
Coming Up in Week 6: How do we customise this for specific roles?
Next week, we’re getting into how to tailor selection processes based on role type.
Whether hiring at scale or for niche expertise, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it. We’ll go over how to adapt assessments, balance candidate experience with efficiency, and make sure the process respects the time and effort candidates put in especially for technical or senior roles.
Your challenge Will Be: Take a closer look at one role’s hiring process. Does it really align with what the job requires and how candidates experience it? Approach this with a candidate first mindset.
🎭 Funny of the Week
My gift to you this week is this absolute gem. once you click you need to click on the sound button to ensure you hear the music.
Someone is taking songs and then finding names on LinkedIn that match the words, there are loads of them - If you need some escapism - there are a few hours to lose here 😂
🎧 Two Tired Dads Podcast – Coming Up!
📅 Episode 14 – "Why Talent Leaders Are Chasing Purple Dots Instead of Solving Real Problems"
🗓️ Tuesday, Feb 11, 2025 | 14:15 - 15:00 GMT+1
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