The dos and don’ts of hiring

Job seekers are told to put their best foot forward during the interview process, but what about companies themselves? Lisa Cohen, an associate professor of organizational behaviour at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management, believes that it goes both ways.

“We need to think of hiring as something other than just a process that brings warm bodies in,” Ms. Cohen explains. “It’s an opportunity to build networks and get to know other people in the community.” A poor interviewing and hiring experience can have a significant impact on a company’s reputation. “Candidates talk to other candidates,” says Ms. Cohen. “And we have things now like Glassdoor and social media where people will post about their bad experiences. It becomes a much more public act than it used to be.” Younger generations are quicker to jump to social media to blast companies with poor hiring practices.

We spoke with two human resources experts, Rachel Liem-Smith, assistant vice-president of talent acquisition at Canadian Western Bank, and Jermaine L. Murray, a technical recruiter and founder of Jupiter HR, a consultancy firm to help Black people get jobs in tech, to hear their hiring dos and don’ts.

Do write the right job description and don’t make the process too tedious

The first ‘do’ in a good hiring experience is to write an accurate job description. Ms. Liem-Smith says being clear about the expectations of a job and its core responsibilities is important for a successful hire. If you’re recruiting for a position that you think may be harder to fill, she suggests making the application process easy with a low barrier to access, like using a one-click application process through a platform like LinkedIn. “There’s an incredible difference in candidate quality and candidate volume,” she explains of the one-click application. Requiring candidates to fill out a form to input the exact same information that’s available on their resume can feel tedious, increasing the frustration felt by applicants and causing a drop-off in applications.

Don’t conduct too many interviews, and do keep interviews under 90 minutes

There is such a thing as too many interviews, according to Mr. Murray. “I just had someone go through a nine-round interview [process] and they didn’t get the job,” he says. “They were livid.” Mr. Murray says the sweet spot is around three to four interviews for the entire process. And while interviewing panels made up of different levels of the organization can help reduce bias, he discourages panels larger than two people. “Anything beyond two can be intimidating,” he explains. Another ‘don’t’ of hiring that Mr. Murray has experienced himself is conducting interviews that are too long. “I don’t think that interviews should go longer than an hour, or 90 minutes max,” he says. “I’ve actually been subjected to a four-hour interview. It was the worst.” He says there might be some occasions when a longer interview is necessary. “If it’s above 90 minutes, factor in some sort of break or intermission,” he advises.

If job tests are required, don’t put people on the spot

Requiring candidates to complete a test to judge their creative or technical skills is part of the recruiting process for some roles. But Mr. Murray says that the way tests are delivered matters for a positive hiring experience. For example, Mr. Murray says that coders are sometimes subject to a “whiteboard test” where they solve a problem on a whiteboard in front of a panel. “It’s one of the worst experiences because it puts people on the spot,” he explains. Instead, he suggests recruiters opt for a “take-home test” when possible. Another ‘do,’ is to ensure that the test isn’t too long. “It shouldn’t take more than two or three hours,” he adds.

Do keep open communication with a candidate, and don’t ghost your shortlist

Both Mr. Murray and Ms. Liem-Smith say that regular communication with shortlisted candidates is key to a positive hiring experience. Ms. Liem-Smith says using a portal, like Workday, allows companies to send job status updates so that candidates know when their application is received, and more critically, when the position has been filled.

Mr. Murray and Ms. Liem-Smith both believe that anyone who has gone through the interviewing stage should receive a phone call with feedback to let them know why they didn’t get the job. “If a company wants to stand out as an employer of choice, they should be providing actual feedback as to why that candidate wasn’t successful,” Ms. Liem-Smith explains. “Feedback really is a gift, and candidates who are not successful often leave without an understanding of what was missing.”

Don’t rescind offers during negotiations

One final ‘don’t’ that Mr. Murray has encountered comes into play once an offer is on the table and their candidate of choice begins the salary negotiation process. “Don’t rescind offers if somebody counters, just because your ego is hurt,” he says. “I’ve seen comments on LinkedIn from employers saying they don’t take kindly to people negotiating because there’s a long list of applicants that they can turn to. That’s complete madness to me, that you would get offended by [someone] advocating for what their worth is.”

Don’t let a hirer’s market fool you

One final word of advice from Desautels’s Lisa Cohen for recruiters and hiring managers is not to let a cooling job market fool you into being unprofessional. “They may think, ‘I have so many candidates. Why should I bother being nice to these people?’ ” Ms. Cohen says. “But that’s a huge risk because that is your reputation. And in a year or two years, you may want to be hiring that exact same person for the exact same job.”