The most critical parts of the hiring process, which companies and recruiters should focus on more

One of the most critical parts of the hiring process, which companies and recruiters, in my experience, don’t pay enough attention to happens at the very end. At this point, the final round interview has taken place after four to five rounds of interviews. Only one to three candidates are still in the running. The candidate is uncertain. They feel like they've performed well since they made it through all the rounds. Only some get to the last round but wonder whether they will be hired. Will they hire me? If yes, when will they tell me about it? Often weeks pass before a final decision is made, and no feedback is shared with candidates. Of course, things need to be discussed and the offer also needs to be negotiated with finance. But I had an experience where it took four weeks for them to decide to hire me. That's an immense amount of time to be in uncertainty. 

The candidate has already invested a lot of energy into the process, which raises the stakes. I have worked at a dozen companies so far, and almost none of them did this part of the process work correctly. In my opinion, the solution is: transparency and communicating regularly during this period. Reach out twice a week, say on Tuesday and Thursday, to update what's happening. If the candidate understands, they are informed and feel better. Obviously, every company has its own process. If a candidate is ruled out, inform them immediately. Knowledge is better in this case than uncertainty. The bad news is also better if it comes sooner. Because at least it allows for planning. 

If you are involved in the hiring process in any way at your company as a designer, let's tell the team to focus on this area more, and try to help candidates within this time period.