My name is Greg Kneuss, for the past 8 years I’ve been recruiting in the manufacturing sector and during this time I’ve covered a broad range of disciplines across various industries such as automotive, aerospace, automation, engineering and general manufacturing.

With record turnover rates in manufacturing and a buoyant jobs market; candidates are becoming far more selective when applying for jobs.

I’ve been writing a series of blogs on the key factors which can affect the successful hiring of the right candidate, you can read my first two blogs…… The third key factor being…

Time waits for no man (and neither do candidates!) 

Why providing feedback within the agreed timescale is important!

As Recruiters, we will always try to map out a timescale with the Client at the beginning of an assignment, factoring in whether Hiring Managers involved are on holiday or away on business etc, so we can communicate this to the candidates and improve the candidate’s experience. Providing you are working to the timescale and communicating to the recruiter (and consequently the candidates) there’s no problem with providing your feedback at the agreed time. But be mindful, when you pass the one-week mark to provide feedback, the candidates will begin to lose interest.

One survey from Robert Half found that 23% of candidates lose interest in a role if they don’t receive feedback within a week, with another 46% saying they’d lose interest if they received no update between one to two weeks.

Simply put this is what happens when you take too long to provide feedback:

• Candidates’ interest in your role declines.
• You increase the likelihood of good candidates being unavailable when you finally do decide to progress.
• Candidates will put your job opportunity at the bottom of their priority list and focus their time and energy where they are getting feedback or at least updates.

Picture yourself as the candidate – what they will be thinking?

“Does this Recruiter even have a live opportunity for me?”

“Every time I speak to the Recruiter, they have no update for me – I’m done with this”

“If the company take this long to make a decision, I wonder how long it will take for them to make an important business decision. Is this really the company I want to work for?

Here at Glen Callum we are always working hard to ensure we are mapping out timescales in the recruitment process with our Clients to maintain an excellent candidate experience.

So, in conclusion, here is how you can save time on your recruit when it comes to reviewing CVs:

• Provide timescales at the beginning of the process– If you know you have business trips or holidays coming up work with your Recruiter to ensure they’re aware of this so they can communicate this to candidates
• Accept a booked follow up call or meeting to discuss the CVs.
• Try not to delay the process – Candidates other opportunities can pick up pace so save yourself on missing out on the right candidate.
• If there is a problem, tell us. Recruitment is based on trust between you, the recruiter and the candidate.

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to see the next chapter that will be released next week.