Today, attracting talent in a tight labor market is crucial. In many cases, candidates are interviewing for several jobs at once, comparing their experience with you against other employers. Your interview process needs to vet your candidates and also woo them into choosing your company over their other opportunities.

In this article, we’ll help answer the questions:

• What do job candidates want in an interview process?
• How long should interview processes be?
• Are there actionable steps organizations can take to speed up the interview process easily?

What candidates want in the interview process

Today’s job seekers are shopping the labor market like career consumers. And during the interview process, they’re looking for scheduling flexibility and considerate communication.

Flexibility

When they reach the interview step, candidates often encounter employers who expect them to fully accommodate their schedules. They may be presented with narrow interview time slots, even when they’re employed elsewhere or are passive candidates who didn’t actively seek the new job opportunity. But what candidates really want from potential employers is interview schedule flexibility and meetings that are easy to fit onto their crowded calendars.

You can offer this flexibility by:

• Offering evening or weekend interviews, maybe meeting at a local coffee shop if your offices are closed during those hours
• Arranging video job interviews instead of meeting in person

These accommodations can eliminate candidates’ need to take time off at their current jobs or reduce that time by eliminating travel.

Considerate communication

It’s not uncommon for candidates to interview for a role and go months without feedback or get ghosted altogether by hiring managers. Both of these scenarios are completely contrary to what candidates actually want in the job interview process: considerate communication.

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