Hiring Managers - Please Read!

This month's message (as it seems I am remiss of the weekly posting):  DEVELOP AN EXPEDITIOUS PROCESS when recruiting candidates for your Strategic Sourcing positions!  I cannot stress this enough.  I am currently - and will probably remain this way - recruiting 100% in the Sourcing/Procurement sector.  What I am seeing is a high demand for top talent increasing, which is wonderful.  I am able to identify and get to the first/second stage of attracting candidates to my clients (quickly), which is wonderful.  But in order for all of us to keep them engaged and successfully hire them, there must be a definitive process put in place and followed.  We all realize that everyone's schedule is tight, travel is happening, etc.  However, providing feedback in a TIMELY manner and setting up interviews in quick order must happen if you're going to be successful.  Taking several weeks to get through an interview process 9 times out of 10 is going to cause 2 things (or both) to happen:  1.  The candidate will lose interest and/or feel like the position is not critical and/or the company really isn't interested in them.  2.  The candidate will accept another offer.  Of course there are many more scenarios, but I think you get my point.  Sometimes, gaps in the interview process simply can't be helped - when this is the case, there should be a communication plan to keep the candidate engaged.  For example, the hiring manager (who is in Asia which is the reason he/she wasn't able to schedule an interview for 2 weeks since the initial contact) calls the candidate to tell him/her that they are looking forward to their meeting and asks if the candidate has any questions about the company and/or position.  Per my last post, it's a tough market out there and we must adjust what we do in order to rise above in it!