By Kevin Roth

Your interview process should not be designed like a 90s video game, in which candidates have to fight their way up to eventually meet the “final boss”.

Following an HR or recruiter screen, the direct hiring manager should be the FIRST person to meet with qualified candidates.

Most job seekers in this market are either passive in their search or have multiple opportunities that they’re sorting through. Quite a few will actually fit both those categories.

By prolonging the process for these individuals to meet the person who will have arguably the biggest impact on their interest level, you’re going to lose a lot of great candidates before they even get to that step.

Have your hiring managers front and center in this process!

Let a candidate see early on who they would be working for, what they could learn in this role and why this is a great opportunity to invest their time in. At that point they’ll actually be able to justify meeting 5 more people, completing a case study, etc., etc.

But most importantly, that conversation will (hopefully) give them a reason to hold off on jumping at any other opportunities while they see this process through.