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Keeping Prospects

I have found if you take to long to go through the hiring process when you finally make the selection they have already found it necessary to take another job. This can be within a week!! How do you keep them interested while you are trying to determine the best applicant?

Good question. If you know your process is a bit long, then you should consider that in the front end of your process. Let the potential applicant know the typical lead-time of the process, and get a feel for their patience. Maybe it's an asset to you that you have such a formal and well thought out process. This might lead a candidate to conclude that you do your homework and hire only the best candidates. Might be worth their wait.

I agree with you. This happened to me the other day. I called an applicant to come back in for a working interview and she accepted another position 40 minutes before I called. If you have a good feeling about someone and really feel they will be an asset to the organization, the turn around time to hire the individual will decrease because they may be offered another position. Then you have to start the process all over again.

You could give them a date up front that you plan on filling the position

Brenda is absolutely right. Be very honest about the hiring timeline and try to stick to
it. You hate to lose a good prospect while hoping someone a little better comes along.
Say what you are doing and do what you are saying.

I think it valuable to stay in contact w/ the applicant; keeping them well informed of the process

I agree that keeping the candidate informed of the process is key. We have a long process as well and I am up front with all candidates to the steps and keep them informed of where they are in the process.

Keeping informed and providing a hire date are great.

The more information and contact you can provide the better. If someone is a strong candidate; I think you need to let them know that; I think you could also inform them when the decision will be made and if you really like someone; make another appointment for them to come back soon!

You could give them a date up front that you plan on filling the position

Here are a few considerations:
Do you have so many candidates that it really takes a week to go through all of them? Maybe this should be a faster process.

If the time frame is so short there might be more demand for that type of teaching. Are you competitive?

Did you leave them with the impression that they were not going to qualify?

Were they not interested in your position after the interview? Did you not make a good impression on them?

Sara

That is an excellent suggestion. I think that most are aware of their time line and how long it takes to work through their individual hiring process. It is important to be up front with perspective candidates and communicate with them throughout the process.

Tony

If I have interviewed an applicant that I feel *may* be a good fit, and then find out they accepted another offer within a week, chances are they may not have been a good fit afterall as their decision to accept another position that quickly may appear 'hasty'. If they make hasty career decisions, what types of hasty decisions will they make in the classroom?

Good point! Informing the applicants of a tentative time frame may help. Moving thru the process expeditiously also helps. This starts with following up with applicants within 24hours, scheduling interviews etc. within a specified time frame and lastly communicate with applicants. Probably sending an email thanking them for meeting with you, another email thanking them for providing references, another email stating references have been contacted...

I think we will invest the time to communicate with applicants we are thinking of hiring.

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