66 | T+D | MAY 2007 Photo by Getty Images

What Does
Your Hiring
Process
Say About

You?
By Scott Erker

First impressions are a critical

part of the hiring process.
In fact, they’re important on both sides of the table. When organiza-
tions don’t “dress to impress” their job candidates, they can be making
a costly mistake.
Bad impressions during the hiring process lead to negative percep-
tions of your employment brand and can drive your best candidates
away. If a candidate accepts a position, she has already started out
with your company on a sour note, which increases the likelihood that
she’ll leave.
No matter what corner of the world you’re hiring in, the war for
talent is intense and candidates have a lot of choice when deciding
whether to accept your job or take one with your competitor. Develop-
ment Dimensions International (DDI) and Monster recently surveyed
4,000 job seekers, 1,250 hiring managers, and 628 staffing directors

MAY 2007 | T+D | 67


Seventy percent of candidates
are annoyed by interviewers
who give the impression they
don’t have time to talk.
to find out how an organization’s hiring process affects a
candidate’s decision to accept a job and remain with
the organization. The study, Slugging Through the War
for Talent: Selection Forecast 2006-2007, examined four
important aspects of the hiring process: recruiting, se-
lecting, landing the candidates you want, and retaining
valuable talent.
The survey revealed that bad impressions during the
hiring process lead to negative perceptions of your organi-
zation. The research shows that organizations are making
many mistakes attracting and retaining talent. So how can
you put the best face on your organization, and turn your
hiring process into a competitive advantage?
Constant turnover
According to the survey, there’s hot competition in today’s
job market: Almost half of all staffing directors reported that
there are fewer qualified candidates available, and three-
quarters expected increased competition for candidates.
Additionally, while employers think their new hires will
stick around for about five years, their recent additions ex-
68 | T+D | MAY 2007
pect to be back on the market within two to three years. And
this isn’t a new trend, illustrated by the fact that two-thirds
of employed job seekers have held more than one job in the
past five years.
This job-hopping trend is likely to continue. Candidates
know they’re in high demand and perceive many options
for greener pastures and bluer skies. Fifty-three percent
of managers feel they could lose a direct report within six
months. Nearly one-third of job seekers who have been in
their current jobs less than six months are in the market for
new ones. These “placeholder jobs” are a common bridge
for employees holding out for more promising prospects.
So how can your organization wage—and win—the war
for talent? The impressions you create of your employment
brand during the hiring process will make or break your
candidates’ decisions to come work for you. Articles about
the best companies to work for focus on the perks and the
opportunities provided to employees by caring, empower-
ing employers. Think about the laid-back atmosphere of
tech companies such as Google, employee-focused orga-
nizations such as Southwest, or countless companies large
and small that lure bright talent with accelerated job growth
and opportunities.
Best foot forward
In highly competitive job markets, your employment brand
becomes your calling card in the hiring space. But our re-
search found that organizations aren’t always taking the care
they need to leave the best impression on potential hires.
Existing employees need to champion the company, and
interviewers need to present a good image of the company
and an appealing, accurate picture of their workplace. After
the offer, holding on to new hires is equally important and
supports the overall effort to install a superior selection
system. So how do you create an employment brand that’s
attractive to candidates?
The following five strategies are consistently employed by
organizations with successful selection processes.
Foster pride. One of your best recruitment and retention
strategies involves the employees you already have. Our
research shows that managers and HR don’t give enough
credit to organizational pride. Out of a list of 10 options,
they rate it as the seventh most important reason to accept a
job, while job seekers actually say it’s the fourth most impor-
tant factor for accepting a position. The importance of pride
increases in importance as employees mature.
Because pride is a factor that plays a role before and after
the decision to accept a position, an internal positive image
will have a great impact externally as well. Your employees
are your best ambassadors. Those who are proud of their
workplace will spread that pride, creating a strong state-
ment about your employment brand that both attracts and
retains talent.
Be realistic about the job. Full disclosure is a legal require-
ment if you’re selling a business, a house, or even a car. But
it’s often lacking when candidates sell themselves or when
Photo by Getty Images
organizations hype the jobs they’re offering. Seventy-one
percent of hiring managers cited giving vague answers about
past experiences as an annoying interviewee behavior. But
interviewees had a similar complaint: Fifty-seven percent of
job seekers said that withholding information about a posi-
tion was a real pet peeve in the hiring process. Recruiters
sometimes make the mistake of overselling the job, which
can lead to misaligned expectations and turnover.
One of the clearest problem areas when it comes to
overselling a job is the prospect of promotion. The oppor-
tunity to advance is one of the top five factors that entice
people to take a job, and more than half of job seekers
