Interview and hiring fatigue content is often focused on the candidate experience. Yet, hiring managers and TA teams are under pressure to find the right employee to get critical projects up and running. Mitigate stress by taking simple steps before starting the process.

• Ensure that the job is open, has a budget, and is approved by the right people.
• Confirm that the interview process and timeline are set.
• Check that staff or senior management involved in the hiring process are available to start interviews – i.e. vacations, extended time off, business travel, etc.
• Decide the workflow on handling resume submissions if you are using an agency, your own TA team, or both.
• Allocate dedicated time to review resumes.
• Set a date and time to start screening interviews.
• Determine what the first interview looks like. If the technical test is a must pass for the job, then with that interview first to avoid wasting anyone’s time.
• Confirm who will contact the candidate after a successful / unsuccessful interview and who will proceed with next steps.
• Look for ‘no’ or ‘yes’ signs to gauge interest. Did they send a follow-up email? A thank you note?
• Use your agency or internal recruiting team for the heavy lifting. Give them timely feedback on every candidate to make sure they know how to improve candidate submissions.
• Keep Interviewing first round candidates, even if you have moved promising applicants to the second or third round. Keep the pipeline going.
• If you aren’t getting the right candidates, rewrite your job description or modify the requirements.

Interviewing is an arduous process. There is no guarantee that your top candidate will show up in the first round of resume submissions. There is no guarantee that they will accept your offer.  Nevertheless, having a plan and knowing when to pivot your search will eliminate the fatigue that comes with an intense search process.