It’s time to retire outdated hiring practices to resonate with today’s job seekers. Text-heavy job ads, impersonal phone interviews, and routine questions of the past will not effectively attract and secure today’s top talent.
In 2024, LinkedIn reported that nearly half (49%) of talent acquisition professionals faced challenges in filling positions in high-demand talent pools. This figure underscores the need for companies to enhance their recruiting processes to better attract and secure top talent.
When it comes to scoring top talent with updated interview processes, these hiring professionals have the right idea:
Table of contents
1. Have an actual conversation.
Behavioral interviews are (finally!) dying out. Asking canned questions will not help you connect with the top talent you want. Forward-thinking companies empower recruiters and hiring managers to show their personalities and have conversations with their candidates.
It might sound old school, but nothing beats sitting down with a candidate over a cup of coffee and deep-dive into their experience. Does this take a lot of time? Yes, having a conversation with a candidate is an investment, but isn’t it one you should make with someone potentially joining your company? The worst-case scenario is that the candidate will not receive an offer but will leave at least feeling heard.
2. Get the whole team involved.
Team interviews are often used by different companies so that candidates can meet with the entire team (or a few key members) in a group setting or actual work environment.
Team interviews ensure that there is synergy between the team and the candidate for collaboration if hired. Team members often feel threatened by new hires, so if you allow them to weigh in and help make the decision, it can only benefit the business overall.
3. Connect with candidates via video.
It’s become an increasingly common trend to use an interviewing tool to help capture candidates faster and to help with candidate “convenience” when it comes to getting away from work to interview. This approach has also assisted with employer costs by eliminating the need to fly in candidates multiple times for face-to-face interviews.
Many candidates fall off in the interview process due to being too busy with the work at hand and an inefficient interview process where they have to leave work on multiple occasions in order to interview. Creating a video conference option really helps capture high-performing candidates and keeps them engaged in the interview process by limiting the amount of time they have to leave work.
4. Focus on culture fit vs. technical skills.
The best test of a good hire is what happens once they’re in the door. High-volume hiring isn’t a success if it’s followed by high attrition. Hiring for soft skills and culture fit increases the likelihood of new hires succeeding and thriving. Not every company is right for every person, so
carefully vetting fit upfront can significantly reduce early (less than one year) attrition.
Companies are increasingly relying on recruiters, HR, tenured employees, and board members as objective interviewers assigned to talk to candidates about leadership, coaching, inspiring teams, and handling difficult employee situations. This new focus gives recruiters an opportunity to go beyond a focus on numbers and candidate experience and contribute strategically to quality hiring and retention.
5. Throw in a few oddball questions.
Some employers have liked asking odd, quirky, or otherwise unpredictable questions. By doing this, interviewers can gauge how well a candidate can think on the fly and see if they are easily flustered. At the same time, an interviewer can gain an even clearer picture of what a person is like while endearing themselves a bit to the candidate.
