How to Turn Off a Top Candidate in an Interview

Years ago, hiring companies didn’t care so much about the candidate experience and about turning candidates off in the process. Now, however, the tides have turned and it’s become a candidate-driven job market. Today’s companies have to work harder than ever to attract top talent. Then, once they have them in person at an interview, employers must do their best to impress an outstanding candidate enough so that they will enthusiastically accept the job offer.

How can you know if you are impressing the best candidates or if you are simply turning them off? If you are having problems getting top talent to call you back or accept job offers, this could be a clear sign that your interviewing process has issues. Here are some ways you could be ruining your chances of hiring the best.

Making the application process far too complex and time consuming

One of the biggest pet peeves of candidates is that they are often forced to spend way too much time filling out job applications, taking online assessments, and answering pre-interview screening questions. An overreliance on applicant tracking systems leads to candidates who would rather walk away than go through the hassle.  If the candidate does “jump through all the hoops,” often weeks go by without any response from the company.  When this happens, the professionalism of the company is in jeopardy.

Being unprepared or disconnected during job interviews

When the candidate comes to your office for an interview, is the environment welcoming? There is nothing more annoying for a top candidate than to be shuffled into an interview room to face an unprepared and unprofessional interviewer. Reading through canned interview questions, not taking notes or talking about things of relevance with the candidate is recruitment suicide.

Requiring candidates to endure group interviews or coming back for multiple interviews

This can be a huge waste of time that many candidates will not put up with anymore. Make interviews straightforward, intimate, and focused on the outcome.  Try to schedule the candidate’s time effectively to meet with the key players at your organization on the same day.  A top candidate’s time is important, too.  Even worse, after the first interview the candidate does not get a response from the company, or the company calls him back many weeks later for another interview.

Doing all of the talking and asking all the questions during interviews

Another way that so many recruiters turn candidates off is by doing all the talking and not creating a dialogue. This is never a good idea. Don’t make the candidate feel like they are being interrogated in an interview. By creating a dialogue, you get to know your candidate better and the candidate gets to know the goals and mission of your organization, and how he/she can help you achieve these goals.

Rushing the candidate through interviews, form completion and background checks

Once you have a top candidate on board, don’t make the mistake of then rushing them through the hiring process. Respect that they will likely have to provide notice to their current employer, may need to relocate, and a whole slew of other responsibilities before they can come work for your company.

If you have noticed that some of these areas are a problem, take steps to correct your approach to hiring top talent. You’ll find that a staffing agency can also help to reduce losing good people.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a winner of Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Client Award for the second consecutive year, can help your company meet all of its financial staffing needs for jobs in Chicago and more. Contact our award-winning team today to get started!