Canadian Companies Need to Interview and Hire Quickly or Risk Losing Top Talent
London, Ontario - July 12, 2023
London, Ontario, July 17, 2023—Canadian companies aren't delaying when it comes to the job interview process for fear of losing out on top talent and wasting time and resources, according to a new survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.
Indeed, most employers conduct one interview (24%) or two interviews (45%) before making a job offer to a candidate. A smaller number hold three interviews (19%), and only approximately 1 in 10 (12%) say they conduct four or more interviews before offering a position.
Most Canadian job seekers (54%) also agree that one-to-two interviews are ideal as part of the job hiring process, with the remainder saying that either three interviews (21%) or four or more interviews (26%) are expected.
Both hiring managers and job seekers though agree multiple interviews are beneficial for several reasons, including to better evaluate the candidate’s personality (50%) and skills (49%), to ask follow-up questions (44%), to ensure the job seekers are a good fit for the company’s culture (41%) and get other employees’ perspectives on the prospective colleague (32%).
However, employers are concerned about the potential drawbacks of taking too long with an interview process before extending a job offer, including having the job unfilled for longer (50%), a candidate potentially accepting a competing job offer in the interim (45%) or becoming fatigued or disillusioned with a drawn-out process (25%) and increased costs for an extended interview process (27%).
“Many top candidates who are eager to make a career move are interviewing at multiple companies and will disengage with a company if the interview process is too long,” said James Norris, franchise owner of the London Express franchise office. “Companies need to be prepared to hire when they start the interview process to avoid losing candidates. Many candidates are willing to do a multiple stag interview process, but only if it moves forward at an appropriate pace. Waiting too long from one interview to the next without appropriate feedback could have you lose the candidate to a competitor and create a negative experience causing that person and their network to avoid applying in the future.”
Making bad hires is costly in time and money, according to Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller.
“Finding the balance between getting to know a candidate and facilitating too long of an interview process is tough but worth it to create a tenured, invested workforce,” he said.
Survey Methodology
The Job Insights survey was conducted online within Canada by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between June 8 and June 22, 2023, among 510 Canadian hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in Canada who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data were weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 4.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.
The Job Seeker Survey was conducted online within Canada by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals from June 13 and June 26, 2023, among 506 adults ages 18 and older. Data are weighted where necessary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, household income and propensity to be online, to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 3.8 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.
About Express Employment Professionals
At Express Employment Professionals, we’re in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 579,000 people globally in 2022
and more than 10 million since its inception. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com/CA.
The London Express office is located at 300 Dundas Street, Suite 200, and serves the London, Middlesex, St. Thomas, Strathroy, Stratford, Woodstock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, and Southwestern Ontario. Local businesses and applicants are encouraged to visit https://expresspros.com/london/ or call (519)672-7620
About Bill Stoller
William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment
International. Founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing franchisor
supports the Express Employment Professionals franchise and related brands. The Express franchise brand is an industry-leading, international staffing company with franchise locations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.