reported that they expect a promotion within one or two
years. Offering benefits that won’t come to fruition may get
the candidate in the door, but it could set your organization
up for failure down the road when a disappointed, dejected
employee leaves and you lose your investment in hiring
and training him.
New hires with realistic expectations are a far superior
long-term payoff. Communicating your unique benefits as
an employer and providing a realistic preview of the posi-
tion helps attract the people who are really interested and
likely to stay with your organization.
Sometimes, a candidate misinterprets job information
and develops his own unrealistic expectations. If you’re
Interviewer Habits That Most Annoy Job Seekers
Acting as if there is
no time to talk to me
Witholding information
about position
Turning interview into
cross-examination
Showing up late
Appearing unprepared
for interview
Asking questions
unrelated to job skills
Asking personal
questions
Talking about
oneself instead of
my qualifications
Photo by iStock Photos
able to identify this early, address it immediately and
work through it.
Turn hiring managers into ambassadors. Your recruiting
staff is the face of your organization. The majority of candi-
dates surveyed said that their impression of the interviewer
was a top motivator to accept—or reject—a job. So, it’s not
a good sign that job seekers registered a host of complaints
about their interviewers. The highest number—70 percent—
were annoyed with interviewers who gave the impression
that they didn’t have adequate time to talk with candidates.
Other interviewer annoyances reported by about half of job
seekers surveyed include turning the interview into a cross-
examination, showing up late, and appearing unprepared
for an interview. And all of these impressions factor in to the
candidate’s decision to accept or reject your offer.
When the interviewer happens to be the supervisor of
the position, the negative impact of a bad impression is
amplified, because a good manager is the third most im-
portant factor that candidates consider when accepting a
position. This is especially true of older workers, who per-
haps remember bad bosses and are hesitant to repeat the
experience.
With your organization’s reputation on the line, it’s im-
portant that anyone who talks to candidates as part of your
selection process is properly trained. They should under-
70%
57%
51%
48%
47%
43%
38%
33%
Source: Slugging Through the War for Talent
MAY 2007 | T+D | 69
 stand interview etiquette, their role in attracting candidates,
and the potential negative impact they can have by leaving
a bad impression. After all, you don’t want your former job
candidates to also become former customers.
Set new hires up for success. You’ve assessed their skills
and experiences. You’ve decided to hire them, so now how
do you keep them? The information that you use to evaluate
a candidate’s fit for a position also is useful to integrate the
new hire into your organization. It can be applied imme-
diately to a development plan, and even help shorten their
time to productivity. Yet, only 39 percent of staffing directors
reported using selection data in their onboarding processes.
In the selection forecast, staffing directors expressed con-
cerns about the quality of their onboarding processes. Sixty
percent rated theirs as fair or poor. Our data showed a cor-
relation between successful onboarding and high retention
rates, proving that a little bit of work with a new hire will
prevent a lot of work with a rehire.
Make room for growth. The opportunity to learn and grow
is the number one thing job seekers want in a position be-
sides salary and benefits. Also high on the list is the oppor-
tunity to advance, with 73 percent in agreement. The lack of
advancement opportunity also is high on the list of reasons
why people leave, second only to insufficient compensation,
benefits, and rewards or recognition.
Managers hold the most power in helping develop work-
ers. Early on, managers can begin discussions with new
hires to help them focus energy on growth. Many find it
helpful to treat the discussion like a performance manage-
ment conversation. Starting early helps set the tone for new
hires’ employment. And the earlier they’re engaged and con-
tributing, the more likely they are to stay.
Talent management
The hiring process is a stressful—and very memorable—
experience for candidates. As baby boomers retire and
industries such as healthcare continue to feel the pain of
talent shortages, there are more barriers to overcome to find
the best and brightest talent.
Fighting the war for talent requires battles on all fronts,
including turning existing employees into recruiters who
can influence attitudes about your organization and ensure
good interview experiences that encourage candidates to
eagerly accept your offer and stay at your organization.
Successes and failures reflect on HR, which sets the prec-
edent for how your department’s effectiveness is perceived.
When successful, the hiring process can set the stage for a
strong reputation for HR and offer plenty in return.t+d
Scott Erker is senior vice president of DDI’s Selection Solutions
Group; scott.erker@ddiworld.com.

What Job Seekers Want in a Position*

Job Hiring Staffing
Seeker Manager Director
Opportunities to learn and grow 78% 68% 69%
Interesting work 77% 63% 63%
A good manager/boss 75% 69% 57%
Organizational pride 74% 58% 55%
Source: Slugging Through the War for Talent

Opportunity to advance 73% 69% 77%

Promise of stability/job security 70% 62% 65%
A creative or fun workplace culture 67% 50% 43%
A compatible work group/team 67% 50% 37%
Balance between work and personal life 65% 65% 65%
Opportunity for accomplishment 64% 53% 41%
*Beyond salary and benefits Under-rated

70 | T+D | MAY 2007